Find your heart rate in seconds.
A number of factors may affect your heart rate while exercising. These include your age, exercise intensity, and general level of fitness.
Many factors may contribute to an elevated heart rate. See the list below.
In addition to these, your speed while exercising, your intensity, elevation chnges in terrain, duration, temperature may all affect how hard your heart is working, and thus your heart rate.
Your target heart rate is the heart rate you should aim for during physical activity. For moderately intense activity your target heart rate should be between 64% and 76% of your maximum heart rate. For vigorous physical activity, your target heart rate should be between 77% and 93% of your maximum heart rate. [CDC]
You can to use your heart rate to track your intensity while exercising. To do this, you need to figure out your maximum heart rate.
Your maximum heart rate is the heart rate you shouldn't exceed without.
The easiest way to calculate your max heart rate is to subtract your age from 220. So for example, if you’re 40 years old, your predicted maximum heart rate is 220-40, or 180, beats per minute (bpm).
The calculator and visualizer on this page is a quick way to see what zone your heart rate is in during activity.
It is the number of times your heart beats per minute when you have not been engaged in any activity for some time. It's the rate of you're heart when reading, sitting on the couch watching television, or eating a meal.
Resting heart rate contrasts with your heart rate during activity or exercise. It's important to not confuse the two measurements.
Normally you'd have to count your heart beats for an entire minute, or for 30 seconds and multiply by 2, or 15 seconds and mupltiply by 4, etc. The heart rate counter on this page will do the calculations for you and give you your average heartbeat in just a few seconds.
Measure your heart rate after you've been inactive for a significant amount of time. 15-30 minutes should be sufficient.
Many locations around the body where blood flow is palpable can serve as locations to check your pulse. Most commonly you can easily feel your pulse with your finger on the thumb side of your wrist. You can also put 2 fingers on the side of your neck, next to your windpipe.
Not everyone's pulse is the same. Heart rate varies from person to person. Tracking your own heart rate can give you valuable information about your heart health, and even more importantly, changes in your heart health.
What is deemed a healthy or unhealthy resting heart rate includes several factors, most notably, if you are male or female, and your age. The visualizer on this page will let you select your sex and age range to show you the spectrum of heart rate ranges for you.
Here is a more complete of factors that can affect your heart rate:
The "normal" resting heart rate for adults is between 60 and 100 beats per minute (BPM).
Generally speaking, the lower your resting heart rate, the more efficiently your heart is working and is an indicator of your fitness.
A long distance runner, for example, might have a resting heart rate around 40 beats per minute.
A "normal" resting heart rate is not an indication of "normal" blood pressure. Your blood pressure needs to be measured separately and directly.
This site is intended to help the average person with a casual interest in their heart rate. It is not intended as a medical diagnosis tool. It is not a professional peer-reviewed medical product. It is not intended to replace medical doctors or consultations with certified professionals. If you are having medical concerns, a medical crisis, feel sick, are having any other medical issues, please consult a licensed professional.