
Female teens of 16-17 of mediocre fitness levels average a resting heart rate of 78-82, while boys in the same age group are closer to 70-72.Īdolescence is a stressful time. This is mostly due to the size of the heart, but again it can be linked to fitness as well.įemales have smaller hearts as a general rule, and faster pulses. Though the range of 60-100bpm is for ages 11-17, it is more likely for an 11 year old to have a 100bpm heart rate, and for an older teen to show a pulse of 60. Heart rate decreases from childhood to adulthood. This, however, pertains to a fit body, and not an unfit one, as the heart does not increase in size due to added fat tissue. This is ironic in some ways, because in mammals, larger bodies tend to have larger hearts and slower heartbeats. Athletes have naturally lower resting heart rates than non athletes, and often lower stress levels as well. This can be counteracted by someone who is a high-stress individual, but in general, regular workouts lower heart rate.

The basic tenet is that the more in shape you are, the lower your heart rate should be. Strange results with resting heart rate can suggest stress, clogged arteries, blood clots, heart defects like murmurs and other information. In emergency situations like car accidents it can give you a clue as to whether you are losing blood or growing weaker. Heart rate is an indicator of the health of your heart and blood stream. It is typically read by feeling your pulse on your wrist or neck, and counting the beats in a minute, or within ten seconds and multiplying by 6. This means that if your heartbeat has increased due to stress or physical activity, you have given it sufficient time to slow down again to the level it needs to sustain your body while doing as little as possible. Resting heart rate is taken when you are at rest. What is Resting Heart Rate? Why Does it Matter? Here is a look at some of the things that affect your heart rate:

Where you fall on that scale will be due to a number of factors, including fitness. Clinically, normal heart rate from 11 to 17 ranges widely, from 60 to 100 beats per minute, or bpm. It can be measured while active or while resting to understand different things about the ease with which your body functions. "Variations in resting heart rate may allow for the identification of early unexpected changes in an individuals' health," Quer's team concluded.Heart rate is a typically measured statistic that doctors look at to get an indication of your level of health. "Day-to-day changes in resting heart rate could be the first true, individualized digital vital sign, which is only now possible to measure thanks to wearable sensor technologies," the authors reported. The study suggests the value of further research to investigate whether tracking a person's daily resting heart rate could lead to earlier detection of potential problems.

However, wearable heart rate monitors now enable continuous tracking over time, and identify normal resting heart rates at the individual level, Quer's team explained. 5 in the journal PLOS One.Ĭhecking a patient's resting heart rate is typically part of a routine visit to the doctor, but only raises concern if it's significantly different than the range established by population-level studies, the study authors said in a journal news release. The researchers also found a minor seasonal trend in resting heart rate, with slightly higher rates in January and slightly lower rates in July.Īnother finding was that some people may occasionally have brief periods when their resting heart rate differs by 10 or more beats per minute from their normal range, according to the report published online Feb. One person's normal daily resting heart rate can differ by up to 70 beats per minute from another person's normal rate, said Giorgio Quer, of Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla, Calif., and colleagues.įor the study, the researchers analyzed heart rate data collected by wearable monitors, such as a Fitbit, which were worn for a median of 320 days by more than 92,000 people across the United States.Ĭollectively, factors such as age, sex, body mass index and average daily sleep accounted for less than 10% of heart rate variation among individuals, the investigators found.

Your heart rate, or pulse, is how many times your heart beats per minute. 5, 2020 (HealthDay News) - A "normal" resting heart rate can vary significantly among individuals, a new study finds.
