Calculating Resting Heart Rate

Video Transcript

"We talked about needing to figure out what your intensity of aerobic exercise will be. For beginners, you can just use the simple brisk walking technique; where you are still able to carry on a conversation, but you're having a brisk breathing sensation. Another way to do it is to actually calculate your target heart rate. To do that, first you need to calculate what your resting heart rate is, so you need to get a watch with a second hand on it, or that calculates digitally, and you're going to isolate your radial artery, which is here, and place your index finger on it. Don't use your thumb, because there's a pulse in your thumb, and that will confuse the sensation. You're going to place your finger on there, and count the number of beats you feel in a ten second interval. For instance; if I feel ten, I'm going to multiply that by six, so I would get 60 beats in a minute. It is important to take it when you are at rest, so first thing in the morning would be best, but that would be your resting heart rate. We're going to use that to figure out what your target heart rate is."