Resting Heart Rate

[rualexander]

Make sure that you are relaxed, and breathe deeply...

I had a health check last week. The nurse took my blood pressure - systolic was 142! She said that we should both be silent, and that I should take slow deep breaths. She took another reading one minute later - 120!

Deep breaths can lower BP but it won't necessarily be representative of your normal resting BP.
My BP is always high when checked at docs but normal at home (white coat hypertension).
They always use a machine these days but recently had it checked using the old manual sphygmomanometer and the result was surprisingly normal.

 

[Punkawallah]

Minnie the Moocher did actually have the heart of a whale, while Richard Hammond may have the heart of a hamster.

Hi-de-hi-de-hi-de-hi!

 

[Punkawallah]

Make sure that you are relaxed, and breathe deeply...

I had a health check last week. The nurse took my blood pressure - systolic was 142! She said that we should both be silent, and that I should take slow deep breaths. She took another reading one minute later - 120!

‘White coat syndrome’.

 

[ColinJ]

I haven't checked mine for a long time. It is definitely a lot higher than it used to be, but it was super low then; probably TOO low (low 30s). I will try to remember to check it one morning before I get up. I think it is probably 55-60 bpm now.

I checked - more like upper 40s.

I used to notice my RHR go up by 10+ bpm whenever I was getting ill!

I bought a smartwatch last week. I did 108 km on my bike over 3 days and felt ok. Then, I did an easy 18 km with my niece on Wednesday.

6 hours after the Wednesday ride I started to feel rough. By Thursday morning I had developed a nasty cold which I am still in the throes of.

I just checked the watch and found that my RHR had already risen before I started feeling ill and has got even higher since then. RHR tracking definitely does seem able to show the onset of illness!

The rise isn't due to fatigue because I haven't ridden since.

I will watching my RHR to see how it tracks my recovery.

 

[Rusty Nails]

I feel as if I must have been not working hard enough all my life. My RHR has been in the low 60s just about all my adult life, even as a young man when I used to do a lot of sport and exercise I can't remember it being below 60.

Makes me wonder if a low RHR is mainly in the genes.

 

[Pblakeney]

Currently hitting 51 hr at rest , according to my Garmin. When I was a nipper my resting heart rate was very very low , low 30s . In fact I remember having a health assessment and the nurse was toiling to find a pulse . Got a funny look and then asked if I played sports etc . Anyway age catches up with you and I’m now in the 50s ! Still lower than everyone else in my house hold mind !

On the other hand apparently my blood pressure is a tad on the high side . Not been checked by doc though , just the monitor we have at home .

BP being a tad on the high side is okay. Depending on what you mean by "a tad". If it is genuinely high then visiting a doctor is a double edged sword. You do want to be aware of any underlying issues but they don't seem to be able to cope with anything not "normal".
I am in the same(ish) boat. RHR in the mid to high 30s in my 20s, now mid to high 40s in my 60s but I have high BP. I've always had high BP. This high BP is sending my doctor round the twist as any meds have an immediate but brief effect. Long term my body reverts to high BP. I have a theory.

Anyone on here an expert on pumps?
I ask as the heart is a pump and I've had some interaction with pump design. A brief summary is high pressure pumps (BP) work at low pump rate (HR), while low pressure pumps (BP) work at higher pump rates (HR). Can anyone say definitively if my theory holds water?
Doctors simply dismiss it and are not interested in HR in the slightest.

 

[N0bodyOfTheGoat]

My Xiaomi Redmi 5 Lite watch reckons my rhr is in the low 50s like my age of 52, but it's awful at getting my exercise readings, for example it read a high of 119 on Saturday when my chest strap hrm had a high of 185 and averages around 155 for each of the four Tiny Races.

I'm sure it was lower before long covid, when I was typically 75-80Kg instead of ~94Kg, around mid 40s.

But besides in the middle of the night, I'm not easy to get anything like a true rhr reading, I'm much better than I used to be but I still have 4-5 strong coffees per day starting from within minutes of finally getting out of bed!

 

[Dogtrousers]

According to my Garmin watch my average rhr is 50. It goes up when I'm not well. Was 54 a couple of weeks ago (nasty cold). Has in the recent past been below 50. 63 yo. That's what my watch says, and I think it gets that from sleeping. If I were to go to a doctor's surgery, sit down and relax for a bit and take my HR I'm betting it would be significantly more - probably over 60.

Normal range is now considered more like 50-70 bpm. Plus consider where they got the data to inform that opinion.

A normal range isn't really an opinion. Its a statistical measure taken from a representative population of healthy individuals. Being outside the range doesn't indicate a problem, it just means that it's sufficiently unusual to warrant further explanation (that's where the opinion comes in) Its to be expected that a certain percentage of healthy individuals will be outside the range.

I just googled and the BHF quote 60-100

 

[ColinJ]

I just checked my new Pixel Watch 4's HR readings against those from my chest strap HR monitor.

The watch seems to average readings over a few seconds because it is significantly less responsive than the strap HR monitor but the numbers do settle close to each other (+/- ~2 bpm) after a couple of seconds if I stop moving and relax.

That means that the watch looks like it can be trusted to give a good picture of the RHR over an extended period.

I will post another RHR graph at the end of this week which (hopefully!) should display a downward trend.

While I was fiddling about with the watch I discovered that it can check for atrial fibrillation. I have had short bouts of that in the past so I enabled that feature to see if it can spot them, or signs that I hadn't noticed. Afib can be a clotting risk so it is something not to be ignored, though I am permanently on anticoagulants so I should be protected.

I just reread the first post of the thread to remind myself exactly what we are supposed to be discussing! My RHR experiences summarised:

1. It rose with my increasing weight, and fell when I lost weight.
2. It has risen a bit as I have aged but how much of that is age vs fitness & weight changes, I don't know. I will post again about that later in the year if/when I lose weight and get fitter.
3. Getting fit made a big difference. Obviously, lower when fitter!
4. In the past when I was slim & fit: 34 bpm; fat & less fit: 60-80 bpm. These days typically mid-40s.
5. It rises by a few bpm before I become aware of getting ill and maybe by another 10 bpm after that. That is with a minor illness.
6. Major illness, major changes. I mean MAJOR changes. You could not possibly experience this and not know something was seriously wrong!! When I was hospitalised the first time with a pulmonary embolism my RHR had risen to 150+ bpm!

 

[VinSumRox]

Mine is usually 45, I'm 65 and a reasonably fit cyclist.

 

[nogoodnamesleft]

but I have high BP. I've always had high BP. This high BP is sending my doctor round the twist as any meds have an immediate but brief effect.

My understanding (and I'm no medic, just from reading round reliable sources so nothing definitive) is that "high blood pressure" is more complex than just if a number is in certain ranges

eg one (of probably many) example my understanding is that as you get older so your systolic pressure can get higher as arteries stiffen do heart pump output turns into pressure rather than the arteries expanding a bit to absorb the volume. Diastolic stays unaffected by this change and can be eg "normal" .This example related to arteries as you age, no doubt there are many other effects (no idea if this high systolic cause should be treated - thats for a medic to diagnose).

 

[presta]

According to most blood pressure charts, normal range extends as low as 90 systolic, but when mine was 104 the paramedic said "No wonder you're nearly passing out, you're losing most of your blood pressure when you stand up" (the lowest I've ever seen it go is 80).

 

[Pblakeney]

My understanding (and I'm no medic, just from reading round reliable sources so nothing definitive) is that "high blood pressure" is more complex than just if a number is in certain ranges

eg one (of probably many) example my understanding is that as you get older so your systolic pressure can get higher as arteries stiffen do heart pump output turns into pressure rather than the arteries expanding a bit to absorb the volume. Diastolic stays unaffected by this change and can be eg "normal" .This example related to arteries as you age, no doubt there are many other effects (no idea if this high systolic cause should be treated - thats for a medic to diagnose).

As per my post, I've always had high BP so age is not a cause.
Minor impact if any.

 

[Fastpedaller]

I've only just seen this thread. I'm 67, possibly fitter than most of my age. 33 years ago I needed emergency eye surgery. The Doc did some checks in readiness for the first op that afternoon. He questioned "have you been in hospital previously?" me "No"...... "Aren't you worried about it, as your pulse rate is only 65?" me. "I'm absolutely terrified, and my heart rate is usually about 45". "Ok" he said, "I now understand". 2 days later and after 6.5 hours of anesthetic, I couldn't even walk. and I don't know what my pulse was doing . Now it's usually in mid-upper 50's resting

 

[CXRAndy]

At my fittest a few years ago, mine RHR was 38bpm. Currently its around 45bpm