Exercise Induced Fast Heartbeat Rate??

[Singlemama]

Hello.  My 12-year-old son has faster heartbeat rate when both resting and exercising.  His resting heartbeat rate is between 78~95.  Even when he was in deep sleep last night, his heartbeat rate was 83.  When I really started being concerned was when he was on the treadmill (he wanted to try it when I was at my gym).  My resting heart rate is between 50-65 (as I was athelete), and 10-minute fast walking on the treadmill will get my heartbeat rate to about 100-110.  10-minute jogging on the treadmill will get it to about 110-130.  Now, for my son, he had 110 heartbeat rate after 2-minute walk, and 150 heartbeat rate after 1 minute jogging!!  Does he have exercise induced tachycardia?  He seems to get tired sooner than his basketball teammates when he practices basketball.  He eventually finished his very hard basketball practice, but my concern is that his heartbeat rate during the hard practice might become and stay a very dangerous level, considering 150 rate after 1 minute jogging!!???  His recovery of heartrate is very slow, too.  He would have more than 100 beats after about 10 minutes after practice.  It would come down around 90s after 20-30 minutes.  After 1 hour, he still have low 90s.  Does anyone have similar experience for your kids?  I would appreciate your comments or doctor's advice.  Should I ask our doctor for a treadmill stress test or do you have any recommendation?

[Singlemama]

Hi itdood, thank you for your comment.  I didn't know about heart rate increase during REM sleep.  I also didn't know about heart rate variability or HRV.  I will research on it!!  Thank you!!  I really appreciate your comment and I love this site.....!

[Wisconsin2007]

Is it possible that he's just out of shape?  I know I went to a 2-week soccer camp when I was about that age, and in the beginning I felt like I was going to die on the field (and I was a thin, pretty athletic kid), but by the end I felt like I could run forever.  

[itdood]

DUring my event monitor tests, my sleeping HR would hit 90s sometimes (I'm normally around 60).  That's actually normal, as HR increases during REM sleep.  I never knew this!!

It's also related to something called heart rate variability or HRV, which is completely normal.

[Singlemama]

Hi Wisconsin2007,

Thank you so much for your comment.  I visited the site that you recommended, and I saw that normal HR bpm for my son's age group was 65-135 (I have seen 60-80 or 60-100 normal range for 12 year old).  In fact, when my son's friends were over to our house, they were playing with my blood pressure monitor and 3 kids' pulse rate was 100, 103 and 90 respectively. Thanks to you I feel much much better.... However I am still concerned a little bit about his HR bpm jump to 150 after only 1 minute jogging.  In his AAU basketball practice, players are running in full speed constantly...  My son looked very tired and also slow heart recovery.  I ordered heart rate monitor, so I will meausre his HR when he is exercising vigorously.  If the maxmum heart rate is like 208 like you mentioned, I am going to feel much much much better!!!  Thank you again for your comment and I see that you have 2 kids?  I am sure that you are enjoying them. My son is everything to me, and I will do my best to keep watching from any possible hazard (but not too much worried)...  Thank you!!!

[Wisconsin2007]

Hi Singlemama,

Here's a link that might put you at ease:  http://pediatriccardiology.uchicago.edu/MP/ECG/ECG2.htm

In general, your heart rate is really low.  And because your son is still young, having a higher heart rate is completely normal.  You'll see from that link that he is well within normal parameters for heart rate.  And his theoretical max heart rate is supposed to be 220-his age, which would be 208.  And he could hit that during exercise and be completely healthy.

So to answer your question, yes, he probably has exercise-induced tachycardia.  But so do you.  So does almost everyone. It's normal.  

So long as he isn't experiencing other symptoms like loss of consciousness, dizziness or lightheadedness while exercising, then you likely have nothing to worry about.  But certainly ask your doctor - I would imagine the doctor would say much the same thing.  Kudos for being a good mom and watching after the health of your son, but in this case, thankfully, it appears your worry is unfounded.