The resting heart rate expresses the lowest number of beats that are needed from the heart in order to ensure that you receive a sufficient amount of oxygen and nutrients throughout your body for it to be able to maintain its functions. Resting heart rate is an individual measure, which depends on your fitness level. The fitter, you are, the lower your resting heart rate will be.  

 

The best way to measure the resting heart rate is to count the number of beats produced by your heart for one minute in the morning before getting out of bed. If you want a very precise measurement, you can measure your resting heart rate every morning for 3-4 days in a row and then calculate an average. Your heart rate may be higher on certain days, e.g. because of a tough training session the day before, a large amount of caffeine intake, smoking etc.

 

When you do fitness training, your resting heart rate decreases, primarily due to the heart stroke volume increasing. If the heart is able to pump out more blood per stroke, it will not have to pump as many times per minute in order to release the same amount of blood. Therefore, your resting heart rate will decrease when you are resting. In recent years, heart rate training has become an increasingly popular activity. Nowadays, heart rate monitors are relatively cheap, and many people own one. They offer the advantage of being able to control your training based on a direct feedback from the monitor, expressing directly how much load you are placing onto your body.

You can save your own training zones in the monitor to make sure that you actually carry out the training that you wanted to perform. In addition, some monitors are able to transfer data to a computer for further training evaluation purposes.

 

Resting heart rate
Your resting heart rate tells you whether or not you are in good shape. The lower the resting heart rate, the better your shape. The average resting heart rate for men is about 60-80 beats per minute and 70-90 for women. People in a bad shape usually have a high resting heart rate, whereas fit athletes usually have a resting heart rate of around 50-60 beats per minute. If you are really fit, you might even be able to get your resting heart rate down to 40-50.

A few years ago, it became known that the cyclist Indurain had a resting heart rate of 28. Although this is an usually low resting heart rate, it probably comes as no surprise as we are dealing with a guy, who has won Tour de France five times!

If you are in a bad shape and start training, you will notice a development in your resting heart rate very quickly. Your resting heart rate will quickly decrease – especially in the beginning. The best time to measure your resting heart rate is in the morning just after waking up. Your resting heart rate also tells you something about your restitution level. If you are ill or tired, your resting heart rate will increase. In this way, you are able to monitor the physical state of your body by using the resting heart rate as a tool.

 

 

The heart rate reserve
The heart rate reserve is made up by the area between the resting heart rate and the maximum heart rate, i.e. maximum heart rate minus resting heart rate. This is the part of the heart beats that may be utilised during physical work. It is also known as the work interval. The resting heart rate equals an intensity of 0%, whereas the maximum heart rate equals 100%. When training with a heart rate monitor, the intensity is typically shown as a % of the heart rate reserve, allowing you to create a variety of training zones. You can choose between a large range of training zones, and your new heart rate monitor will be accompanied by information on these zones.