# What's your resting heart rate? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 5, 2015, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-resting-heart-rate/709051 "2015-01-05T18:36:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2015, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-resting-heart-rate/709051/21 "2015-01-06T01:00:35Z")
Mine’s always high. In the 80 to 90 ballpark. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2015, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-resting-heart-rate/709051/22 "2015-01-06T01:03:54Z")
Mines usually about 76-82 but I went with 80-89 for the purpose of this poll. This is about norm in my family. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2015, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-resting-heart-rate/709051/23 "2015-01-06T01:08:28Z")
Around 60. I’m 49 years old. A decade ago, it was around 100. I got serious about getting in shape, and started running 5 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2015, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-resting-heart-rate/709051/24 "2015-01-06T01:29:38Z")
Mine runs a little high because of the asthma meds. It is normally between 70 and 80. Even when I was young and skinny it was that. _shrug_ Blood pressure is fine, and the docs don’t seem to be worried. ---
**Author:** ![Razncain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9d8465/32.png) [@Razncain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Razncain)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2015, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-resting-heart-rate/709051/25 "2015-01-06T01:35:53Z")
> [@P-man](#): > > When I went to the doctor a couple months ago it was 42. It’s raised eyebrows when I’ve donated blood, but it’s from running. I’m age 56 now, and mine is in the low fifties, which I expect is due to running too. Would like to get it in the forties, so will start doing longer runs and doing them more frequently. My brother got his in the forties, and it did more than raise eyebrows at the doctors office, it started setting off their alarms. When he told them he was a runner, they started to relax. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2015, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-resting-heart-rate/709051/26 "2015-01-06T04:49:20Z")
Resting heart rate 40 to 48 bpm at age 55. No longer marathoning or doing tris but still include a fair amount of cardio in my mix. Still I think I am just naturally on the low side. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2015, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-resting-heart-rate/709051/27 "2015-01-06T04:56:25Z")
I understand that a lower rate is correlated with better fitness. Is it actually beneficial on its own? In other words, if I’m perfectly fit (however defined) is a resting heart rate of 40 better than 55? ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2015, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-resting-heart-rate/709051/28 "2015-01-06T05:24:14Z")
_Apparently_ of some possible actual [benefit of its own](http://content.onlinejacc.org/article.aspx?articleid=1138437). > [@](#): > > … Although the association of HR and outcome is suggestive, it does not, by itself, prove causality. High HR also is associated with poor cardiorespiratory fitness (58) or impaired cardiac function. Indeed, exercise capacity itself is a powerful predictor of mortality (59), and resting HR is lower in individuals who undertake vigorous leisure activities or participate in sports (60-61). Therefore, in recent studies significantly relating HR and mortality, adjustments have been made for the effects of physical activity and cardiac function (1,5). In the Cooper Clinic Mortality Risk Index, high HR and low cardiorespiratory fitness were both independent predictors of mortality (15). … [This one](http://www.bmj.com/content/338/bmj.b219.full) in women too. > [@](#): > > Higher resting heart rate was independently associated with coronary events (hazard ratio 1.26, 95% confidence interval 1.11 to 1.42 for highest [\>76 beats per minute] v lowest quintile [≤62 beats per minute]; P=0.001), but not with stroke. … The strength of this association, from lowest to highest quintile, is less than the association with cigarette smoking or diabetes mellitus, but might be large enough to be clinically meaningful, and is independent of physical activity. ---
**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2015, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-resting-heart-rate/709051/29 "2015-01-06T12:19:41Z")
Resting in the 60s. Runs of bradycardia \<20. First time I was referred to a cardiologist was after a Holter Monitor study showed runs of 12bpm. The staff were not expecting me to walk in. ---
**Author:** ![JKilez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e5b9ba/32.png) [@JKilez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKilez)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2015, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-resting-heart-rate/709051/30 "2015-01-06T13:47:06Z")
During the day it hovers around 60, but my morning heart rate is in the high 40’s to low 50’s. About an hour ago, it was 48. ---
**Author:** ![race\_to\_the\_bottom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c4cdca/32.png) [@race\_to\_the\_bottom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/race_to_the_bottom)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2015, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-resting-heart-rate/709051/31 "2015-01-07T05:22:51Z")
55 right now; reclining with my laptop. George Bush the younger is 40, I heard a few years back. Course, he didn’t really strain himself in office and worked out a lot. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-resting-heart-rate/709051.md?page=1)