I was at a party the other day. Two of the women, both over 40 by a few years, were talking about having low resting pulses. It’s a pain in the ass when you deal with the average overweight nurse. My resting pulse is about what theirs was, 44-48, and I’ve had the same troubles explaining things. None of us do much cardio but all three of us are pretty fit. The women are competive 3 day event riders and one is a ski racing coach and personal trainer too. I’m a recreational skier and I lift weights and have for 25 years.
I think anerobic type work is as good at improving BP and HR as aerobic stuff is but it’s just an opinion so I could be wrong.
Jake, ditto what TT said. I personally think that weight training is a mild form of HIIT if you’re working hard enough. I play basketball for 2 hours at a time, but my heart rate still gets up there pretty well after a set of heavy deads. So yes, you should ease into it, but you’ll be starting from a decent baseline due to your years of lifting experience. You have that going for you versus someone that has never done either cardio or weights.