I tried to give blood today. The screening nurse who poked my finger to test my blood for hemoglobin or some measure by which 49 was excellent also took my pulse. Then she took it again because, she said, the first time was 48. So was the second time. If it didn't increase to 50 beats per minute by the time I reclined in the chair, I couldn't donate. I strolled around the room until a chair was available, but the lamprey nurse said she had to take a resting pulse and, three minutes later when she measured it, it was still 48. I returned a couple of hours later when the screener again counted it at 48.
I am the undead.
The problem, I suspect, is that I regularly push my heart way past what I ought to. Eighty percent of my alleged maximum heart rate is 147, and while I don't think the grip-sensors in gym cardio machines are exact, they do regularly indicate 170+. I sweat, and I breathe hard, and I flush, but I don't turn scarlet, I don't struggle for breath, and I don't fall over, so I have figured this is okay.
It's okay, except it renders me incapable of donating blood. Forty-eight beats per minute: I don't need my heart to be that strong.
So today I tried a different machine where ingrained habit wouldn't make me feel lazy for not exerting myself at the usual level. I used a stairmill, an escalator type deal where, unlike with an elliptical or climber, I do have to lift my entire weight. It's uphill, of course, so I didn't feel it in my knees so much.
Stairmill, 30', 120 floors.
I did feel it more in my quadriceps and lungs. I wonder if this is why exercise hasn't led to weight loss: I have been training my heart muscle but not the big fat-containing and -burning muscles in my buttocks and legs.
Afterward, leg presses, 3x12 @90 and 1x12+ @100, which is where I'll stay for a while because subsequent increases are at 20-pound increments, not 10-; assisted chin-ups, with I think 140 pounds or 90% of assist; abdominal leg-lifts to exhaustion (a dozen! my goodness, what strong abs you don't have!); and 50 crunches on an incline bench.