Your Pulse and Your Target Heart Rate

      What is your pulse?

Your pulse is your heart rate, or the number of times your heart beats in one minute. Pulse rates vary from person to person. Your pulse is lower when you are at rest and increases when you exercise (because more oxygen-rich blood is needed by the body when you exercise).

Knowing how to take your pulse can help you evaluate your exercise program.

How to take your pulse1. Place the tips of your index, second, and third fingers on the palm side of your other wrist, below the base of the thumb. Or, place the tips of your index and second fingers on your lower neck, on either side of your windpipe.

2. Press lightly with your fingers until you feel the blood pulsing beneath your fingers. You might need to move your fingers around slightly up or down until you feel the pulsing.

3. Use a watch with a second hand, or look at a clock with a second hand.

4. Count the beats you feel for 10 seconds. Multiply this number by six to get your heart rate (pulse) per minute.

Finding Your Maximum And Target Heart Rates....

     

Find your potential maximum heart rate. This is the highest your pulse rate can get. You will use your potential maximum heart rate to determine your target heart rate. To find yours, follow this formula: 220-(your age)=(predicted maximum heart rate)

• Try exercising intensely for 30 minutes and then checking your heart rate immediately after (or even during) your exercise. Compare your real maximum heart rate to your potential maximum heart rate. The numbers should be relatively similar.
• If you're taking your pulse during exercise, keep your feet moving as you do so or blood might accumulate in your extremities.

Find your target heart rate. This is 60 to 85 percent of your maximum heart rate. The reason there is a range rather than a solid number is because everyone has a different fitness level. While you exercise, check your pulse for 15 seconds. The number should be 60 to 85 percent of your maximum heart rate.

What To Do If You Can't Find Your Pulse

       

Try using your fingertips instead of laying your fingers across your wrist.Place them in different places and stop in each location for five seconds.

Try varying the pressure of your fingertips on your wrist. Sometimes lightening your touch or pressing harder will help you find your pulse.

Try pointing your arm pointing towards the floor. Do this if you have been holding it up to your face. The change in blood flow may help you find your pulse.

how to find heartbeat...

      Determine your normal heart rate. For adults, normal heart rate is 60-100 beats per minute. For children under age 18, normal heart rate is 70-100 beats per minute. This is your heart rate when you are at rest. Determine your beats per minute by following the steps listed above.

• Remember, you can determine your heart rate by counting your pulse for 15 seconds and multiplying that number by 4.

Check the strength of the pulse to see if it is strong or weak. Your pulse's strength cannot be calculated. While feeling your pulse, you should decide whether your pulse is "weak", "faint", "strong", or "bounding".

Finding and Recording Your Pulse...

   
1 Use your fingers when finding a pulse. Don't use your thumb when finding it, as it has its own pulse.

• Find the radial pulse. This is also known as the pulse on the inside of the wrist. Use the pads of two fingers. Place these just below the wrist creases at the base of the thumb. Press lightly until you feel a pulse (blood pulsing under your fingers). If necessary, move fingers around until you feel the pulse
• Find the carotid pulse. To feel a pulse on the side of the neck, place two fingers, preferably your index and middle finger, in the hollow between the windpipe and the large muscle in the neck. Press lightly until you feel a pulse.

2 Check and record your heart rate. Use a watch or clock with a second hand. Make a note of the rate of the pulse, which is the number of beats per minute.

• If you don't have a watch or a clock around, the Cleveland Clinic Health System recommends counting the beats you feel for 15 seconds and multiplying this by four to get your heart rate per minute:
  
• Your pulse is: (beats in 15 seconds) x 4 = y (your heart rate)^[1] You can count beats for 30 seconds and multiply by 2.

what is heartbeat....

   
             Over the course of your life so far, you were most likely familiar with the heart because of its beating. Perhaps you heard your heartbeat through a stethoscope or listened to someone else's heartbeat. Or maybe you put two fingers to your wrist or neck to feel your pulse. Your pulse is your heartbeat sensed in your arteries (blood vessels that help carry blood to all parts of your body).
  
Your heartbeat is the relaxing and contracting of sections, or chambers, of your heart called the atria and ventricles. This process is stimulated by electrical impulses that travel through your heart and regulate your heartbeat. The electrical impulse begins in the top of the right atrium and travels through the muscles of both atria. The atria contract in response. The electrical impulse is then picked up by a node between the atria and the ventricles and passed to fibers in what is called the His-Purkinje system. The ventricles fill with blood from the atria before the electrical impulse causes them to contract. Once the ventricles do contract, they force the blood out of the heart and to the lungs and body.

The timing of the flow of blood through the heart is key for good health. When you listen to a heartbeat, you are hearing the sound of your heart carrying out its critical work.