You can measure your pulse in under a minute using just two fingers pressed against an artery close to the skin’s surface. The wrist is the most common spot, and all you need to do is count the beats you feel over a set time period, then calculate your heart rate in beats per minute (bpm). A normal resting heart rate for adults falls between 60 and 100 bpm.
Finding Your Radial (Wrist) Pulse
Turn one hand so your palm faces up. Place the tips of your index and middle fingers from your other hand on the inside of your wrist, just below where your thumb connects to it. You’re feeling for the spot between the wrist bone and the tendon that runs along the thumb side. Press lightly until you feel a steady throb. If you can’t find it, shift your fingers slightly toward the center of your wrist and adjust your pressure.
Don’t use your thumb to take a pulse. Your thumb has its own artery with a pulse strong enough to confuse the count, making it impossible to tell whether you’re feeling your heartbeat or your thumb’s.
Counting and Calculating Your Heart Rate
Once you feel a clear pulse, watch a clock or timer and count every beat you feel for 60 seconds. That number is your heart rate in bpm. If you’d rather not count for the full minute, you have two shortcuts: count for 30 seconds and multiply by 2, or count for 15 seconds and multiply by 4.
The shorter your counting window, the less precise the result. A study in the journal Ergonomics found that 15-second counts had an average error of about 1.9 bpm, but with a 5% chance of being off by more than 5 bpm in either direction. So a reading of 70 bpm from a 15-second count could actually be anywhere from 65 to 75. A 30-second count cuts the average error roughly in half, to about 1 bpm. If you want the most reliable number, especially if your heartbeat feels uneven, count for the full 60 seconds.
Using the Neck (Carotid) Pulse
If you’re having trouble finding your wrist pulse, the side of your neck is another reliable option. Place your index and middle fingers in the soft groove beside your windpipe, roughly level with your Adam’s apple. You should feel a strong, easy-to-find beat from the carotid artery.
Use light pressure here. Pressing too hard on this artery can trigger a reflex that slows your heart rate, which would give you an inaccurate reading and, in rare cases, make you feel lightheaded. One side at a time is all you need.
Other Places You Can Feel a Pulse
The wrist and neck work for the vast majority of people, but a pulse can be felt at several other points on the body:
- Inside of the elbow: The brachial artery runs just above the crease of your elbow, between the inner bony bump and the biceps tendon. This is the artery used during blood pressure readings.
- Top of the foot: The dorsalis pedis pulse sits on the front of the foot, near the big toe’s tendon, roughly an inch from the bony bump of the navicular bone.
- Behind the ankle bone: The posterior tibial pulse is located just behind the inner ankle bone. This one can be tricky to find, even for clinicians.
These sites are most useful when checking circulation in a specific limb rather than measuring your general heart rate.
What Your Pulse Should Feel Like
A healthy pulse at rest feels steady and rhythmic, like a consistent tap under your fingers. Pay attention to three things beyond the number: the rhythm, the strength, and the regularity.
A normal pulse has an even spacing between beats. If the rhythm feels uneven, with occasional skipped or extra beats, that’s worth noting. Isolated skipped beats are common and often harmless, but a persistently irregular rhythm could signal an arrhythmia.
The strength of the beat matters too. A pulse that feels unusually forceful, what clinicians call “bounding,” results from a more powerful heartbeat and can occur with exercise, fever, or anxiety. A pulse that feels weak or faint can occur with dehydration or low blood pressure.
Normal Resting Heart Rate by Age
Your resting heart rate is best measured after sitting quietly for at least five minutes, ideally in the morning before caffeine or physical activity. Here’s what’s considered normal across different age groups:
- Newborns (0 to 1 month): 100 to 160 bpm
- Infants (1 to 12 months): 80 to 140 bpm
- Toddlers (1 to 3 years): 80 to 130 bpm
- Preschoolers (3 to 5 years): 80 to 110 bpm
- School-age children (6 to 12): 70 to 100 bpm
- Adolescents and adults: 60 to 100 bpm
Well-trained athletes often have resting rates well below 60 bpm because their hearts pump more blood per beat. A resting pulse of 45 to 55 is common for endurance athletes and is not a cause for concern on its own.
When a Pulse Rate Is Too High or Too Low
A resting heart rate below 60 bpm is technically bradycardia, and above 100 bpm at rest is tachycardia. Neither number is automatically dangerous. Many healthy people sit just outside the 60 to 100 range without any problems.
The rate becomes concerning when it comes with symptoms. A slow pulse paired with dizziness, fainting, unusual fatigue, or shortness of breath suggests the heart isn’t pumping enough blood to keep up with demand. On the fast side, rates above 150 bpm at rest are more likely to cause noticeable symptoms even in otherwise healthy people, including chest discomfort, lightheadedness, or a pounding sensation. People with existing heart conditions can become symptomatic at lower rates.
How Smartwatches Compare to Manual Counting
Optical heart rate sensors in wearable devices use light to detect blood flow through your skin, and for most people they’re quite accurate. A study comparing a smartwatch-based monitor to a clinical-grade device over 24 hours found the average difference was just 1.5 bpm, with excellent agreement between the two.
The gap widens for people with atrial fibrillation. In that same study, participants with atrial fibrillation showed an average difference of 4.5 bpm between the smartwatch and the clinical device, compared to just 0.9 bpm for those with regular rhythms. The smartwatch tended to undercount in those cases. If you have an irregular heartbeat, a manual 60-second count will give you a more reliable number than a wrist-worn device.
Smartwatches are useful for tracking trends over time, like seeing how your resting heart rate changes week to week. But for a single, precise measurement, pressing two fingers to your wrist and counting for a full minute remains the gold standard you can do anywhere, without any equipment at all.