What is Resting Heart Rate?

How to measure it

Sit or lie quietly. At the wrist, place your index and middle fingers lightly over the pulse and count beats for 60 seconds. The American Heart Association's pulse guide describes this method. Record the time and whether you had just been active; use comparable resting conditions for later entries.

Typical ranges and what affects them

The usual adult resting range is 60–100 beats per minute. A lower rate can occur in trained athletes or with some medicines; a number outside the range does not by itself explain what is happening. Mayo Clinic's heart-rate guidance lists age, fitness, sleep, emotions, posture and medicines among the influences. These adult figures are not a reference chart for children.

What a trend can and cannot tell you

A log gives you dates, readings and observations to discuss. It cannot show that poor sleep caused a change, diagnose an infection, or establish that a training plan is safe. There is no universal change of 5 or 10 beats that this spreadsheet can interpret for you.

Mayo Clinic advises discussing a resting rate regularly above 100, or often below 60 if you are not a trained athlete, with a healthcare professional. Symptoms and your individual circumstances matter; do not change medicines to move a number into the reference range.

The AHA's urgent-care guidance says to call 911 in the U.S. for a suddenly very high or low pulse, especially with chest pain, breathlessness, dizziness or fainting. Do not wait for a multi-day trend when you have concerning symptoms.

What to put in your log

Keep columns for date, time, beats per minute, measurement method and notes. Distinguish what you observed from what you suspect: “slept five hours” is an observation; “this proves sleep caused the increase” is an interpretation. Bring unexpected readings and questions to your clinician.

The related resting-heart-rate blog guide explores the research in more detail. The references here support this glossary page directly, so you do not need to follow the blog to find them. See also what is blood pressure.