Pulse is an amazing parameter by which you can learn a lot about a person’s health status, existing diseases, possible options for the development of events, etc. Of course, not everything is so simple - only a highly qualified specialist can diagnose by pulse . But elementary knowledge in this matter can be useful to each of us in ordinary life.
What should be the pulse of a healthy person? The answer to this question can be given only by making certain corrections to the question itself: a person’s heart rate depends on his age, time of day when measuring, state of mind, presence or absence of physical activity, time between meals and a whole series of factors affecting accuracy and objectivity of measurements.
Thus, the question - what should be the pulse of a healthy person, we can answer by making at least one more variable - a correction for age. Pulse in a healthy person , taking into account age (beats per minute):
• newborns - 140;
• age up to 1 year - 130;
• from 1 year to 2 years - 100;
• from 3 years to 7 years - 95;
• from 8 to 14 years old - 80;
• up to 35 years old - 72;
• up to 60 years - 65;
• during illness - up to 120.
Measurement conditions: measure at rest, lying in bed, in the morning, the ideal time is from 11 to 13 hours. It is necessary to take into account what the pulse should be depending on gender: in women, the average value is 10 beats per minute more than in men.
The ability to monitor its frequency can be useful for people leading an active lifestyle, playing sports and controlling their weight.
A few important points to know when measuring heart rate. During physical exertion there is a maximum bar of heart contractions, exceeding which can be harmful to health.
Each person can make up his own schedule characterizing his individual parameters.
- Measurement of the pulse at rest: with the middle finger of the right hand, feel for the pulse on the wrist of the left hand at the base of the thumb. Why with the middle finger? It turns out that the thumb and index finger have their own, fairly strong vibration, which will negatively affect the accuracy of measurements. Using a stopwatch or a regular watch, count the number of strokes in 30 seconds. Multiply the amount by 2 and thus find out what the pulse should be at rest.
- Maximum working pulse: in order to find out how it will be with your maximum physical exertion, you need to subtract the number of full tens of your age from the number 200 (25 years - minus 20, 47 years - minus 40, 50 years - minus 50, etc. d.). As a result, you will get the maximum value of the working pulse, which cannot be exceeded when performing physical exercises.
- Working pulse: values are recorded during the exercise. Measured in the same way as at rest. This indicator can significantly differ from resting heart rate. If the working pulse is close to the maximum working value, the load must be reduced so as not to cause harm to health.
If we want to know exactly what a person’s pulse should be, conditions that affect the accuracy of measurements should be taken into account. There are a number of conditions under which measurements will be erroneous: if you experience a feeling of hunger, immediately after eating, after taking medication or alcohol. Severe physical or intellectual stress, water procedures or being outdoors (sunbathing, frost) can distort the accuracy of the measurements. One should not hope for their accuracy if they are performed immediately after sexual intercourse, on critical days (in women), or with sleep disorders.
What should be the pulse you need to know when scheduling workouts. A person in training also needs to know the duration of exercise. Starting points of calculations:
1. Calculate what should be the pulse at the peak, ie value of your maximum working pulse.
2. When training for 1-2 hours, the optimal value is 50-60% of the maximum. More detailed data:
- from 40 to 60 minutes - a load of 60-70% of the maximum;
- from 20 to 40 minutes - loads of 70-80% of the maximum;
- from 10 to 20 minutes - loads of 80-90% of the maximum.