Measure Your Current Fitness Level - Take Your Resting Heart Rate

As a start to our series on fitness, Walk Before You Run, there are 2 things to do right away.

1. Check with your doctor that you are fit to do the activity you are participating in
2. Document you resting heart rate so that you have a base to work from to measure your improvement.

Resting Heart Rate - How to Take it, What it Means

To establish your resting heart rate, I want you to take your pulse in the morning, before you get out of bed. Time your heart rate for 60 seconds and record that time. Do this for a week. If the numbers are similar every day then you have your base, resting heart rate. If the numbers vary more than 10 beats per minute (bpm) then you know that something was affecting your rate and, get a few more days of information to see a norm established.

A normal, healthy person will have a rate of about 60 - 80 bpm.

Once you have a base, you can try to improve the strength of your heart through your activities. When you work your heart at a level where you start to sweat and breathe hard, you are exerting more effort than normal and this will strengthen your heart. Eventually, you will notice a lower resting heart rate becasue your heart will pump stronger. When your heart pumps stronger, it needs less beats to send the necessary blood through your system. This is how you can measure cardio improvement.

Start tomorrow morning, getting your base. In the meantime, keep exercising too. If you have questions, contact me at Stephanie@askAboutRunning.com I am certified as a coach and personal trainer. I'd love to hear from you.

To Fitness! Coach Stephanie