I have a Garmin Vivoactive HR which averages RHR over the course of a week.

My average is 50 which puts me in the “Athlete” class. This somewhat surprised me when I looked in up as my BMI is 31.6!

I have been doing daily kettlebell workouts for two months and have been riding 100km audax rides most weekends but would not consider myself as athletic or even very fit.

Prior to starting the workouts I tried to walk 10k steps per day but did not do much else. Unfortunately I did not record my RHR at that time.

I would be interested to hear what is the RHR of other forum members and what level of activity they have.

RHR is not an indicator of your level of fitness.

Book an appointment for an ECG at your GP if you’re concerned. But although there is a relationship between RHR and fitness, 50 is not desperately low.

Unless I’m ill (or about to become ill) then my RHR has been mid to upper 40s for as long as I can remember. That’s been pretty consistent regardless of whether I feel “fit” or otherwise and throughout weight ranges of 75Kg to 100Kg.

Basically you need to know your own RHR rather than comparing it to a notional “average” or some other such category.

Mine was about 42 when I was race fit, still around 48 now I’m way less fit than that (in realistic terms I’m still at “athlete” compared to the general population, just not “elite athlete” any more). As mentioned above, RHR isn’t a fantastic indication of fitness, but then neither does carrying lots of excess weight make you unfit (back in a previous sport I did there was a chap with a similar BMI to you in the top 5 in the country, and it wasn’t a sport where extra weight was an advantage).

my rhr was a steady 47 could run/ ride all day at no more than 130.. thought i was fit as a butchers strong as an ox..WRONG.. heart was fecked uterly.. im now a man with half a heart and a plastic bag does the rest.. rhr is a measure of beats.. nothing else..

i can’t remember ever seeing mine drop below 70. Not average, ever.

Nothing to do with fitness. Worth tracking though as higher or lower relative to your own baseline could indicate fatigue or oncoming illness.

Have a read about heart rate variability measuring too.

There’s a research paper: “The fittest bodies in the morgue” basically a study/list of the heart conditions (quite a few of which are either untestable or never tested for) that can kill otherwise healthy people.

Measure every morning *before* you get out of bed. It will be within a couple of bpm. If you overtrain or are starting with an illness then it will be raised. Unless you have an ECG and that is assessed by someone who knows what they are looking at then comparing to your own base rate is all you can realistically do.

I think it’s really just a case of finding out what yours currently is then you can use it as an indicator of fitness. mines is currently sitting at 70, when I’m really unfit and smoking, it’ll sit about 78. If I’m doing alot of cycling and feeling, relatively fit, it’ll usually come down to about 64 I’ve noticed.

a low rhr is not a sign of fitness.
the time it takes your heart to return to rhr after exercise is a sign of fitness.

my rhr is 50 bpm and i am far from being a athlete

Low 50’s, lower than when I was fat.

I win!

38 or thereabouts when on top form. 40-42 when I’m being a bit fat and lazy like now.

I am fairly fit, not amazingly so and not particularly talented either. It runs in the family to a large extent.

What was the prize BTW?

NB the fittest bodies in the morgue are still less fit than the least fit bodies outside of it!

hecaptain – Member

What was the prize BTW?

a pacemaker when you reach 55. 😆

48 now but about 39-40 when playing football and rugby. My dad’s is low too.

When I started using a H7 in February, having just started my fitness regaining quest, my typical resting heart rate while sitting was ~75bpm and just walking downstairs to the garage would send it north of 90.

The lowest I’ve seen since while sitting is 49bpm, typically while sitting it’s ~55, going to the garage now only raises it to ~75.

I often drink an awful lot of coffee, which doesn’t help quantify these readings.

I got the free “Elite HRV” app installed on my Android tablet, but I often forget to take a reading each morning and perhaps more importantly, I don’t think I’ve ever taken a reading after just waking up in bed while still lying down.

Fat. Rate is 55.

Can’t wait til I loose the weight 😀

50 normally, but affected by big days in the saddle and or beer. Goes up to 60 overnight after either.

I don’t get the resting heart rate thing at all, they say do it in the mornings but mine is like 70 in the mornings, I’ve seen it 45 in the evenings when I left my garmin strap on, so what am I to believe?

and also people talk about how quick your heart should return to resting, I find if I get a decent ride out (2 hours averaging in the 150s, peaking in the 190s) it’ll be back down to 90 – 100 in the 20 minutes after the ride, but won’t be back down to the 60s until the next day, which doesn’t seem very fast to me

I don’t get the resting heart rate thing at all

you should. it is a good guide on you general well being.
if you heart rate is a lot higher or lower than normal when resting, a visit to the doctors is a good idea.
open heart surgery is not nice.

teh (etc) the recovery thing – it’s usually how much it drops in a minute after hard effort they are talking about I think. After a long ride especially if you’re a bit hot and tired it won’t go to true resting rate for ages, as you’re finding.

I don’t get the resting heart rate thing at all, they say do it in the mornings but mine is like 70 in the mornings, I’ve seen it 45 in the evenings when I left my garmin strap on, so what am I to believe?

If you are consistent with when you measure then it doesn’t matter as the only meaningful comparison is with your own baseline. Usual protocol is to measure early morning before you get up. If it’s usually 70 at that point in your day then that’s your baseline for comparison.

Mine has been interesting lately, while having a central line fitted preparatory to the latest round of treatment I was setting off the heart rate alarm as it was dropping to low forties. following that treatment and needing platelet and blood transfusions to restore non life threatening levels resting heart rate is 88 right now. It means sod all, other than I have a genetic predisposition to a low heat rate (thanks dad).

@cantbike – I’ve had that: at a pre-op I got wired up to the ECG and alarms started going off, they’d set the lower limit to 60bpm – “The machine thinks you’re dead. Don’t worry!” Even going into theatre my heart rate was just 48bpm and the anaesthetist had to warn the theatre team about it.