Resting Heart Rate: What does it tell us?
During rest, our heart pumps the lowest amount of blood to supply oxygen to the rest of the body.
Officially, a normal resting heart rate can range from 60 – 100 beats per minute (bpm). For healthy adults the range is between 55 – 85 bpm. It is not uncommon for highly trained athletes to experience even lower resting heart rates within the ranges of 30 – 40 bpm.
The heart is a muscle, therefore aerobic exercise and progressive training help to promote the strength, size and capacity of the muscle, which in turn means that stroke volume increases and more blood can be transported around the body more efficiently. The result – lower heart rate.
There are a number of other factors that can have an effect on resting heart rate, this can include:
| Stress | Anxiety |
| Hormones | Medication |
| Training / Physical Activity | Lack of Recovery |
Essentially, Resting Heart Rate is the indicator of the stress your body is experiencing.
It shows us when more recovery is needed or perhaps there is the onset of sickness, especially important during winter!
It can also be extremely helpful when coaching female athletes, to ensure sufficient adjustment to training around hormonal cycles to allow the body necessary recovery.
Training stress together with hormonal stress will simply require an even greater recovery time, therefore it is more beneficial to adjust the training load until resting heart rate stabilises.
How to track changes in resting heart rate:
It is important to establish a baseline, which requires recording the results for a 7 – 10 day period and the average will be the baseline measurement.
When to take a reading:
The optimal time to record your resting heart rate is as soon as you wake up, without moving or getting up. Essentially open your eyes and record the average for 1 minute.
How to take a reading:
Watches with a HR option, or certain phone apps will allow you to use the phone camera as a way to take a reading by pressing your finger on the camera. Or, simply using a watch/clock and pressing two fingers on the radial artery on the inside of your opposite wrist, counting the beats for 15 seconds then multiply by 4 for a total for 1 minute.
Essentially, Resting Heart Rate is the indicator of the stress your body is experiencing.
It shows us when more recovery is needed or perhaps there is the onset of sickness, especially important during winter!
It can also be extremely helpful when coaching female athletes, to ensure sufficient adjustment to training around hormonal cycles to allow the body necessary recovery.
Training stress together with hormonal stress will simply require an even greater recovery time, therefore it is more beneficial to adjust the training load until resting heart rate stabilises.
A variation of 1 – 3 bpm to resting heart rate on a given day can be normal depending on your day to day events, or even the quality of your sleep the night before. But when there is an elevation more than this to your baseline for consecutive days, then it is important to assess your training load and the need for recovery. Or perhaps there is the early onset of sickness.
Overall, tracking your Resting Heart Rate can be a great metric to track during training!
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