What Your Resting Heart Rate Says About Your Health

Learn about your heart rate and what's healthy for your age

Hallie Levine and Sarah Gleim,

Updated July 02, 2025

AARP

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En español

Published February 02, 2023

/ Updated July 02, 2025

a red heart made of yarn shows a heart beat reading of a normal heart rate on a bright yellow background

Jay Radhakrishnan / Getty Images

You probably already know several key numbers about your health: your weight, your blood pressure and maybe even your cholesterol and blood glucose levels. But there’s another number you should know, and that’s your resting heart rate.

“If it’s too low or too high, it can indicate heart problems,” says Michael LaMonte, director of graduate studies and research professor of epidemiology and environmental health at the University of Buffalo School of Public Health and Health Professions. “But it can also be tricky, since your heart rate can be impacted by a lot of different things, including environmental conditions such as heat, humidity or cold.”

Here’s a look at what a normal heart rate is and what it means when your resting heart rate is too high or too low.

What is a normal resting heart rate?

Your resting heart rate is the number of times your heart beats per minute when you’re at rest. The American Heart Association says anything between 60 and 100 beats per minute at rest is considered a normal resting heart rate for most adults. If you’re very athletic, your normal resting heart rate could be even lower, around 40 beats per minute. That means your heart muscle is in better shape and doesn’t have to work as hard to beat regularly, says cardiologist Nieca Goldberg, M.D., clinical associate professor of medicine at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City. Research shows, for example, that men with a resting heart rate of more than 90 beats per minute had three times the risk of death from any cause compared with men whose heart rate was lower than 50.

Heart rate by the numbers

Resting: 60 and 100 beats per minute
Athletes: may have a lower resting heart rate
Moderate workouts: 50%-70% of the maximum for your age
Intense workouts: 70%-85% of maximum for your age
Maximum heart rate: about 220 minus your age

Source: American Heart Association

That’s why some cardiologists say that the lower your resting heart rate, the better. “I consider a normal heart rate to be between 45 and 85 beats per minute,” says Walid Saliba, M.D, cardiologist and director of the Electrophysiology Lab at the Cleveland Clinic. “If you’re sitting and not doing anything, a heart rate of 100 beats per minute is abnormal.” On the flip side, he adds, if you’re athletic and very well conditioned, there should be no alarm bells ringing if your resting heart rate is just 45 beats per minute.

How do you find your resting heart rate?

The American Heart Association recommends checking your heart rate first thing in the morning — before you get out of bed is ideal, and definitely before you’ve had a cup of coffee. You can find your heart rate by taking your pulse on your wrist. Here’s how.

Press lightly on the artery in your wrist with the tips of your index and middle fingers.
Count your pulse for 30 seconds.
Multiply your pulse by two, and that’s your resting heart rate per minute.

What does it mean if my heart rate is too fast?

If your heart rate at rest is higher than 100 beats per minute, it’s known as tachycardia. Age is a common risk factor of tachycardia, as is high blood pressure. When your heart rate is too fast, it might not be able to get enough blood and oxygen to your organs and tissues. But it depends on the type of tachycardia and how fast your heart is beating.

It’s not always a sign of a problem, though. For instance, it could be sinus tachycardia, which is when your heart beats faster because of exercise or stress.

Other common causes of tachycardia include:

Irregular heart rhythms (arrhythmias) like atrial fibrillation (A-fib)
Anemia (low red blood cells)
Overactive thyroid (hyperthyroidism)
Medication interaction
Fever
Caffeine
Too much alcohol or alcohol withdrawal
Smoking or nicotine use
Illegal drug use

What does it mean if my resting heart rate is too low?

On the flip side, if your resting heart rate is lower than 60 beats per minute, it’s known as bradycardia. “As some people age, the wiring of the electrical conduction system of their heart frays,” says Joyce Oen-Hsiao, M.D., an associate professor of cardiovascular medicine at the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut. This can cause your heart’s normal rhythm to slow down.

Unless you’re an elite athlete, bradycardia can be serious because when your heart rate is very slow, not enough oxygen-rich blood can get pumped throughout your body. You may end up weak and dizzy, or even short of breath. Sometimes people with bradycardia require a pacemaker to keep their heart beating at the right rate.

Other common causes of bradycardia include:

Underactive thyroid (hypothyroidism)
Medication interaction
Congenital heart defects
Sleep apnea
Myocarditis (inflammation of heart tissue)

LaMonte says he even sees bradycardia in people who otherwise have very healthy hearts.

What if my heart rate is abnormal?

If your heart rate is either too slow or too fast, your doctor may want to run tests to find out why, Goldberg says. The first step is usually an electrocardiogram (EKG), which measures the electrical signals in your heart to make sure they’re working correctly. After that, your doctor may recommend an echocardiogram, or heart ultrasound, she adds. If those don’t provide answers, you may need to wear a 24-hour heart monitor.

If you have an underlying condition such as hyperthyroidism, anemia or A-fib, your heart rate will likely return to normal once it’s treated.

Should I use a fitness tracker to monitor my heart rate?

Wearable fitness trackers like the Apple watch, the Whoop, the Fitbit and the Google Pixel watch have gotten extremely popular. More people are using them to track their exercise goals, including their heart rate. But research on how accurate the heart rate readings are has been inconsistent. So, if you wear a fitness tracker, you should take the results with a grain of salt, Oen-Hsiao says.

For instance, a 2019 study published in JMIR mHealth found that the Apple Watch 3 was about 95 percent accurate, and the Fitbit Charge 2 was about 91 percent accurate, when compared with an electrocardiogram across 24 hours. But a 2024 study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology that looked at Apple Watch Series 3, Fitbit Charge HR, Fitbit Blaze, Polar A360, Garmin Vivosmart HR and Jabra Sport got different results. Researchers determined these devices didn’t give true heart rates, especially when those in the study had A-fib.

You want your heart rate to stay roughly in the same range, without huge fluctuations. Just remember, some variation is normal, like when your heart rate drops when you’re sleeping, Oen-Hsiao says. But if you do use a fitness tracker and notice that your heart rate seems off, talk to your doctor. They may want to put you on a cardiac monitor to wear at home to make sure everything is OK.

It’s good to track your heart rate when you exercise, and fitness trackers are fine for this purpose. The American Heart Association recommends 70 to 85 percent of maximum for your age for an intense workout. (You can find target heart rate zones for your age group in the chart below.) Keep in mind that this is just a guide: If you’re on medication that lowers your heart rate, you may not reach your target goal, and that’s OK, Goldberg says.

How to maintain a healthy heart rate

Outside of exercising, it’s a good idea to adopt activities that promote a healthy heart rate:

Avoid caffeine. An occasional cup of coffee is fine, LaMonte says, if your heart rate is within normal levels.
Drink water. When you’re dehydrated, your blood thickens, which means your heart has to work harder.
Limit your alcohol. Men shouldn’t drink more than two drinks a day, and women should keep it to one.
Reduce your stress. You can try things like yoga or meditation to help with relaxation.
Eat a heart-healthy diet. Focus on whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, and healthy proteins.
If you smoke, quit.

Editor’s note: This story, originally published February 2, 2023, has been updated to reflect new information.

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Hallie Levine is a contributing writer and an award-winning medical and health reporter. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Consumer Reports, Real Simple, Health and Time, among other publications.

Sarah Gleim is a contributing writer at AARP based in Atlanta. Her work has also appeared in WebMD, Forbes, Time Inc., Discovery Communications, HowStuffWorks.com, Atlanta Magazine, CNN and more.