Lower Your Resting Heart Rate (The Simple Science Most People Miss) | Dr. Andy Galpin 5 Minute Phys

Importance of Resting Heart Rate00:00

Whether you're a high performing athlete or just interested in general health and longevity, your resting heart rate is one of the most critical pieces of information you should pay attention to. There's a reason your doctor measures it every single time you go in for a visit. We measure it in our clients as often as possible. It gives great insights into overall health, cardiovascular fitness, whether you're training too much or too little, got sick, are experiencing bad sleep, and a number of other factors.

Normal Resting Heart Rates Across Species and Humans00:31

How do we make sure that our resting heart rate's in a great spot? We need to first start by understanding what a good resting heart rate even is. If you're like one of the hummingbirds that's currently outside of my window, you might be cruising around at 1,000 or even 1,200 beats per minute. If you're a whale or a large mammal, you might be at five or six. Human babies, surprisingly enough, are actually oftentimes 150 to even 200 beats per minute, and that's completely normal. But most average adults are going to be sitting in the 60 to 80 beats per minute range. High performing endurance athletes are really commonly in the low 30s or even 40s. I know personally many that I have coached are in the 32 to 35 range. There have been documented cases of endurance athletes being as low as the high 20s. There's one legendary story of an 80 plus year old man with a resting heart rate of 26 beats per minute, though I personally can't attest to the accuracy of that legend.