The Sports Fan Heart Rate

   Raising up your heart rate during exercise is good - that's the idea of it, really! Raising your heart rate while watching sports - not so much.
   My wife's heart rate would often spike into the high 130's when watching our daughter's high school soccer games - nearly 80% of her maximum stroke output. A friend of mine, in his late 50's,  often reaches the 150's when watching his son's basketball games.
    The Wall Street Journal monitored a 23-year old Mets fan heart rate during Game One of the World Series.  With a resting beat of 65 before the game (typical for a fit person of that age), it spiked to 115 at certain points of the extra-inning affair, nearly double of the resting rate.
      Dr. Martha Gulati, a cardiologist at the the Ohio State University Medical Center, was surprised - that it was that low! She felt there were probably others in their 20's (when the heart can reach a higher beat capacity) that may have hit between a 160 and 180 max.
      Research quoted in the article backs that observation up. A 2008 study in the New England Journal of Medicine analyzed the heart rates of German fans watching their national team in the 2006 World Cup. It's studies found that fans watching a close soccer match were more than twice at risk of an acute event like a heart attack or stroke.
    The reasons the heart rate raises so much are physical and emotional. Watching a big game is not entirely sedentary, particularly if you are at the event. There's jumping, standing up and down, "high-fiving," and yelling. All sudden movements can spike your heart rate.
     Emotionally, a tense game can keep your heart at a steadily higher rate, as can the news or a dramatic movie.
     Bottom-line, the heart responds to stress, no matter what type it is. Root for your team, but leave the heart-pounding workouts for the gym!