How to Check Your Resting Heart Rate

Your resting heart rate is the number of times your heart beats per minute while you’re relaxed. It’s a simple number you can measure yourself in under a minute, and tracking it over time can give you a general sense of your fitness and how your body responds to things like stress, illness or poor sleep.

Choose the Right Moment

For the most accurate reading, measure when your body is truly at rest. Many people check first thing in the morning, after waking but before getting out of bed or drinking coffee. If that’s not practical, sit quietly for at least five to ten minutes beforehand.

Avoid measuring right after exercise, a hot shower, a large meal, caffeine or a stressful moment, since these can temporarily raise your heart rate.

Find Your Pulse

You can feel your pulse in two easy places:

• Wrist: turn your palm up and place the tips of your index and middle fingers on the thumb side of your wrist, just below the base of your thumb.
• Neck: place the same two fingers at the side of your neck, in the soft groove beside your windpipe. Press gently and only on one side.

Use your fingers rather than your thumb, which has its own pulse and can confuse the count. Press just firmly enough to feel the beat.

Count the Beats

1. Once you can feel a steady pulse, look at a clock or a timer with a second hand.
2. Count the beats for a full 60 seconds, or for 30 seconds and multiply by two.
3. Write down the number along with the date and time.
4. Repeat on several different days to find your typical resting rate.

Counting for a full minute is more accurate, especially if your heartbeat seems irregular. Fitness trackers and smartwatches can also estimate heart rate, but a manual check is a good way to confirm their readings.

Understand Your Number

For most adults, a normal resting heart rate falls between 60 and 100 beats per minute. People who exercise regularly, especially endurance athletes, often have lower resting rates. Age, medications, temperature, hydration, stress and illness can all affect your number. Hot weather, dehydration and even standing rather than sitting can nudge it upward, which is why consistent conditions matter so much when you compare readings over time.

A single reading doesn’t tell you much on its own. The trend over weeks is more useful. If your resting rate gradually drops as you get fitter, that’s a common sign your cardiovascular fitness is improving.

When to Talk to a Doctor

Check in with your doctor if your resting heart rate is consistently above 100, or below 60 when you’re not an athlete, or if your pulse often feels irregular. Seek emergency care right away if a fast, slow or irregular heartbeat comes with chest pain, shortness of breath, dizziness or fainting. Home checks are a helpful habit, but they don’t replace a proper medical assessment.