The more beats your heart takes over a lifetime, the greater the toll on its ability to function.
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Get a group of athletes together and sooner or later they start comparing resting heart rates. A frequent measure of physical fitness, the very fit can boast a resting heart rate of 40-50 beats per minute, compared with the average Joe and Jill who’s closer to 60-90 bpm.
A well-exercised heart circulates a greater volume of blood and oxygen per heart beat, with elite endurance athletes like cyclists and cross-country skiers often claiming resting heart rates in the 30’s. Professional cyclist Miguel Indurain has one of the lowest resting heart rates on record at 28 bpm.
But fitness isn’t the only thing that effects resting heart rate. Genetics, body weight, sex, certain medications like beta blockers and unhealthy lifestyle choices (smoking, drinking, poor diet) also have an effect on heart rate. Women and the overweight have higher resting heart rates, and depending on your parents you could inherit a resting heart rate that runs high or low.
To find your own resting heart rate, take your pulse for 30 seconds first thing in the morning and double it. Just make sure it’s before your morning cup of coffee and prior to checking work emails. Caffeine and stress can add extra beats. Repeat this exercise for the next few days, averaging your readings to account for any small fluctuations that occur from day to day.
A normal resting heart rate is between 60-100, but the closer it is to the higher end of the scale the greater the risk of cardiovascular disease. What does that mean for anyone with a resting heart rate closer to 80 than 60? The more beats your heart takes over a lifetime, the greater the toll on its ability to function. Studies suggest a resting heart rate between 81 and 90 doubles the chance of premature death. Over 90 bpm and mortality risk triples.
Physical activity is one of the best ways to lower resting heart rate. But how much exercise does it take to decrease the number of beats your heart rate takes at rest? And just how low should you go?
A recent study published in the Journal of Sports Sciences followed 31,000 men and women over the course of almost a decade to examine the association between exercise, resting heart rate and cardiovascular health. Among this large sample of study subjects, 8.1 per cent had a resting heart rate under 60, 47.4 per cent between 60-70, 25.8 per cent between 70-80 and 18.7 per cent over 80.
Surprisingly, resting heart rates under 60 and over 80 reported a significantly higher risk of cardiovascular disease and early death compared with study subjects with a resting heart rate in the 60-79 beats per minute (bpm) range. Does that imply athletes with a resting heart rate of less than 60 bpm should be concerned? Not necessarily. In addition to fitness, a low resting heart rate can also signal poor cardiovascular health, which means it’s likely in this particular study people with strong and weaker hearts were grouped together, which affected the overall results.
And what about anyone with a resting heart rate in the 70- 80 range, is it worth lowering? It seems so. The study reported every 10 bpm increase in resting heart rate resulted in a 22-per-cent increase in risk to premature death because of cardiovascular disease.
As for the role exercise plays in resting heart rate, study subjects in the lower range were more likely to accumulate at least 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous intensity exercise per week. Those with higher resting heart rates tended to be less physically active. So exercise seems to be one of the best ways to keep resting heart rate within a healthy range. It also helps mitigate some of the cardiovascular risk factors associated with a higher resting heart rate, though there’s still more to understand regarding the link between heart rate and heart health.
“Regardless of the resting heart rate category, the risk of cardiovascular disease mortality was significantly lower in participants meeting the physical activity guidelines than in inactive participants,” the researchers said.
Endurance exercise (sustained aerobic exercise like running, cycling and swimming) is most effective at lowering resting heart rate. But yoga has also shown surprising results, perhaps because of its ability to manage stress. Several other studies have posted results suggesting almost all types of physical activity have the potential to lower resting heart rate.
Don’t worry if you never match the resting heart rate of an elite athlete. If you’re physically active, a resting heart rate in the 60s or 70s doesn’t seem to improve cardiovascular risk factors any more than a resting heart rate in the 50s. Based on the results of this study at least, being physically active is more important than having a resting heart rate low enough to boast about. Just remember, improvements in resting heart rate quickly disappear if you stop exercising. Just one more reason to keep moving.