Your pulse is your most direct link to your cardiovascular system, a way to monitor the beating of your heart in time. Medical professionals frequently check your pulse during exams and sometimes in emergencies, but you can check it on your own, too. Learning how to monitor your pulse is a simple and worthwhile endeavor, and one with important applications.
Definition
Your pulse is the movement of an artery as the heart's contractions push blood through it. It can tell you your heart rate--the number of times your heart beats in a given minute. You can feel your pulse in areas where arteries are close to the skin's surface, according to the National Emergency Medicine Association. The most common areas for taking the pulse are your wrist and your neck.
How to Check
If you are measuring the pulse at the wrist, put your index and middle finger on the underside of the opposite wrist. If you are taking it on your neck, put your index and middle finger just to the side of the Adam's apple. Count the beats for one minute or count for half a minute and multiply by two.
Normal Range
Under normal circumstances, if you are at rest, your pulse should reflect a heart rate of 60 to 100 beats per minute if you are an adult or even a child over age 10. Well-trained athletes may have rates as low as 40 to 60 beats per minute, according to Medline Plus, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health. For infants, the number should be 100 to 160 beats per minute. For children ages ome to 10, the number should be 70 to 120 beats per minute.
Warning
If your pulse feels abnormally strong, the condition is known as a "bounding pulse." Though a bounding pulse can be normal in cases of heavy exercise, fever, anxiety and pregnancy, in other situations it can indicate problems, according to Medline Plus. Sometimes it suggests excessive fluid in the circulation, caused by conditions such as heart failure, aortic valve regurgitation and chronic kidney failure. Bounding pulse can also accompany heart arrhythmias, such as tachycardia, meaning a faster-than-normal heart rate. An irregular pulse can suggest atrial fibrillation, an arrhythmia that, according to the Research Center for Stroke and Heart Disease, increases the risk of stroke.
Target Rate
Resting pulse rate is not the only figure of significance. You may want to set a target rate to reach during exercise to make sure you are working hard enough to achieve maximum health benefit but not overdoing it. First you determine your maximum heart rate--the fastest your heart is capable of beating. Generally it is about 220 minus your age. Then you try, during exercise, to keep your rate at 50 to 85 percent of the maximum. This number is called your target rate. You monitor your rate while working out by taking your pulse, usually on your neck.
