I Have Measured My Resting Heart Rate
Ever since I have started my transformation I think my cardiovascular fitness has improved drastically. I can’t really say where my resting heart rate was exactly when I started but I think it was around 72 bpm. Since my running training is mostly heart rate based it is important to get a good reading on your resting and maximum heart rates. Today I have decided to measure my resting heart rate.
I have actually been measuring my resting heart rate for a couple of weeks now but I have been getting very mixed results. They say the best way to measure your resting heart rate is to measure it first thing in the morning before getting out of bed or doing anything that would make it elevated. And there lies the problem with this method. I am usually awakened against my will by either an alarm clock that my wife sets oh-so-wonderfully 1 hour earlier than needed then resets it two more times before we finally get out of bed. Don’t ask me why she does this, this is part of her morning ritual. I guess she prefers to get an hour warning about when you need to get up and get an hour less of good solid sleep. Sadly this also affects my sleep.
If it’s not the ridiculous alarm clock pattern of my wife that gets me up it’s my daughter crying through the baby monitor. She’s 20 months old and likes to wake with a loud disappointment and she wants to be sure everyone knows that she’s disappointed with having woken up. What I’m trying to say my mornings aren’t exactly relaxed and my morning resting heart rate certainly shows it. Add to it the time and effort I put into putting my heart rate monitor on and starting it up and you can see that my heart rate in the morning is nowhere near my resting heart rate. I’m actually pretty restless by the time I’m taking measurements.
My readings have been all the way up to 69 bpm in the morning and as low as 60 bpm. Your resting heart rate will fluctuate between days depending on how well you have recovered from the previous day’s exercise or it can also be higher if you’re fighting off some kind of illness or there is an onset of one. So your morning resting heart rate should tell you a lot and is a good indication of what to look forward to in the day in terms of actual energy level and fitness.
While my morning readings have been all over the map my readings with the heart rate monitor at night sitting in front of the computer have been pretty steady. I’d be clocking in around 53-55 bpm which is a lot lower than my morning heart rate. So which one is my true resting heart rate? I thought the only way to find out was to actually measure my heart rate while totally resting; measure it while asleep.
So I spent last night with my heart rate monitor strapped on and I logged the entire night’s data, every single beat of my heart for close to 5 hours. I didn’t get enough sleep last night but I got enough data to draw my conclusion. It was actually quite interesting to see my heart rate change over the course of the night. My heart rate had random spikes all the way up to 90 bpm at times and I also had a time period where my average heart rate was higher than everywhere else. Also, the close it has gotten to the morning the higher it went and the more noisy it was.
I have counted and ordered every single beat’s rate and put them on a distribution chart.
You can see that while my heart rate was all over the map and went as low as 38 and as high as 90+ it was pretty linear distribution in the 50-57 bpm range. From this I conclude t hat my resting heart rate is right around 52 bpm. Obviously this number changes from day to day but it is a good general ballpark and is certainly better than my morning rate of 69 at times. It is also much closer to my heart rate while I’m working on the computer indicating that my mornings are probably too stressful to get a good reading on my resting heart rate.
Yeah I take mine in the evenings in front of the computer as well as the alarm or daughter (just like you!) tend to wake me in the mornings. 45-46 over the last week.
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What type of heart rate monitors do you guys use? I’m supposed to be tracking my heart rate during my cardio workout, but I can’t get a decent reading with my fingertips on my carotid artery for the life of me.
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If you can’t get a reading on your carotid artery there is something wrong with you
. That pulse only goes away if your systolic blood pressure is below 60-70 mm Hg (I should know I’m a medical first responder).
But I actually use a Polar heart rate monitor, my 3rd one in 10 years. They are great. I have had a Garmin Forerunner 305 before as well I think that is what Andrew has. I just didn’t care for the size of the unit and the constant battery charging. Basically anything with a chest strap should be good enough.
Greg, your bug log in PPT5 is great. I just hope someone from Polar reads it
Mico was quite regular as moderator and I had his feed-backs every time. The new ones – I don’t know.
OK, morning HR. I take it every morning, no matter if it is an alarm clock that woke me up or I just couldn’t sleep any more. I use my blood pressure monitor (yeah, in the another life I was diagnosed with hypertension, but now it is another story: in average 117/70 and I had never took any medication). My rest HR is generally between 43 and 46. When I am working, it goes to 50-52 and when I am stressed (in front of my computer), it goes up to 55-56.
My blog in English is not up-to-date, because I don’t have enough time to do my blogs in several languages (the French one is much more up-to-date, but still several weeks off).
Four years ago, while I was severely obese, my HR never dropped below mid-seventies and was as high as mid-nineties.But 51 kg less did the great job. The BP is also the consequence of my lifestyle changes.
I use Polar HRM, too, and find it very accurate. Previously I had several Timex HRM but they had a lot of trouble with interferences (HR of 240 and while taken manually, it was like 90).
Your blog is very interesting and now I know I did a big mistake by not doing the same while doing “my transformation”.
Good work, dude. Continue your transformation and your interesting posts.