To count your resting heart rate, place two fingertips on the inside of your wrist, count the beats for 30 seconds, and double that number. The result is your beats per minute. A normal resting heart rate for adults falls between 60 and 100 beats per minute, though well-trained athletes can sit closer to 40.
Getting an accurate reading takes a little preparation and the right technique. Here’s how to do it properly and what your number actually means.
Before You Measure: Set Up for Accuracy
Your resting heart rate is exactly what it sounds like: the speed your heart beats when your body is doing nothing. That means the conditions around your measurement matter. If you just climbed a flight of stairs, drank coffee, or had a stressful phone call, your reading will be artificially high.
A few ground rules for a clean measurement:
- Wait at least one to two hours after exercise or a stressful event.
- Wait at least one hour after consuming caffeine, which can cause palpitations and temporarily raise your heart rate.
- Don’t measure after sitting or standing in one position for a long time, as both can skew results.
The ideal moment is first thing in the morning, before you get out of bed. If that’s not practical, sit quietly for about five minutes in a comfortable position before taking your pulse. This lets your cardiovascular system settle to its true baseline.
Finding Your Pulse at the Wrist
The easiest place to feel your pulse is the radial artery, which runs along the thumb side of your inner wrist. Turn your palm face down and place the tips of your index and middle fingers (or index, middle, and ring fingers) over the groove just inside the wrist bone on the thumb side.
Once your fingers are in position, press down until you feel the artery compress against the bone underneath. You’ll actually lose the pulse for a moment. Then ease the pressure slightly until each beat comes through clearly. This two-step approach, pressing firm then backing off, helps you land on the sweet spot where the pulse is strongest.
You can also adjust the angle of your wrist slightly, flexing or extending it, to find the position where the beats are most distinct.
Why You Should Never Use Your Thumb
Your thumb has its own pulse. If you press it against your wrist, you’ll pick up beats from both your thumb’s artery and your wrist’s artery, making an accurate count impossible. Always use your index and middle fingers.
The neck is another common spot people try. Pressing on the carotid artery in your neck can actually slow your heart rate down. Pressure-sensing nerve endings called baroreceptors line that artery, and when they detect compression, they send a signal to your brain that blood pressure is high. Your brain responds by lowering your heart rate. The result: a falsely low reading. Stick with the wrist.
Counting the Beats
You have two reliable options. The more accurate method is to count every beat for a full 30 seconds using a clock or timer, then multiply by two. If you counted 34 beats in 30 seconds, your resting heart rate is 68 beats per minute.
If you’re in a hurry, count for 15 seconds and multiply by four. This is faster but amplifies any counting error. If you miscount by just one beat in a 15-second window, your final number is off by four. Over 30 seconds, a one-beat miscount only throws you off by two. For the most reliable result, use the 30-second method.
What Your Number Means
For adults, a resting heart rate between 60 and 100 beats per minute is considered normal. Within that range, lower generally signals a more efficient heart. Each beat pumps more blood, so the heart doesn’t need to beat as often to keep up with your body’s demands.
Very fit endurance athletes often have resting rates near 40 beats per minute. This isn’t a problem. It reflects a heart that has adapted to sustained training by growing stronger and pumping more blood per contraction. If you’re not an athlete and your rate consistently falls below 60, that’s worth paying attention to, especially if you feel dizzy, fatigued, or lightheaded.
A resting rate consistently above 100 in a calm, rested state also deserves attention. Factors like dehydration, stress, poor sleep, nicotine, and certain medications can push the number up temporarily. But if it stays elevated without an obvious cause, it could reflect an underlying rhythm issue.
Tracking Changes Over Time
A single measurement is a snapshot. The real value comes from tracking your resting heart rate over weeks and months. Measure at the same time each day, ideally right after waking, and log the number. Over time, you’ll see your personal baseline emerge.
A gradual decrease often reflects improving cardiovascular fitness. A sudden or sustained increase of five to ten beats above your usual baseline, without a clear explanation, can signal overtraining, illness, dehydration, or elevated stress. Endurance athletes use this as an early warning system: if their morning heart rate spikes, they scale back training and prioritize recovery.
How Accurate Are Wearable Devices?
Smartwatches and fitness trackers use optical sensors that shine light into your skin and measure blood flow changes to estimate heart rate. For resting measurements, most perform well. A study published in Frontiers in Sports and Active Living tested several consumer devices against medical-grade readings and found that the best performers had error rates under 2.5% for resting heart rate. That translates to roughly one to two beats per minute off, which is clinically insignificant for daily tracking.
Camera-based phone apps, however, were far less reliable, with error rates above 17%. If you want a trustworthy passive reading, a dedicated wrist-worn tracker or smart ring will outperform a smartphone camera. Smart rings using infrared sensors tend to get slightly better readings than wrist devices that rely on green LED light, because infrared penetrates deeper into the skin and picks up a cleaner signal.
That said, no consumer device matches a manual count for a single deliberate measurement. If your wearable gives you a number that seems off, check it the old-fashioned way with two fingers on your wrist and a timer.
Signs Your Heart Rate Needs Medical Attention
An unusual resting heart rate on its own isn’t always cause for concern. But when it comes with other symptoms, it can point to an arrhythmia or other heart condition. Pay attention if you notice a fluttering, pounding, or racing sensation in your chest, persistent fatigue that doesn’t match your activity level, dizziness or lightheadedness, or excessive sweating without exertion.
Chest pain, shortness of breath, or fainting alongside an abnormal heart rate are more urgent and warrant immediate medical care. A heart that consistently feels like it’s skipping beats, racing without reason, or beating unusually slowly is telling you something worth investigating.