To check your resting heart rate, place two fingertips on the inside of your wrist or the side of your neck, count the beats for 60 seconds, and that number is your heart rate in beats per minute (bpm). A normal resting heart rate for adults falls between 60 and 100 bpm. Getting an accurate reading takes a little preparation, though, so here’s exactly how to do it right.
Before You Measure: Set Up for Accuracy
Your heart rate responds to almost everything you do, so the conditions around your measurement matter as much as the technique itself. Ideally, check your pulse first thing in the morning before getting out of bed. If that’s not practical, sit quietly for at least five minutes beforehand and avoid measuring within one to two hours after exercise or a stressful event.
Caffeine raises your heart rate and can keep it elevated. Wait at least an hour after your last cup of coffee or energy drink. Chronic caffeine intake above 400 mg per day (roughly four cups of coffee) can elevate your resting heart rate even after you’ve been sitting still for several minutes, so if you’re a heavy caffeine drinker, morning measurements before your first cup will give you the most honest number. Also avoid taking your reading after standing or sitting in one position for a long stretch, since both can skew results.
The Wrist Method (Radial Pulse)
This is the most common technique and the easiest to learn. Turn one hand palm-up and place the tips of your index and middle fingers on the inside of the opposite wrist, in the groove between the wrist bone and the tendon on the thumb side. You should feel a soft thumping under your fingertips. Press lightly. Pushing too hard can actually compress the artery and make the pulse harder to detect.
Once you have a steady beat, watch a clock and count every pulse for a full 60 seconds. If you’re short on time, count for 15 seconds and multiply by four. The 60-second count is more reliable, especially if your heartbeat is slightly irregular, because a short count magnifies any miscounting error.
The Neck Method (Carotid Pulse)
If you have trouble finding your wrist pulse, try your neck. Place the tips of your index and middle fingers in the soft groove just to one side of your windpipe, below your jawline. The carotid artery runs close to the surface here, so the beat is usually stronger and easier to feel. Use the same light pressure and the same counting method.
One important detail: never press on both sides of your neck at the same time. That can temporarily reduce blood flow to the brain and make you dizzy.
Using a Smartwatch or Fitness Tracker
Wrist-worn devices use tiny LED lights that shine through your skin to detect blood flow changes with each heartbeat. For a simple resting measurement, they’re reasonably accurate. Validation studies comparing optical wrist sensors to chest-strap monitors found that at rest, readings were off by only about 1 bpm on average, with most readings falling within roughly 10 bpm of the true value in either direction.
Accuracy drops during movement. During cycling, for example, one tested device underestimated heart rate by more than 13 bpm on average in younger adults, with individual readings sometimes off by 30 bpm or more. For a calm, seated resting measurement, though, most modern wearables are close enough to be useful for tracking trends over time. If your device shows a resting heart rate that seems unusually high or low, confirm it manually with the wrist or neck method before worrying.
What Your Number Means
A resting heart rate between 60 and 100 bpm is considered normal for adults. That’s a wide range, and where you fall depends on your fitness level, age, medications, and genetics. Well-trained endurance athletes often have resting rates near 40 bpm because their hearts pump more blood per beat and don’t need to beat as frequently.
A lower resting heart rate generally signals better cardiovascular fitness. If your rate sits at 80 or 85 and you start exercising regularly, you may see it drop over weeks or months. That’s a sign your heart is becoming more efficient. Tracking your resting heart rate over time, rather than fixating on a single reading, gives you the most useful picture of your cardiovascular health.
Factors That Shift Your Resting Rate
Your resting heart rate isn’t a fixed number. It fluctuates day to day and even hour to hour based on several factors:
- Caffeine and stimulants: Even moderate caffeine intake temporarily raises heart rate. Heavy daily consumption (above 600 mg) can keep your rate elevated even after resting.
- Stress and emotions: Anxiety, anger, and excitement activate your body’s fight-or-flight response, speeding up your heart.
- Sleep and fatigue: Poor sleep or sleep deprivation tends to raise resting heart rate the following day.
- Temperature: Heat and humidity make your heart work harder to cool your body, pushing your rate up.
- Medications: Some drugs lower heart rate (like beta-blockers), while others raise it (like certain decongestants and asthma medications).
- Dehydration: When blood volume drops, your heart compensates by beating faster.
Because so many variables are at play, measuring under the same conditions each time (same time of day, same position, before caffeine) gives you the most consistent and comparable readings.
When a Reading Is Worth Attention
A resting heart rate consistently above 100 bpm without an obvious cause like caffeine or stress is called tachycardia and is worth investigating. On the other end, a rate below 60 bpm is called bradycardia. For fit individuals, a low rate is perfectly normal and expected. For everyone else, it can sometimes signal a problem with the heart’s electrical system.
The number alone isn’t necessarily alarming. What matters more is whether symptoms accompany it. Dizziness, lightheadedness, unusual fatigue during normal activity, shortness of breath, confusion, or fainting alongside a very high or very low heart rate points to something that needs medical evaluation. Chest pain lasting more than a few minutes or difficulty breathing warrants emergency care regardless of what your pulse reads.