Resting heart rate (RHR) is how many times your heart beats per minute while you're fully at rest. It's one of the cheapest meaningful health signals available: it responds to training, stress, sleep, illness, and recovery — and you can measure it every morning for free.
What's normal?
- Most healthy adults: 60–100 beats per minute.
- Regular exercisers commonly sit around 50–70 bpm.
- Well-trained endurance athletes can run 40–55 bpm — a stronger heart moves more blood per beat, so it needs fewer beats.
- Persistently above ~100 bpm at rest (tachycardia), or low rates with dizziness or fatigue, are worth discussing with a doctor.
How to measure it correctly
The gold-standard moment is within the first couple of minutes after waking, before coffee, scrolling, or standing up. Manually: press two fingers on your wrist's thumb side, count beats for 30 seconds, double it. A wearable does this automatically overnight; no wearable needed, though — apps like Pulser measure heart rate using your iPhone's camera and LED, or pair with a Bluetooth chest strap.
The trend beats any single number
A single reading is a snapshot; the weekly trend is the story. A resting heart rate drifting down over months usually reflects improving cardiovascular fitness — it's one of the most satisfying signals that your push-ups, squats, and walks are working. A sudden rise of 5–10 bpm above your baseline for several days often flags incomplete recovery, stress, poor sleep, or an oncoming illness: a good day to train light.
Log it alongside your training
Pulser is built for exactly this daily habit: measure with the iPhone camera or a Bluetooth belt, log blood pressure manually, and watch your trends over weeks. Pair the cardio signal with your training logs — there's a reason the CounterUps achievements page tracks resting heart rate as one of its three long-term health metrics. (Heart-rate apps are wellness tools, not medical devices — see a professional for anything concerning.)