The simplest way to check your BPM (beats per minute) is to place two fingers on the inside of your wrist, count the beats for 60 seconds, and that number is your heart rate. You can also use a shorter count and multiply, or let a device do the work. A normal resting heart rate for adults falls between 60 and 100 BPM.
How to Check Your Pulse by Hand
The wrist is the easiest spot to find your pulse on your own. Turn one palm face-up and look at the area between the wrist bone and the tendon on your thumb side. Place the tips of your index and middle fingers there, pressing just firmly enough to feel each beat. Too much pressure will actually block blood flow and make the pulse harder to detect. Either wrist works.
If you can’t find the wrist pulse, try your neck instead. Place those same two fingertips on one side of your neck, just beside the windpipe. This is your carotid pulse, and it tends to be stronger and easier to feel, especially during exercise. Avoid pressing both sides of the neck at the same time.
Don’t use your thumb to check a pulse. Your thumb has its own pulse, and it can mix with the one you’re trying to measure.
How Long to Count
Counting for a full 60 seconds gives the most accurate reading, and most nursing guidelines recommend it. If you’re in a hurry, you can count for 30 seconds and multiply by 2, or count for 15 seconds and multiply by 4. The shorter the count, the more any small miscount gets amplified. A study on pulse-counting duration found that a 15-second count in a seated position introduced an average error of about 1.9 BPM, which is acceptable for a casual check but not ideal if you’re tracking small changes over time.
Using a Smartwatch or Fitness Tracker
Most wrist-worn devices use small green LED lights that shine into your skin and measure how much light your blood absorbs with each heartbeat. This optical sensing technology is generally reliable, though accuracy varies across brands and price points. In a validation study comparing wrist-based trackers against a chest strap monitor, higher-end optical sensors had an average error of about 4%, while budget devices averaged closer to 7%. Both tended to slightly underestimate heart rate rather than overestimate it.
Chest strap monitors, which detect the heart’s electrical signals through electrodes against your skin, are more accurate than wrist-based optical sensors. They’re the standard reference in most fitness research. If you’re training seriously or need precise zone tracking, a chest strap is the better tool.
A few things can throw off a wrist-based reading: a loose band, heavy wrist tattoos, cold hands that reduce blood flow to the skin, or excessive movement. If a reading seems off, tighten the band slightly and hold still for a few seconds.
Using a Pulse Oximeter
Those small clip-on devices that go on your fingertip are primarily designed to measure blood oxygen levels, but they display your heart rate too. For a quick BPM check in a calm setting, they work well. Nail polish or artificial nails can interfere with the light sensors, as can cold fingers or poor circulation. If the device struggles to get a signal, try warming your hands first or switching to a different finger.
What Your Resting Heart Rate Should Be
For adults 18 and older, a normal resting heart rate is 60 to 100 BPM. Athletes and people who are very physically fit often have resting rates in the 40s or 50s, which is normal for them. Children’s hearts beat faster: a newborn’s resting rate can be anywhere from 100 to 205 BPM, while school-age kids (5 to 12 years) typically range from 75 to 118 BPM. By adolescence, the range narrows to match adults.
A resting rate consistently above 100 BPM is called tachycardia. A rate below 60 BPM is called bradycardia, though in fit individuals this is usually nothing to worry about. A resting rate below 35 to 40 BPM, or over 100 BPM with symptoms like chest pain, shortness of breath, dizziness, or fainting, is worth getting checked out.
How to Get an Accurate Resting Reading
Your heart rate responds to almost everything you do. Caffeine, stress, dehydration, body position, and temperature all shift it. To get a true resting heart rate, sit or lie down in a comfortable position for at least five minutes before measuring. First thing in the morning, before getting out of bed, is ideal. Even the transition from lying down to standing causes a measurable shift toward a faster rate as your body adjusts to being upright.
If you’re tracking your resting heart rate over time, measure it the same way and at the same time each day. Consistency in your method matters more than perfection in any single reading.
How to Find Your Target Heart Rate for Exercise
To use BPM for exercise, you first need a rough estimate of your maximum heart rate. The most common formula is simply 220 minus your age. A more refined version, sometimes called the Tanaka formula, calculates it as 208 minus 0.7 times your age. For a 40-year-old, the classic formula gives 180 BPM; the Tanaka formula gives 180 as well in this case, though the two diverge more at older ages. Neither is perfectly precise for every individual, but both give a useful starting point.
From there, exercise intensity is divided into zones based on percentages of that maximum:
- Zone 1 (50% to 60%): Warm-up and recovery pace. Your body primarily burns fat for fuel.
- Zone 2 (60% to 70%): Light to moderate effort, the endurance-building zone. Still primarily fat-burning.
- Zone 3 (70% to 80%): Moderate to hard effort, often called the tempo zone. Your body starts using a mix of fat, carbs, and protein.
- Zone 5 (90% to 100%): All-out effort you can only sustain briefly. Fuel comes almost entirely from carbs and protein.
For a 30-year-old with an estimated max of 190 BPM, Zone 2 would be roughly 114 to 133 BPM. If your goal is weight loss, staying in Zones 1 through 3 during most workouts is effective because your body draws more heavily on stored fat at those intensities. You don’t need to push into the highest zones to get meaningful health benefits.