Since my replacement of Aortic Valve in 2017, I have been on beta beta-blocker. It is mainly a question of preventing a possible cardiac arrhythmia, but also helps to control my blood pressure. It seems to work well and I have no notable side effects, apart from my heart rate does not seem to increase as high during the exercise. Wednesday showed its effects more radically. I had finished my bottle of prescription and Wednesday morning, I could not find the replacement bottle. I usually take it in the morning before any activity. I decided to take my turn anyway and look for it later. Wednesday was a more difficult race, a long journey in rapid rhythm followed by an interval session and a force training on the bike. I wore my chest strap for heart rate monitoring, which, I know, is correct.
During the tempo part of the ride, I noticed that my heart rate was more than 10 beats higher than what I expected, approaching an average of 120, despite the fact that my perceived effort was similar to these recent rides, and I succeeded in the “discussion test”, so my breathing was not too laborious. (So that people don’t care about talking to me when I got off the road, I use the alternative to recite the alphabet). Then, during the interval session, I noticed that I had reached the heart rate in the 150s, which I have not seen for a while. I found the replacement bottle after finishing the journey and I got my dose late. But this incident has planted a seed of curiosity. I noticed that the bottle said to take it “in the morning”, not necessarily the first thing in the morning. By looking on the web, I found no reason why it is not acceptable to exercise early in the morning, then to take metoprolol. It seems that it is a good idea to take the same time every day. So I’m going to start taking it regularly later in the morning after my training.
I was also curious to know what we know about its effect on sports performance. It is mentioned In this video By a renowned cardiologist in the United Kingdom, beta-blockers and metoprolol alter performance keeping the heart frequency lower during the exercise. It seems logical. If I do an interval and my legs cry for oxygen, it seems that I cannot go so hard if my heart rate remains in the 130s instead of the 150s.
Lately, I did research on subjects like this on Google Gemini. If you click on “deep search” in the “Ask Gemini” box, instead of simply answering your question, he will look for a lot of relevant sites on the Internet, then browse the results and make a report. It is a funny use of AI. So I did this and I hit “the impact of metoprolol on sports performance”. He found This detailed reportfrom where I learned a lot. It seems that metoprolol affects endurance performance, as a slight decrease in maximum oxygen consumption (VO2max). My taking of metoprolol is necessary for the prevention of possible arrhythmia. But for anyone who takes this beta-blocker or another to prevent high blood pressure, there are alternative drugs of blood pressure, discussed in the report, which have much more effect on performance.
There is also a good discussion on beta-blockers and the exercise This website. The main thing is that it is perfectly safe to exercise vigorously while taking metoprolol, and that does not seem to have any importance that you take it before or after, as long as you take it at the same time every day.
I am not really worried about a slight alteration of performance. And since I have been on the drug since 2017, and especially interested in competing with “against myself”, all my recent performances against which I would compare myself were also affected.
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I am a mechanical engineer born in 1953, Ph. D, Stanford, 1980. I have been active in the mechanical CAE field for decades. I also have an interest in life for outdoor activities and physical form. I had the two hips replaced and a replacement of the heart valve due to a genetic condition. This blog tells my adventures by remaining active despite these bumps on the road.
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