Taking your pulse or heart rate can help to determine the health of your heart. How fast your pulse races during exercise and the time it takes to return to normal after working out tell you how well your heart muscle can handle stress and your risk of disease. Your doctor or other health-care provider can perform tests to determine the strength of your heart.
Target Heart Rate
Performing cardiovascular or aerobic exercise makes your heart and lungs strong, and helps to protect you against a variety of chronic conditions. The purpose of aerobic exercise is to train your heart and lungs to utilize and deliver oxygen more efficiently. To achieve those benefits, you need to raise your heart rate into a target heart rate zone, which is determined by subtracting your age from 220 and then multiplying the answer by 60 percent and 80 percent, says Cleveland Clinic. As your fitness level improves, you will find that you have to exercise harder to get into your target zone.
Recovery Heart Rate
As soon as you start exercising, your heart will start to beat faster to meet the increased demands for blood and oxygen. When you stop exercising, your heart rate will begin to slow down. If you are new to exercise or deconditioned, it will take you longer to recover. A stronger heart will return to its pre-exercise workload much faster. Calculating your recovery heart rate is a good way to determine whether your exercise program is providing heart related benefits, notes the National Emergency Medical Association. Take your pulse before you start to work out to determine your baseline. Then after you stop, take your pulse every minute until it returns to normal. If your exercise program is working, the time it takes you to recover will get shorter and shorter.
Normal Recovery Times
A heart rate that takes an abnormal length of time to recover may indicate an increased risk of heart disease, heart attack or stroke. A fit individual with no known heart disease should see a steep decline in pulse within 30 seconds of stopping, and a healthy recovery time is a decline of 12 beats or more per minute within one minute of stopping, reports an article in Brigham and Women's Hospital's “Cardiology Rounds.” Your heart rate should continue to decline steadily and be back to your pre-exercise level within approximately five minutes.
Interpreting Your Results
Calculating your recovery heart rate alone may not provide you with a full picture of your risk of heart-related disease or death. Many factors can influence your pulse such as stress, electrolyte imbalances, medications, caffeine intake, fatigue and many others. In addition, your physician will need to review your overall health, family history and other risk factors that are present to determine your risk of disease.
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