Jack Dempsey slow heart beat 44 BPM

When I first went on my blood pressure medication, a drug called atenolol, and would measure my blood pressure each night, the device also gave me my heartbeat rate, and the drug dropped it into the mid-forties.

What is normal for a very well-conditioned athlete in his twenties? Anyone know?

 

Edward,"normal' is between 60 and 90 beats per minute, but the LOWER the better for well conditioned hearts. Absent arrythmial's or dizziness a person can have a resting pulse in the 40s and still be healthy. Of course, the pulse goes higher when you are active.
P.S. My bill will be coming soon. What plan do you have E ?

 

As if further evidence were needed to designate him as the GOAT!!!

 

My Physics teacher once told me there was a tour de France cyclist had a resting heart rate of 2 beats a min. After reading Lance Armstrong and a few others were operating at 29-32 I no longer buy that The correlation between resting heart rate and fitness varies quite a bit too. Kessler claimed a 31 resting heart rate and Pacquaio claimed a 42. I could be wrong but I don't think Kessler has amazing conditioning by any means

 

PP,I don't believe Kessler had a resting heart beat of 31.He would be either dead or in need of a pacemaker. And I was once a physician...

 

It's possible to have such a low heart rate in an extremely conditioned athlete, here's my source anyway

http://www.**************/news.php?news_id=205&y=2007&m=08

 

When I was fit (average marathon runner) my resting HB was in or around 40. But even now at 54 and a few stone overweight it's about 60.....and I'm far from fit. It's an indicator of fitness but there are many other reasons and factors. How fast you can get back to your resting HB rate after exercise is a much better indicator IMO.

 

And 38 was also the rate at rest for marathon champion Bill Rodgers, when he ruled the roost at Boston. An inherently slow heart rate might also have something to do with Dempsey's record longevity as the longest lived former HW Champion at the time of his death. (And it was Willard's longevity record he broke to reach 87.)

 

Gibbons was a lightheavy. :deal

 

Well, that only strengthens my point. Light-heavyweights are harder to chase !

 

When my dad, Alan Rudkin had his medical for the Lionel Rose fight the doctor told him it was the slowest he'd seen. It was the same as The Australian middle/long distance runner Ron Clarke. Clarke broke 17 world records and his heart rate was in the mid 20's. As it happens stamina was probably my old fellas greatest strength.