February 12, 2026
Ever puzzled how one can decrease your resting coronary heart price? The reply lies in getting lively.
Vigorous train strengthens the guts muscle, which implies it’s simpler at pumping blood by your physique. Normally, stronger hearts can pump the identical quantity of blood in fewer heartbeats, whereas weaker hearts must pump extra instances to realize the identical quantity. In consequence, athletic people — resembling runners — are inclined to have decrease resting coronary heart charges.
However you don’t should take our phrase for it. We’ve acquired knowledge from tens of tens of millions of Garmin watches worn everywhere in the world that helps makes the correlation clearer. The extra lively you’re, the more healthy your coronary heart sometimes turns into — and the simpler it’s to do its job. Customers who spend extra time being lively are inclined to have decrease resting coronary heart charges. Plus, research present that constant train can scale back your resting coronary heart price, a pattern that’s positively associated to your well being and longevity.
Once you put on a Garmin smartwatch, you’ll be able to monitor many well being and wellness metrics that will help you higher perceive your well being — together with your resting coronary heart price1. If you happen to work out repeatedly, and your resting coronary heart price is low, it is perhaps the results of your cardio. Nonetheless, if you’re frightened about your resting coronary heart price, please converse to your physician.
What’s resting coronary heart price?
Your resting coronary heart price is the variety of instances your coronary heart beats per minute (bpm) whereas your physique is in a state of relaxation — sometimes when you find yourself sleeping or mendacity in mattress after waking up. A “regular” resting coronary heart price for wholesome adults ought to be someplace between 60-100 bpm, relying on elements resembling health stage and age.
The way to calculate your resting coronary heart price
Your Garmin smartwatch will calculate your resting coronary heart price for you. You’ll be able to see your common resting coronary heart price over a 7-day interval straight in your wrist, but it surely’s essential to open your Garmin Join™ app to get the larger image. Taking a look at at some point or one week at a time doesn’t at all times give the complete story. Elements resembling sicknesses, infections, or abnormally lively or inactive weeks can skew the info, so study your averages over the course of a month or a yr for a extra correct quantity.
Dive deeper into your resting coronary heart price with the efficiency dashboard obtainable by a Garmin Join+™ plan. You’ll be able to overlay well being and wellness metrics with sports activities and efficiency knowledge for a complete view of your coaching.
Cardio actions and resting coronary heart price
It’s not surprising that common, vigorous cardiovascular train might be good for you. Garmin customers like to run, bike, swim and extra — all actions that present an abundance of well being advantages. Due to the recognition of those actions and the big worth added to your coronary heart well being particularly by performing cardio, we determined to have a look at the variety of cumulative hours per week spent working, biking and swimming as they correlated to the person’s common resting coronary heart price. Listed below are the outcomes: As much as 10 hours, the extra time a person spent doing these actions, the decrease their common resting coronary heart price measured.
Complete exercise hours and resting coronary heart price
However what about individuals who prefer to carry out actions outdoors of (or along with) working, swimming and biking? Don’t fear — we checked out these too. Irrespective of which exercise is your go-to together with your Garmin smartwatch — from kayaking to yoga, {golfing} to power coaching — we nonetheless observed a correlation. Usually, the extra time you spend being lively, the decrease your resting coronary heart price ought to be.
Day by day step rely and resting coronary heart price
Are you a fanatic about assembly your day by day step aim? Or do you like to silence your transfer alerts all through the day? You would possibly wish to have a look at the info under for those who aren’t placing up respectable day by day step counts on common. Usually, the extra steps you may get per day, the stronger your coronary heart is. Contemplate this a reminder to take that lap across the workplace — it could be extra helpful than you thought.
Resting coronary heart price throughout age teams
In our 2025 Garmin Join knowledge report, we discovered that completely different generations most popular completely different actions (resembling out of doors working for 18- to 29-year-olds or {golfing} for these over age 70). As you age, that exercise stays key. However irrespective of the exercise, staying lively — in any respect ages — could result in a decrease resting coronary heart price.
How can I enhance my common resting coronary heart price?
The reply right here could possibly be easy: Get shifting! The above charts present that, sometimes, for the typical wholesome grownup, a extra lively life-style results in a more healthy coronary heart. If you happen to haven’t discovered an exercise you’re enthusiastic about but, that’s OK. Garmin smartwatches supply greater than 100 built-in exercise apps to attempt, whether or not you’re searching for out that one interest that’s going to outline you shifting ahead otherwise you simply really feel like mixing it up.
Please take into account, although, that everybody is completely different. If after studying this text you continue to really feel like your resting coronary heart price is uncommon, it’s essential to seek the advice of your physician as a result of they’ll be capable of work with you to find out if one thing is incorrect.
Don’t have a Garmin smartwatch but? That’s a better repair — our vary of smartwatches are all designed that will help you beat yesterday.
1See Garmin.com/ataccuracy