Monitoring your heart rate during exercise is vital to achieve your health and fitness goals, but being aware of your resting heart rate is important too.

The resting heart rate is how many times your heart beats per minute (bpm). Most people is between 60 to 80bpm. In an athlete, the heart rate at rest could be as low as 30 bpm, Lance Armstrong’s (7 time Tour De France Winner) is regularly measured at 32-34bpm. A low heart rate when the body is at rest indicates that the heart is a strong, efficient blood pumping machine.

Although your resting heart rate increases with:

• age;
• lack of exercise;
• smoking;
• medication;
• caffeine;
• genetics;
• pregnancy
• over training;
• anxiety and
• stress.

If you are measuring it at rest and it is bouncing around or irregular then its advised that you visit your doctor.

Researchers checked the vital signs of 34,000 adults aged 18 - 74 and followed them for 22 years. Relative risks for death (from heart disease, cancer and all other risks) increased when there were increases in resting heart rate. Researchers also found that a resting heart rate over 80 BPM doubles the risk of becoming obese or insulin resistant and quadruples the risk of diabetes¹.

¹ The American Journal of Epidemiology, 1999, Vol. 149, No. 9, pp. 853-862

Yours in health and fitness,

Chris Alexander