A healthy heart rate is a golden ticket for your health. The heartbeat itself is biofeedback that is encoded with lots of information about your physical and energetic heart.
Your heart rate beats a certain number of times per minute but actually your heart rate is speeding up and slowing down in a rhythmic pattern all the time. This is called heart rate variability.
Your #1 heart goal for heart health should be to make your heartbeat more slowly and more regularly.
Average Heart Rate vs Healthy Heart Rate
A normal healthy heart rate is measured at rest. It is the average number of heartbeats per minute.
So if you count the number of beats or pulses for 15 seconds and multiply by 4 you have your average heart-rate per minute.
On average, children (ages 6-15) have a healthy heart rate of 70-100 beats per minute.
On average, adults (18 and over) have a healthy heart rate of 60-100 bpm.
There can be variation in these averages. Some athletes (and some non-athletes) can have much lower heart-rates, like 45-50 bpm (beats per minute). This might be normal for them.
One interesting fact is that the average number of heartbeats for a person’s lifetime is around 1 billion beats. And the average for most animals is 1 billion beats.
Small animals like mice, for instance, have much faster heart rates than humans but approximately 1 billion heart-beats in their lifetime. To me, this means that we should do our best to slow our average heart rate and this should extend our lives
The Pulse Rate
The pulse is the echo of the heartbeat. The heartbeat goes Lub-Dub, which is a double-beat. The heartbeat can be felt in the middle of the chest primarily.
The pulse is a single beat which can be felt anywhere on the periphery of the body at times. It is a good exercise to try to feel your pulse in different parts of your body. Connecting with your pulse opens your unconscious mind and grounds you in your body.
The measurement of heart rate, or pulse, is represented in beats per minute (bpm). To determine your heart rate, place your fingertips on either the wrist or throat pulse point. To find the number of beats per minute (bpm), take your pulse rate for 10 seconds and then multiply by six.
Well-conditioned athletes may have a healthy pulse rate much lower than 60 BPM.
Bradycardia occurs when the pulse rate is below 60 per minute but is only usually symptomatic when below 50BPM, whereas tachycardia occurs when the rate is above 100 BPM. This is also known as arrhythmia. During sleep, the pulse can drop to as low as 40 BPM; during strenuous exercise, it can rise as high as 150-200 BPM.
A resting heart rate is generally lower in individuals who exercise consistently because exercise trains the heart to pump more blood per stroke. Exercise also trains the muscles to utilize oxygen more efficiently, taking even more stress off the heart. A resting heart rate above averages means the heart is weak or the body is not using oxygen efficiently.
A higher-than-normal resting heart rate may be a sign that something is wrong. For athletes it can be an indicator of over training. A higher-than-normal healthy heart rate can also indicate high stress levels. Individuals with resting heart rates higher than the averages have been shown to be at a greater risk of heart attacks. These individuals may be in a danger zone if the resting heart rate is over 100 beats per minute. Usually a resting heart rate below average is a sign of good health and not a warning.
You DO have some control over how healthy your heart is. What kind of attention you give your heart (if any), what you do, what you eat and how you live affect how your heart works.
A Healthy heart rate is affected by breathing, age, sex, physical fitness, diet, medications, genetics and stress.
Heart Rate Variability
Your heart-rate is constantly changing. Average heart-rate doesn’t accurately give you the full picture of what’s going on with your heart.
The image shown here shows an irregular heart rate pattern on the left (frustration) and shows a coherent(appreciation)heart rate pattern on the right.
The smooth and regular heartbeat pattern is what you want for a healthy heart rate, and also spiritual connection. Coherence is a wonderful state of being!
The heartbeat speeds up and slows down all the time. It is part of the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system in our bodies.
Optimal health and performance comes when our heart rhythms (our heartrate) becomes a smooth, rhythmic wave pattern as shown in the graph (the right side – appreciation).
We can learn heart coherence fairly easily by learning heart coherence practices.
Learn more about Heart Rate Variability and the rhythms of your heart.
Related Articles:
Target Heart Rate Chart
Use this as a guide.
Slow Your Heart Pulse Rate
Your pulse rate gives you important information about your health.
Slow, Rhythmic Breathing
This is key to a slower resting heart rate.
