How to Monitor Your Heart Rate

The number of time your heart beats in a minute is known as your heart rate, or your pulse. When you are exercising, your heart beats faster (your pulse increases). When you are at rest, your pulse is slower. Heart rate monitors are instruments used to measure heart rate and actions while a person is at rest, doing normal everyday activities, or doing exercises and strenuous activities. They are used by both healthy individuals and people with signs and symptoms of cardiac problems. In order to monitor your heart rate, you can use your own pulse and some simple math, or use a heart rate monitor.

Method 1 - Monitoring At Home

1

→ Manually check your heart rate (pulse). Place the tips of your first two fingers on your wrist, just below your thumb (palm up).

→ If you are feeling your pulse using your right hand, place your fingers below your thumb (palm up), on the side of your wrist near your thumb.

→ Press softly and you should begin to feel a pulsing sensation.

→ One pulse is equivalent to a heartbeat.

→ Take a clock and count the number of times your heart beats in 20 seconds.

→ Multiply that number by 3 – and that will be your heart rate.

2

→ Check your pulse on your neck. Another way to manually check your heart rate is to place your first two fingers on the side of your lower heck, on either side of your trachea.

→ You should begin to feel a pulse. It is often easier to feel your pulse in your neck, rather than in your wrist.

→ Again, count the number of beats in 20 seconds, multiply that number by 3 – and that will be your heart rate.

3

→ Do NOT use your thumb to determine your heart rate. This is because you have a small artery that runs in your thumb.

→ That may cause you to double count your pulse.

4

→ Understand a normal heart rate. Having a normal heart rate indicates good cardiovascular health, but some variation is perfectly natural.

→ Normal: Pulse rate of 60-100 beats per minute while resting.

→ Bradycardia: A pulse rate below 60 beats per minute while resting. Causes of bradycardia include: certain medications that slow down the heart rate (e.g. beta-blockers, sedatives), heart failure. Athletes often have a heart rate below 60 at rest because their heart is in good shape, so each beat pumps more blood through their body (as opposed to having to beat more often and pump less blood with each beat).

→ Tachycardia: A pulse rate higher than 100 while resting. Causes of tachycardia include anxiety, illness (running a fever may elevate your heart rate), some medications that can elevate your heart rate (such as thyroid hormone supplements), caffeine intake, and being out of shape and overweight.

5

→ Calculate your maximum heart rate. Your maximum heart rate is the highest number of beats per minute that your heart can beat.

→ The following formula will allow you to calculate your heart rate: 220 – (your age in years) = Maximum Heart rate.

6

→ Find your target heart rate. Your target heart rate is the range in which you should keep your pulse while exercising, to gain the greatest health benefits.

→ For younger persons, it is generally 60-80% of your maximum heart rate.

→ For older, sedentary persons, your target heart rate may be 40-50% of their maximum heart rate.

→ Your doctor or an exercise trainer can help determine the ideal target heart rate for you.

→ To calculate your target heart rate: Maximum heart rate x .60 (for 60%) = Target Heart rate.

Method 2 - Using Heart Rate Monitors

1

→ Get a blood pressure screening. Anytime you have your blood pressure checked, your pulse is checked as well.

→ You can have this done at your doctors office, or do it with a blood pressure cuff that you purchase at the pharmacy.

→ You may also stop by any fire station and have your blood pressure and pulse checked.

→ Many stores and pharmacies have blood pressure check machines; these machines check not only your blood pressure, but your heart rate as well.

2

→ Look into electrocardiography to identify any heart problems. Electrocardiography is a graphic recording generated by reading the heart muscle using 12 leads while you are lying still.

→ It is a safe and simple procedure and takes 5 to 10 minutes to perform.

→ First, expose your chest, arms, and legs.

→ Color-coded electrodes will be attached to you and to the recording machine.

→ The electrodes are coated with conductive gel and applied to the skin surface on your wrists, ankles, and chest.

→ Make sure you are not wearing any metallic jewelry, and inform the person taking your ECG if you have a pacemaker or any other implants.

→ The ECG will be interpreted by your physician.

3

→ Use a holter monitor or ambulatory ECG to monitor your heart rate over a 24 to 48 hour period.

→ The holter monitor is worn on a belt or carried as a shoulder strap, and consists of a tape recorder connected to ECG leads on your chest.

→ During the test period, you will keep a diary of activities and associated symptoms.

→ Record all your activities, including brushing teeth, climbing stairs, bowel movements, eating, etc.

→ At the end of the recording period, return the monitor to the hospital or physician.

→ They will analyze the tape, comparing it with your diary.

→ This information can help detect cardiac arrhythmias and myocardial ischemia that occur sporadically during activity or rest.

→ Do not remove the electrodes, and try not to get the electrodes and wires wet.

→ Wear a loose fitting shirt during the test.

4

→ Consider a portable pulse monitor to aid precision athletic training. Portable pulse monitors can aid athletic training, and look like a watch with buttons that switch on and off.

→ It records your pulse and blood pressure at timed intervals according to your settings.

→ It can also recall previous readings and times to match the current readings.

→ Some models are safe for use in extreme temperatures and underwater.

→ Some are rechargeable, while some use small batteries.

5

→ Do stress testing to evaluate your heart function during exercise. During stress testing, the electrical activity of your heart is assessed with an ECG monitor while you walk on a treadmill, pedal a stationary bike, or climb up and down stairs.

→ A resting ECG is taken as a baseline before you begin the activity.

→ During the test, the speed of the treadmill, the force required to pedal the bicycle, or the pace of stair-climbing is gradually increased. The goal is to increase the heart's workload until a predetermined target rate is reached.

→ Your heart rate and rhythm are monitored continuously and ECG waveforms are recorded.

→ Your blood pressure and respiratory rate are also monitored.

→ You should report the onset of chest pain, dizziness, leg cramps or weakness, to avoid any injury.

→ The readings of the ECG tracings will be interpreted by your physician.

Warnings

→ Never use your thumb to find your pulse. The thumb has a different pulse than the rest of your body and will mess up your numbers.