Resting Heart Rate

Your Resting Heart Rate is a critical measurement when training. 

It is an indicator of your level recovery.  If your Resting Heart Rate is more than 5 beats higher than normal, you should modify your training for that day – either use an Active Recovery day or take a Day Off.

An elevated Resting HR – 5 to 10 beats higher than normal indicates you are either not fully recovered from your last workout or are getting sick.  It is time for a Day Off or an Active Recovery Day.

Some reasons for an elevated Resting Heart Rate:

• Not fully recovered from your last workout
• Stress – additional stress in your life
• Restless night’s sleep
• On-set of illness

All are indicators of a pending problem.  You should modify your training plan.  It is better to take an Active Recovery Day or even a Day Off, than to ignore the indicator and wind up needing to take a week or more off to fully recover.

In addition, you must know your Resting HR in order to calculate your HR Training Range. 

You should take your Resting HR daily – the same time every day.  It is best to take your Resting HR in the morning, before you get out of bed.  Make sure that your heart rate has settled down after you awake – especially if you use an alarm.

You should be lying down, totally relaxed and alone – no music, TV or other interruptions.  Record your Resting HR daily. 

Keep a record of your Resting HR and use a Rolling Five Day Average: 

Date:	Resting HR	Avg. Resting HR
1/1/04	60	-
1/2/04	61	-
1/3/04	59	-
1/4/04	60	-
1/5/04	60	60
1/6/04	58	60
1/7/04	58	59
1/8/04	58	59
1/9/04	57	58
1/10/04	58	58
1/11/04	63	59

On January 11 the Resting HR (63) is 5 beats over the prior day’s average (58).  This may be an indicator.  If the prior day’s workout was a hard workout, you may want to take it a little easier than normal on that day.  If the prior day’s workout was not a hard workout, reasons for the slightly increased Resting HR may be stress, insufficient sleep, restless sleep, or the beginning of a cold.  It too would be a reason to take the day off or substitute an Active Recovery Day for the regular/scheduled workout.

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