Resting heart rate: what it is, what's typical, and why your own usual matters

Resting heart rate seems simple until you start looking at it every day. You see 62 one morning and 70 the next, and wonder whether the difference means anything.

Thousands of Australians search for it every month, usually as a version of "what's a normal resting heart rate?" This piece answers that plainly, explains why your number moves around, and suggests a way of looking at it that helps you get to know your own body a little better, rather than handing you one more thing to worry about.

What resting heart rate means

Your resting heart rate is how many times your heart beats in a minute when you're not active: sitting or lying down, settled and relaxed. That's how healthdirect, the Australian Government's free health information service, describes it. It also notes that resting heart rate varies from person to person, can change through the day, and tends to be lower at night.

You can check it yourself. healthdirect suggests sitting and resting for a couple of minutes, finding your pulse on the thumb side of your wrist, counting the beats for 30 seconds and doubling the number. A health band can also keep track of it for you.

What's a typical resting heart rate?

For adults, healthdirect gives a typical resting heart rate of between 60 and 100 beats per minute. That's a wide range, and it's wide for a reason: healthy people sit all over it.

A few everyday things shape where you tend to land:

Fitness. Regular activity tends to go with a lower resting heart rate. healthdirect notes that people who are very fit can sit lower, and that athletes may be between 40 and 50 beats per minute.
Age and sex. Heart rate can change as we get older, and healthdirect notes that females generally have a higher resting heart rate than males.
Medicines. Some medicines can lower your heart rate. If you're not sure whether any of yours do, your GP or pharmacist can tell you.

So when you come across a chart of "resting heart rate by age", take it as a rough guide rather than a target. Comparing your number with a friend's tells you even less.

Why your number moves around from day to day

If you look at your resting heart rate morning by morning, it can seem to wander for no reason. That's normal. healthdirect lists emotions, physical activity, caffeine and alcohol among the things that can affect heart rate, and being unwell can play a part too. In everyday life that might look like:

a coffee or two, especially later in the day
a few drinks the night before
a stressful week, a big presentation or even a bit of excitement
a hard training session or a long day on your feet
a warm, sticky night that leaves you tossing and turning
fighting off a cold

A higher reading after a late night and a second flat white is your body doing what bodies do. One morning tells you very little on its own. The useful part is the pattern over weeks.

If summer sleep is on your mind, our piece on warm nights and summer sleep in Australia looks at sleeping in the heat in more detail.

Why your own usual matters more than a chart

What tends to help most is comparing you with you. Is this week close to your usual, or different? Is your resting heart rate drifting one way over a couple of months, or just moving up and down around the same middle?

That's the idea behind Personal Baseline Intelligence, which asks two plain questions: is this normal for you, and which way is it moving? As you wear the Thrive Band, Thrive learns your everyday patterns and builds a personal baseline. It starts as Emerging while Thrive is still getting to know you, and becomes Established once enough consistent information has been collected. Wearing the Band regularly, including overnight, helps that picture fill in. Our piece on Personal Baseline Intelligence after 50 explains more.

How Thrive shows your resting heart rate

The Thrive Band uses light-based sensing (PPG) on your wrist to show heart rate, HRV and other everyday signals. It takes readings at regular intervals through the day and night, so you don't need to start anything. In the Thrive app, your resting heart rate sits with your sleep, sleep stages, HRV and activity, night by night and week by week.

A few things make it easier to live with:

No screen on your wrist. The Band has no display, so there's no number looking back at you in the middle of a meeting or at 3am. Your data waits in the Thrive app on your phone until you choose to look.
Ask Thrive. You can ask about your own patterns in everyday language, such as "Is my resting heart rate different from my usual this week?" or "What else was going on the last time it was higher?", and get a plain-English answer back.
The correlations engine. Over time, Thrive can show which habits tend to go with your steadier weeks, such as an earlier coffee cut-off, an evening walk or a run of later nights.
HRV alongside it. Resting heart rate and HRV are often talked about together. If you'd like to understand the second one, our plain-English explanation of HRV is a good next read.

Like any reading from a wrist band, resting heart rate makes most sense as a trend over weeks, rather than a verdict on a single morning.

Training, walking and your resting heart rate

If you're 30-plus and building a routine, resting heart rate is useful context alongside how your body feels. healthdirect notes that being very fit can go with a lower resting heart rate, but there's no set timeline and it isn't a number to chase. A few higher mornings after a big block of training might simply be a prompt to look at your sleep and rest days.

Thrive tracks your walks, runs and rides with GPS in the app, alongside your activity, workouts, plans and training programmes, so your sessions and your resting heart rate sit side by side. If you're just getting started, our guide to starting running gently, from couch to 5k is a kind place to begin.

If you'd like a second pair of eyes, Thrive Loops lets you share selected information with a participating trainer, health professional or someone you trust. You decide what to share and with whom, and you can change or revoke access at any time.

A kinder way to look at the number

If numbers tend to stay with you, try noticing how you feel before you open the app, and look at the week rather than the morning. If a week looks different, take that as a question rather than a verdict: busy at work, travelling, a new training plan? Often the answer is right there. Our piece on when tracking starts to feel stressful has more ideas.

Taking it to your GP

Your resting heart rate isn't a diagnosis, and Thrive isn't designed to tell you that something is wrong. If your heart feels like it's racing or pounding, you feel faint, dizzy or short of breath, or something is simply worrying you, please talk to your GP, whatever any number says. If you have chest pain, your heartbeat suddenly feels very unusual, or you need urgent help, call triple zero (000).

Where Thrive helps is in getting ready for that conversation in the app. Your trends and history are stored there, so you can open the weeks you'd like to talk about and show your GP on your phone. Ask Thrive can help you put your questions into words beforehand, and it's worth mentioning any medicines you take, since some can affect heart rate. Share how you've been feeling too, not just the numbers. Our piece on getting ready for a GP appointment with Ask Thrive walks through it step by step.

Before you buy

You'll need a compatible iPhone or Android phone, because the Thrive app is on the Apple App Store and Google Play, in Australia and eight other countries. The app stores are only for downloading the app, though; they aren't where you buy the Band or a Plan. You can buy at thrivehealthband.com, or at a participating World Gym Australia location or health and wellness clinic.

The Thrive Health Band is A$660 for the first year under the launch offer (usually A$740). That includes the Band, which is yours to keep, and 12 months of the Thrive by Optihealth app, My Health on the web, Health Fingerprint, Ask Thrive, Thrive Loops and your data, paid once upfront. Prices are in AUD and include GST. Free Australia-wide shipping during the launch offer (usually A$14.99).

Nothing renews automatically. After your first year, you can get a new band plus 12 more months for A$660, or keep your band and renew the Thrive Connected Plan for A$240 a year (A$20 a month).

You're also covered by a 12-month Thrive Care Warranty, and consumer guarantees under Australian Consumer Law always apply. See Returns if something is wrong with your purchase.

Common questions

What is a normal resting heart rate for adults?

healthdirect gives a typical range of 60 to 100 beats per minute for adults. Within that, the most useful comparison is with your own usual over time, which is what your personal baseline in Thrive is for.

Is a lower resting heart rate always better?

Not in a simple way. A lower resting heart rate can be normal for people who are fit, and some medicines lower it too. If your heart rate is lower than is usual for you and you feel faint or dizzy, healthdirect suggests seeing your doctor.

Is resting heart rate different for women?

healthdirect notes that females generally have a higher resting heart rate than males. Whoever you are, your own trend tells you more than an average. If you use the Women's Health section in Thrive, your cycle and check-ins sit in the same app as your other trends.

For more answers, see Questions.