Fitbits, Garmin, Apple Watches and Oura Rings have created a new language for the worried well, who speak in “VO2 max” numbers and “sleep quality” scores. In fact, there’s only one number we really need to be concerned with: our “resting heart rate”, or RHR.
Your RHR is a numerical value that measures your heart rate in beats per minute. A lower RHR is considered to be a reliable indicator not only of cardiovascular fitness — how well you can run, row or swim without getting puffed out — but also of your heart health and blood pressure, both key markers of longevity.
“The fitter you are, the more efficient your heart is,” explains Ollie Weguelin, fitness expert and director at Sustain Performance. “The oxygenation of the blood improves and the beats per minute drop as your heart has to work less hard and pump fewer times to deliver blood around your body.”
For an average healthy adult the mean range of RHR is between 60 and 100 beats per minute. In athletes it can be as low as 30bpm. Your heart rate climbs during exercise: an “active” rate of 120 to 150bpm is normal during intense exercise such as sprinting or lifting heavy weights.
Apple Watches and their ilk will measure your RHR, but you don’t need expensive kit to get a reading. Just place your index and middle fingers on your wrist and count how many times your veins pulse in one minute. Do this regularly over a week and you can calculate an average. “The best measure of your RHR is tracking it over time,” says Lisa Arthurs, a physiotherapist at Until wellness centre. Getting your RHR as low as possible is “a good indicator that you are engaging in healthy behaviours”.
Want to lower yours? Weguelin prescribes regular exercise such as cycling or weight training, as well as cutting back on booze and reducing stress. A meta-review in the Journal of Clinical Medicine found that endurance training has the highest impact on lowering your RHR.
Smart watches measure many metrics, including resting heart hate
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While your resting heart rate is important, your heart rate variability (HRV) — the variation in time between heartbeats — is also worth paying attention to. “Controlled by the autonomic nervous system, your HRV will increase or decrease depending on the demands you are placing on your heart and is a measure of the efficiency of your heart at responding to those demands,” Arthurs explains.
According to Harvard Health, “people who have a high HRV may have greater cardiovascular fitness and may be more resilient to stress”. A good HRV for someone in their twenties is 55-105 milliseconds. For someone in their sixties it’s about 25-45ms. Like your RHR, you can measure your HRV with wrist-worn fitness devices or chest straps, which “while more cumbersome, provide the closest readings to those taken in a medical setting, often within 1-2bpm of an electrocardiogram [ECG],” Weguelin says.
• Dr Mark Porter: What your resting heart rate says about you
To lower your numbers, Arthurs suggests running or high-intensity interval training, in which you work through a timed circuit of four or five exercises, as well as yoga and Pilates to reduce stress levels.
“Most important is finding an activity that you enjoy and can be consistent with,” she says. “Gradually increase the intensity to build fitness and cardiovascular robustness.”
