The average resting heart rate for adults is 60 to 100 beats per minute (bpm). That range applies whether you’re 18 or 80, though where you fall within it depends on your fitness level, medications, and other everyday factors. Children have notably faster heart rates, and highly trained athletes can sit well below the standard range without any cause for concern.
Normal Resting Heart Rate by Age
Heart rate slows steadily from birth through adolescence, then levels off. A newborn’s heart beats 100 to 205 times per minute, roughly double or triple the adult rate, because a smaller heart needs to pump faster to circulate blood through a growing body. Here’s how the ranges break down:
- Newborn (birth to 4 weeks): 100 to 205 bpm
- Infant (4 weeks to 1 year): 100 to 180 bpm
- Toddler (1 to 3 years): 98 to 140 bpm
- Preschool age (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 numbers apply when you’re awake and sitting or lying down. Heart rate drops during sleep and rises during any physical activity, even standing up from a chair.
What Counts as Too Fast or Too Slow
A resting heart rate above 100 bpm is called tachycardia. It can be triggered by something as simple as caffeine, stress, or dehydration, but a persistently elevated rate sometimes points to an underlying heart rhythm issue, thyroid problem, or infection. If your resting pulse regularly sits above 100 without an obvious reason like exercise or anxiety, it’s worth investigating.
A resting heart rate below 60 bpm is called bradycardia. This sounds alarming, but context matters. Athletes and very fit people routinely have resting rates in the 40s or 50s because their hearts pump more blood per beat and simply don’t need to beat as often. Certain medications, particularly beta blockers and calcium channel blockers, also lower heart rate by design. Bradycardia only becomes a medical concern when it causes symptoms like dizziness, fainting, or unusual fatigue.
Why Athletes Have Lower Heart Rates
Regular endurance exercise strengthens the heart muscle so it can push out more blood with each contraction. A sedentary adult’s heart might pump about 70 milliliters per beat, while a trained endurance athlete’s heart can pump considerably more. The result: the athlete’s heart can deliver the same amount of blood in fewer beats. Resting heart rates as low as 40 bpm are common among competitive runners, cyclists, and swimmers. This is a sign of cardiovascular efficiency, not a problem.
If you start a consistent exercise routine, you can expect your resting heart rate to gradually drop over weeks to months. Even moderate activity like brisk walking most days of the week tends to push the number down over time.
Factors That Shift Your Heart Rate
Your resting heart rate isn’t fixed. It fluctuates throughout the day and from one day to the next based on several factors:
- Temperature: Heat increases heart rate. Your body pumps more blood toward the skin to cool down, so your heart works harder in hot weather or after a hot shower.
- Caffeine and stimulants: Coffee, energy drinks, and nicotine all temporarily raise heart rate.
- Medications: Beta blockers and calcium channel blockers slow heart rate. Decongestants and some asthma medications can speed it up.
- Stress and emotions: Anxiety, excitement, and even pain trigger a burst of adrenaline that pushes your heart rate higher.
- Hydration: When you’re dehydrated, blood volume drops, and the heart compensates by beating faster.
- Body position: Heart rate is generally similar whether you’re sitting or lying down, but it may tick up slightly in the first moments after you stand.
Women tend to have slightly higher average resting heart rates than men, typically by about 3 to 5 bpm. This is partly because women’s hearts are, on average, physically smaller and compensate with a marginally faster rate.
How to Measure Your Resting Heart Rate
The most accurate reading comes first thing in the morning, before you get out of bed, drink coffee, or check your phone. You want your body as calm and unstimulated as possible. Place your index and middle fingers on the inside of your wrist, just below the base of your thumb, or on the side of your neck next to your windpipe. Count the beats for 15 seconds and multiply by four. Alternatively, count for 30 seconds and multiply by two. Avoid using your thumb, which has its own pulse and can throw off your count.
Wearable devices like smartwatches and fitness trackers measure heart rate continuously and can give you a good sense of trends over time. They’re less precise on any single reading than a manual count, but their ability to track overnight averages and weekly patterns makes them genuinely useful for spotting changes.
Maximum Heart Rate and Exercise
Your maximum heart rate is the fastest your heart can beat during all-out exertion. The classic formula is 220 minus your age, but a large meta-analysis published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found a more accurate equation: 208 minus 0.7 times your age. For a 40-year-old, the old formula gives 180 bpm while the updated one gives 180 as well (the two converge around that age). For a 60-year-old, the old formula predicts 160 bpm, but the updated formula gives 166, a meaningful difference if you’re using heart rate zones to guide training.
Most exercise guidelines recommend working at 50 to 85 percent of your maximum heart rate for general fitness. You don’t need to hit your max during a workout. Sustained effort in the moderate zone (roughly 50 to 70 percent) builds cardiovascular health effectively, and pushing into the vigorous zone (70 to 85 percent) improves endurance and performance.