Heart rate recovery: what's a good number?
Enter how far your heart rate drops in the first minute after exercise. Apple Watch calls it Cardio Recovery. A faster drop goes with a healthier heart.
Add how far your heart rate dropped.
Heart rate recovery after 1 minute
| Drop in 1 minute | What it means | Ageon score |
|---|---|---|
| 12 bpm or less | The risk line in the first studies | 15 of 100 |
| 18 bpm | Above the risk line | 45 of 100 |
| 24 bpm | Above the risk line | 70 of 100 |
| 30 bpm | Very fast recovery | 85 of 100 |
| 38 bpm | Very fast recovery | 95 of 100 |
The same at every age. Ageon scores it on a curve from the research rather than against people your age. Cole et al., New England Journal of Medicine, 1999; Qiu et al., Journal of the American Heart Association, 2017.
What heart rate recovery is
When you stop exercising, your nervous system slows your heart back down. How fast it drops in the first minute reflects how fit your heart is and how well that braking works. There are no good norms for it by age, so research uses one line for everyone: 12 beats or fewer in the first minute.
What the research found
In the first large study, 2,428 adults took a treadmill test followed by a slow walk. Over 6 years, people whose heart rate fell 12 beats or fewer in the first minute were four times as likely to die, and about twice as likely after accounting for age, fitness and other risks. A 2017 meta-analysis of 9 studies with 41,600 people found each 10 bpm slower recovery came with 9% higher risk of death.
How to measure it
Apple Watch measures it after many workouts and shows it in the Health app as Cardio Recovery. To do it yourself, note your heart rate as you stop a hard effort, then again exactly a minute later. Walking slowly, standing still and lying down each give a different drop, so measure the same way each time.
How to improve it
Regular cardio speeds it up. Steady zone 2 sessions and harder intervals both help. Heat, poor sleep, illness and caffeine slow it for a day or two, so follow the trend across workouts.
Questions
What is a good heart rate recovery?
The faster the better. More than 12 beats in the first minute is above the risk line from the research, and fitter people usually drop more.
Does heart rate recovery change with age?
It tends to slow with age, but the research uses the same 12-beat line at every age.
Why is my Cardio Recovery low on some days?
Heat, dehydration, poor sleep, illness and caffeine can all slow it. So can how hard you were working when you stopped. Look at several workouts rather than one.
Sources
- Heart-rate recovery immediately after exercise as a predictor of mortality. Cole et al., New England Journal of Medicine, 1999.
- Heart rate recovery and risk of cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality: a meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies. Qiu et al., Journal of the American Heart Association, 2017.