Resting Heart rate

[MissChampers]

I don't mean to sound dumb but if you've got a low resting heart rate does it mean you're fit? Mine is around 56 bpm and i've also got low blood pressure.

[Tim]

I don't mean to sound dumb but if you've got a low resting heart rate does it mean you're fit? Mine is around 56 bpm and i've also got low blood pressure.

Causes of low heart rate include raised intracranial pressure, cardiac conduction defects, hypothyroidism, oh, and being fit. ;-)

Chances are you have a larger more efficient pump than you used to have before so it doesn't need to pump as often to produce the same output.

Your resting HR is a useful index to monitor, particularly in the morning. If it's raised by more than 5 beats per minute then it indicates that you've either not fully recovered from a previous training session or that you're under the weather for other reasons. Whichever it is, it's a sign to take it easy for a day or two until it drops to your normal level.

HTH

[MissChampers]

A friend of mine, who's also a runner, checked my heartrate with a monitor and he couldn't believe it was as low as it was because I wasn't a runner at the time. He suggested I may have a problem so I got it checked out by having a thryoid test and it came back ok. The doctor told me not to worry and said this person was just trying to scare me, also my mum and my sister has a low resting rate so i'm wondering if it just runs in the family.

[El Gordo]

Best time I find to test RHR is early in the morning when I'm still in bed. I count my pulse while squinting at the clock on my alarm radio.

When I was a smoker, my RHR was around 75 bpm. Now, during regular running phases, it's as low as 42 bpm. This might be a bit misleading though as your heart rate slows as you get older.

In my recent idle period it's been over 50.

[MissChampers]

Best time I find to test RHR is early in the morning when I'm still in bed. I count my pulse while squinting at the clock on my alarm radio.

When I was a smoker, my RHR was around 75 bpm. Now, during regular running phases, it's as low as 42 bpm. This might be a bit misleading though as your heart rate slows as you get older.

In my recent idle period it's been over 50.

Blimey 42 is low. Unfortunately i'm a smoker and mine's still only 56, god knows what it'd be if I gave up!

[El Gordo]

Don't worry Miss C. 56 for a smoker is probably pretty good. Better than high I would think.