By Mayo Clinic staff The better you understand your heart rate, the more you can maximize your movement to give your heart a good workout. What is your heart rate?Your heart rate, or pulse, is the number of times your heart beats per minute. Your resting heart rate is the heart pumping the lowest amount of blood you need because you're not exercising. If you are sitting or lying down ― and you're calm, relaxed and aren't ill ― your heart rate is normally between 60 and 100 beats per minute. Other factors can affect your heart rate include:
Why your heart rate mattersCardiovascular exercise, also called cardio or aerobic exercise, keeps you and your heart healthy. This specific type of exercise gets your heart rate up and heart beating faster for several minutes at a time. Cardiovascular exercise helps strengthen your heart, allowing it to pump blood more efficiently, which improves blood flow to all parts of your body. It also boosts your high-density lipoprotein, or HDL or "good," cholesterol, and lowers your low-density lipoprotein, or LDL or "bad," cholesterol. This may result in less buildup of plaque in your arteries. Learn why you should track physical activity. What's considered normal?Your target heart rate is the minimum heart rate in a given amount of time to reach the level of energy necessary to give your heart a good workout. To find your target heart rate to maximize your cardiovascular exercise, the first step is determining your maximum heart rate. Your maximum heart rate is 220 minus your age. Your target heart rate for moderate exercise is about 50%–85% of your maximum heart rate. Averages by age as a general guide are:
What you can do
Learn more about how to hit your target heart rate. Know your numbersMany wearable activity trackers can monitor your heart rate when you exercise and periodically throughout the day. If you do not have an activity tracker, you can use the radial artery in your wrist or in the carotid artery in your neck. If you have heart disease or long-standing diabetes, it's best to use the artery on your wrist. To find your heart rate manually:
If your heart rate is too high, take it easier. If it is too low, add some intensity and push yourself to get your heart rate closer to your target. If you are just beginning to exercise, aim for the lower range in your target zone and gradually build up over time. Learn more about how to take your pulse. Abnormal heart rateIf you experience irregular heartbeats, including a racing heartbeat, slow heartbeat or a feeling of fluttering in your chest, you may be experiencing a heart arrhythmia. Heart rhythm or heartbeat problems can occur when the electrical impulses that coordinate your heartbeats don't work properly, causing your heart to beat too fast, too slow or irregularly. If you believe you are experiencing heart rhythm problems, contact your nearest heart care expert. Medically Reviewed by James Beckerman, MD, FACC on May 21, 2015 It's normal to wonder if your heart is ticking just right. Sometimes you may think it beats too slowly. Or you might worry it's racing too fast. The truth is, there's a lot you've heard about your pulse that's flat out wrong. It's time to set the record straight. That's the old standard. Many doctors think it should be lower. About 50-70 beats per minute is ideal, says Suzanne Steinbaum, DO, director of women's heart health at Lenox Hill Hospital. Recent studies suggest a heart rate higher than 76 beats per minute when you're resting may be linked to a higher risk of heart attack. The better shape you're in, the slower your heart rate will be when you're not moving around. "It might be OK to have a resting heart rate of 80, but it doesn't mean you're healthy," Steinbaum says. When your heart beats in an irregular pattern, you're having what's called palpitations. You may feel as if it skipped a beat or speeds up. Or it may seem like a brief flutter or a pounding in your chest. "Most of the time these sensations are not life-threatening," says Apoor Patel, MD, a cardiologist at North Shore-LIJ Medical PC in Manhasset, N.Y. Many things can cause palpitations, like: "Having an irregular heartbeat doesn't mean you're having a heart attack," Steinbaum says. But if it's a new symptom, or if you have chest pains or problems breathing, call your doctor. Stress is just one thing that can raise your pulse. Your heart rate may also speed up when you exercise, get excited, or feel anxious or sad. When you stand up, your pulse may go up for 15 to 20 seconds before it goes back to normal. Even the weather, like high temperatures or humidity, can raise it. If you take thyroid medication, a fast pulse may be a sign you're taking too much. Talk to your doctor. Sometimes your heart rate and your blood pressure go hand in hand. For example, when you exercise, or get angry or scared, they both go up. But they're not always linked. If your heart rate is normal, your blood pressure may not be. It could be too high or too low, and you may not realize it. Even if your heart rate seems fine, get your blood pressure checked regularly. Not necessarily. A slow heart rate can be a sign that you're healthy and fit. An athlete's heart muscle is in better shape, so it doesn't have to work as hard to keep up a steady beat. In general, Patel says, slow rates are only a problem if you also pass out, feel dizzy, are short of breath, or have chest pain. See your doctor if you have any of those symptoms. Written by Tim Newman on February 7, 2020 — Fact checked by Jasmin Collier A recent study concludes that when it comes to resting heart rate (RHR), “normal” does not exist. Although most people’s RHR is relatively stable over time, from person to person, rates vary by as much as 70 beats per minute (bpm). Although doctors routinely measure people’s RHR, it is still not clear what constitutes “normal,” and what variations from this norm mean for health. Over the years, large studies have come to a consensus on what doctors should now consider the normal range. For instance, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which analyzed data from almost 50,000 people, found that the average RHR for adults is 72 bpm. The American Heart Association (AHA) consider an RHR of 60–100 bpm normal for adults. However, RHRs that fall well within the normal range can still increase a person’s mortality risk. In general, higher rates are associated with increased cardiovascular risk, but one study found that people with an RHR below 65 bpm are also at risk. In the same study, the authors showed that a significant change in RHR over the 3 year follow-up period also increased cardiovascular risk. In short, results are mixed. As the authors of the new study explain, “a single measurement of heart rate provides very little useful information about the current health of an individual, unless well out of the expected range of normal.” Rather than taking RHR measurements at discrete points in time, the researchers behind the new study took a “long view of individual changes in cardiac performance.” They have now published their findings in the journal PLOS ONE. Today, wearable sensors mean that it is possible to take accurate heart rate measurements continuously. Alongside monitoring heart rate each second, this technology also records sleep duration and levels of activity. As the study authors explain, the popularity of these sensors provides a “unique opportunity to better understand how RHR varies over time for and between individuals over the span of days, weeks, years, and, eventually, lifetimes.” If these all-pervasive wearable sensors can preempt the onset of disease, this would make a significant impact on healthcare at a population level. For this reason, it is vital to understand what information heart rate can provide. If we can decode the secret messages that our hearts tap out, we could continuously monitor our health and, potentially, receive advanced health warnings. The researchers had access to data from 92,457 adults across 50 states. Each participant wore a heart rate monitor for at least 2 days each week for at least 35 weeks between March 2016 and February 2018. Each day, they wore it for at least 20 hours. In total, these data provided 33 million daily RHR values. Overall, the average RHR was 65.5 bpm plus or minus 7.7. The minimum and maximum RHRs for each individual were 39.7 and 108.6 bpm, respectively. In other words, between individuals, “normal” could vary by around 70 bpm. When the researchers delved into the data, they found some significant relationships. For instance, there was a considerable difference between men’s and women’s RHRs, as the authors outline:
The scientists also found significant differences in RHR related to age, body mass index (BMI), and sleep duration. On average, RHR increased steadily with age, peaked at 50, then began a slow decline into older age. When they examined the relationship between heart rate and BMI, they found that individuals with moderate BMIs tended to have a lower RHR than those with low or high BMIs. After analyzing sleep duration, the scientists found that the lowest RHRs occurred in people who slept for around 7 to 7.5 hours each night. Interestingly, they also found that a person’s RHR tended to change with the seasons by an average of 2 bpm. They explain: “The RHR peaked in the first week of January for both men and women, after which the average RHR decreased to the yearly minimum at the end of July. After this minimum, the average RHR steadily increased until the end of the year.” The scientists also note that some people experienced small but significant changes in their RHR for brief periods, such as a week. These slight changes tended to be around 3 bpm. Sleep duration, BMI, sex, and age all influenced RHR, overall, the researchers showed that these differences were only “minimally associated with individual characteristics.” Although a person’s RHR changed with the seasons and for short periods, these fluctuations were “an order of magnitude narrower” than the differences between different people’s RHRs. The study authors write:
According to the authors, an “estimated 20% of consumers in the [United States] now possess a smartwatch or fitness band capable of passively and unobtrusively measuring continuous [heart rate] over long periods.” Because access to information about RHR is now so widespread, it makes sense to use it to its fullest potential. The researchers hope that, in the future, health professionals might use RHR data to help diagnose conditions such as cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases and even provide insight into reproductive health. The authors conclude, “The ability to detect early acute illnesses, such as infections, and early exacerbations of chronic diseases remains a promising avenue to explore.”
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