With all the new forms of wearables these days, it is incredible how much data we can track. From sleep cycles, HRV, oxygen saturation, temperature, and more. It is amazing how much we can learn about our body.
But there is one simple biometric that you don’t even need a wearable to track (although they will) and that is your resting heart rate. You would be surprised how much we can learn simply by looking at your resting heart rate.
How many times have you gone in for a dentist appointment and suddenly started flossing like crazy the week before. It won’t erase the months of neglect, but we scramble to get that perfect visit.
Or maybe you have bloodwork coming up and all of a sudden your diet changes to try and get some last minute improvements.
While doing this might make a feel better, we are really neglecting the most important part. Like heart rate, one measurement is just a snapshot into your current situation. But it doesn’t always tell the full story. This is why we look at trends.
Why Resting Heart Rate Matters
Resting heart rate is simply how many times your heart beats per minutes. Specifically while you are in a resting state. We generally measure this first thing in the morning before you start moving around.
Researchers have known for decades that there is a relationship between resting heart rate and lifespan. A higher resting heart rate has consistently been linked to greater cardiovascular risk and shorter lifespan, while a lower resting heart rate tends to track with better health and longevity.
Why would this be? Well simply put, when your heart rate is always elevated it is working too hard. This will eventually catch up to you.
Why Would Your Heart Rate Be Elevated?
There are many reasons why your heart rate increases. But your heart rate is controlled by your nervous system. Specifically two parts of your nervous system. This is the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems. You have probably heard of these before as fight or flight and rest and digest.
You body is always adjusting and adapting to the environment it is put in. If you find yourself face to face with a bear, the sympathetic system kicks in. Your brain sends the signal to increase your heart rate and start to prepare the body to fight the bear or run away. Of course this is an extreme example that hopefully none of us experience, but we see the same effect on the body all the time even if you aren’t face to face with a bear.
When our body senses stress we prepare for that stress. This stress might be in the form of exercise like going for a run. Your heart rate increases to help send energy and oxygen to the working muscle. This can also be from a stressful situation at work or with a family member. The body senses stress and starts to deal with it.
Then when the stress is removed our body can start to recover. The brain slows down the heart rate and starts repairing damage tissue, digesting food, or replacing energy stores used from the stressor.
But what if we are constantly stressed. Maybe from exercising too much or more likely, having daily stressors we are not dealing with properly.
When this happens the sympathetic nervous system starts to dominate and we see things like heart rate and blood pressure constantly increase. This leads to chronically higher resting heart rates.
We also see this trend in those with lower fitness. A less fit heart is less efficient and has to work harder to get the same result as a fit person. When we exercise more (especially cardio) our heart pumps out more blood per beat and tissues get better at taking in things like oxygen. This means the heart can slow down.
Both of these things we do have control over.
Pay Attention To Trends
Hopefully you can start to see how important your resting heart rate is. But we have to be careful with measuring it.
How many times have you had a dentist appointment coming up and you all of a sudden floss like crazy. Or maybe you are getting blood work done and the few days before you really watch what you eat.
These things make us feel better and potentially can lead to better numbers. But one number isn’t really telling us the picture. Heart rate is the same way. We want to pay attention to trends.
Just like flossing once before a dentist appointment doesn’t reflect your actual oral hygiene, checking your resting heart rate one time doesn’t reflect your actual cardiovascular health. Your heart rate on any given morning can be thrown off by how well you slept, whether you’re dehydrated, stress from the day before, or even just illness starting to creep in.
What the research actually points to is change over time. A large study following participants for 5 to 8 years found that people whose resting heart rate increased over that period had a meaningfully higher risk of death, even after accounting for their starting heart rate and other standard risk factors. In other words, it wasn’t the number itself that mattered most — it was the direction it was heading.
The Number Most People Overlook
Resting heart rate is a very important number that you should be tracking regularly for your health.
But another number that might be important to understand is recovery heart rate. Remember, your heart rate is always changing based on what you are doing. When you exercise, of course your heart rate will elevate. But a key marker of health and fitness is how quickly your heart rate recovers after.
When you stress your body with exercise, your heart rate increases to deal with it. If your body can handle the stress and then quickly get back to normal, that is a sign of your resilience. You are better equipped to deal with stress and recover from it. This has big implications on your health.
This isn’t a minor detail — it’s one of the most well-established markers in cardiovascular research. Multiple large studies, including work published in the New England Journal of Medicine, have found that a slower heart rate recovery is an independent predictor of mortality risk, even in people without any known heart disease. In simple terms: how fast you bounce back after exertion says a lot about how healthy your heart actually is.
Good news again. This is something you have control over. Consistent exercise not only improves your resting heart rate it also improves your heart rate recovery.
What This Means for Your
Your resting heart rate isn’t something to check once and forget about — it’s a running conversation your body is having with you. A wearable device, or even just a consistent morning check with two fingers on your wrist, can give you real insight if you track it over weeks and months instead of relying on a single reading.
If you notice your resting heart rate creeping up over time, it’s worth asking why. Is stress piling up? Has training consistency slipped? Is sleep suffering? And if you want a second data point, pay attention to how quickly your heart rate comes back down after your next hard workout — that recovery speed is telling you just as much as the resting number itself.
The best part is that both of these numbers respond to the exact same thing: consistent training, managed stress, and good recovery habits. That’s not a coincidence — it’s exactly the kind of long-term, sustainable progress we build with our members every day.