Heart rate, quite simply put, is the number of times your heart beats in one minute. This number is both a key indicator of cardiovascular health, and also an excellent tool for helping design your own exercise programs. Whether you choose to take your heart rate old school style or whether you embrace the technology of a fitness tracker, there are a several things to know.

Resting heart rate is a measure of how healthy our heart muscle is. Resting heart rate is our heart rate upon waking in the morning, or after a good period (at least fifteen minutes) of, you know, rest. This is commonly measured by a nurse during your -hopefully- annual physical. A healthy resting heart rate for an adult, should fall between 60-100 beats per minute. However, it is common for very active individuals to fall even lower and depending on your current life circumstances, your resting heart rate may run a little higher. Both of which are still considered normal.

Physical activity creates an increased demand on the body. More demand on the body, generally means that heart rate will increase. The amount of increase depends on the type of exercise. Heart rate will increase with yoga, but perhaps only slightly. We would expect to see a larger increase with strength training, especially if it involves heavier weights, circuits, or plyometrics. The largest increase in heart rate comes from cardiovascular exercise (running, walking, biking, swimming), especially interval training.

Exercising, especially cardiovascular exercise, based on heart rate is important. There has been a lot written over the years about training in your heart rate zone, and if you have specific goals in mind (say running a marathon, or heck, even a 5K) it is critical. However, even if a finish line isn’t in your future, it is helpful to know what your heart rate is during exercise. Why, you ask? Because as you log more exercise, over time your heart is able to meet the demand you put on it much easier. That means that after several weeks of jogging at a certain speed, you should notice that your heart rate does not need to climb as high. Just as lower resting heart rates indicate better heart health, lower exercise heart rates at the same relative workload indicate that your heart has become stronger and more efficient.

This has implications for every type of goal: weight loss and management, cardiopulmonary rehab, management of chronic conditions, and yes, running a marathon. If you want to continue making progress, you will need to increase the workload in order to keep your heart rate in the zone so-to-speak. The idea being, that by challenging your heart, it will learn to be better, faster, stronger for you.