You can check your heart rate in under 30 seconds using nothing but two fingers and a clock. The simplest method is pressing your fingertips against the inside of your wrist, counting the beats you feel, and multiplying to get your beats per minute (bpm). A normal resting heart rate for adults falls between 60 and 100 bpm.
How to Check Your Pulse by Hand
The easiest pulse point to find is on the inside of your wrist, on the same side as your thumb. This is your radial pulse, where an artery runs close to the surface right next to the bone.
Place the tips of your index and middle fingers (not your thumb, which has its own pulse) into the shallow groove on the thumb side of your inner wrist. Press gently against the bone underneath. Start by pressing firmly enough that you lose the pulse for a moment, then ease up until you feel a steady beat. If you’re sitting, bend your elbow at about 90 degrees and rest your arm on a table or armrest with your palm facing down. Flexing or extending your wrist slightly can make the pulse easier to find.
Once you have a clear beat, count the number of pulses for 15 seconds while watching a clock or timer. Multiply that number by four to get your heart rate in beats per minute. If you counted 18 beats in 15 seconds, your resting heart rate is 72 bpm. For a more precise reading, count for a full 30 seconds and multiply by two.
You can also check at your neck. Place two fingers on the side of your neck, in the soft groove just beside your windpipe. This is your carotid pulse, and it’s often stronger and easier to detect than the wrist, especially during exercise. Use light pressure here, as pressing too hard on both sides can make you feel lightheaded.
Getting an Accurate Resting Reading
Your resting heart rate is the number of times your heart beats per minute when you’re awake, calm, and sitting still. The best time to measure it is first thing in the morning, before you get out of bed or check your phone. Caffeine, stress, a recent meal, or even standing up can raise your rate by 10 to 20 bpm and give you a number that doesn’t reflect your baseline.
If you’re measuring later in the day, sit quietly for at least five minutes first. Avoid checking right after climbing stairs, having coffee, or feeling anxious. Cold hands can also make the pulse harder to detect, so warm your fingers if needed. Take your resting heart rate on several different mornings and average the results for the most reliable number.
Normal Resting Heart Rate by Age
Heart rate varies dramatically with age. Newborns can have rates between 100 and 205 bpm, which gradually slows through childhood. By adolescence, the typical range settles into the adult norm.
- Newborn (birth to 4 weeks): 100 to 205 bpm
- Infant (1 month to 1 year): 100 to 180 bpm
- Toddler (1 to 3 years): 98 to 140 bpm
- Preschool (3 to 5 years): 80 to 120 bpm
- School age (5 to 12 years): 75 to 118 bpm
- Adolescent (13 to 17 years): 60 to 100 bpm
- Adult (18 and older): 60 to 100 bpm
These ranges apply when you’re awake and at rest. Your heart rate drops during sleep and rises with any physical activity. Highly trained endurance athletes often have resting rates well below 60 bpm. A study of over 1,500 collegiate athletes found average resting rates around 63 bpm, with cross-country runners averaging about 58 bpm. For these individuals, a low rate reflects a more efficient heart, not a problem.
Using a Smartwatch, Fitness Tracker, or Phone
Most wearable devices use small green LED lights pressed against your skin to detect blood flow. As your heart pumps, the volume of blood in your wrist’s tiny vessels changes with each beat, and the sensor picks up those fluctuations. This technology, called photoplethysmography, works well enough for everyday tracking but isn’t as precise as a medical device.
Compared to a chest strap (the gold standard for consumer heart rate monitoring), wrist-based optical sensors can drift by 8% or more under normal conditions, and that error can climb to around 17% in some lighting environments. The readings tend to be least reliable during vigorous movement, when sweat or a loose band can disrupt the sensor’s contact with your skin. For a more accurate wearable reading, tighten the band so it sits snug (but not uncomfortable) about one finger-width above your wrist bone, and hold your arm still for a few seconds.
Smartphone apps that use your phone’s camera and flash work on the same principle. You place your fingertip over the camera lens, and the flash illuminates the blood vessels. Research shows these apps agree closely with medical-grade readings in healthy people under controlled conditions, but several factors reduce their reliability in everyday use. Darker skin tones may affect signal quality, phone cameras sample at a much lower rate than medical equipment, and some Android phones produce uncomfortable heat from the flash during longer readings. Cold fingers also weaken the signal. These apps are fine for a quick spot check, but treat the number as an estimate rather than a clinical measurement.
Calculating Your Target Heart Rate for Exercise
If you’re using heart rate to guide workout intensity, you first need your estimated maximum heart rate. The standard formula is simple: subtract your age from 220. A 40-year-old has an estimated max of 180 bpm.
From there, exercise intensity breaks into two zones:
- Moderate intensity: 50% to 70% of your max. For a 40-year-old, that’s 90 to 126 bpm. Aim for about 2.5 hours per week at this level.
- Vigorous intensity: 70% to 85% of your max. For a 40-year-old, that’s 126 to 153 bpm. About 1 hour and 15 minutes per week at this level provides equivalent benefit.
To check during a workout, pause briefly and take a 10-second pulse count at your neck (where the beat is strongest), then multiply by six. Or simply glance at a fitness tracker, keeping in mind the accuracy limitations mentioned above. If you’re new to exercise, build gradually toward these targets rather than jumping straight to the upper range.
What an Abnormal Heart Rate Feels Like
A resting heart rate consistently above 100 bpm is called tachycardia. A rate below 60 bpm is called bradycardia. Neither is automatically dangerous. A low rate in a fit person is normal, and a high rate after coffee or a stressful moment is expected. The concern is when the rate stays outside the normal range without an obvious cause, or when it comes with symptoms.
An irregular heart rhythm, called an arrhythmia, can show up as a fluttering, pounding, or racing sensation in your chest. You might also notice it skipping beats when you check your pulse manually. Other symptoms that can accompany an abnormal heart rate include lightheadedness, dizziness, unusual fatigue, sweating, anxiety, and shortness of breath. Chest pain, difficulty breathing, or fainting alongside an unusual heart rate are signs that need emergency attention.
When you check your pulse by hand, pay attention to more than just the number. Notice whether the rhythm feels regular or irregular, and whether the beats are strong or faint. A steady, evenly spaced rhythm is typical. Frequent skipped beats or a chaotic pattern is worth mentioning to your doctor, even if the overall rate falls within the normal range.