Why Your Heart Rate Matters and Steps to Improve It

Heart health isn’t just about keeping yourself alive and healthy longer – it’s a great way to set goals for your fitness.
Today we’re going to be discussing heart rate, why you need to know it, and how to get fitter.

Why Heart Rate Matters
You should already know that heart health is a key reason to exercise.

Heart disease and other heart conditions are the leading cause of death in the United States. Clearly, your heart rate is a big indicator for overall health and mortality.

It also matters for your fitness: a low resting heart rate and increased variability are both key signs you’re fit and healthy. It’s easy to measure and provides a great goal for general health and wellness.

Resting Heart Rate: Efficiency for Health
Resting heart rate is key because it gives you an idea of how efficient your heart is. Good heart health is all about efficiency – getting the most blood from the least heart-strain.

Improving stroke volume is one of the best ways to lower your heart rate. This is a measure of how much blood you move with a single pump. Improving stroke volume means more effective delivery of blood and nutrients to the muscles, as well as less strain on the heart.

You can also improve heart rate by losing weight and reducing fat build up in your arteries. This reduces the resistance your heart is up against and provides the best set-up for health and fitness.

Heart Rate Variability (HRV)
This is one of the most interesting health-measures of the past century. It’s as important as blood pressure and pulse for understanding/diagnosing illness, and you can use it to test fitness too!

Heart rate variability is a good way of looking at overall fitness and health because it is affected by exercise, stress, illness, and more. If you’re able to increase your heart rate variability over time, you’re getting better at life – exercise, recovery, health, and even stress/relaxation.

Between these benefits and the fact that higher HRV means less of any cause of death, it’s clear you need to be improving your heart rate!

Using Heart Rate for Better Training
An effective exercise routine is going to be key to supporting your heart health and getting fitter. However, you can also use heart rate as a guide to getting the most from your cardio training.

Since it provides a measure for how hard you’re working, you can aim for a specific heart rate and use it to measure training progress.

Endurance athletes tend to break heart rate into 4 “zones”, with a 5th zone for sprint-training only:

Zone 1 (50-60% max heart rate): Recovery speeds, just above walking pace.
Zone 2 (60-70% max heart rate): Comfortable endurance pace, good for long training.
Zone 3 (70-80% max heart rate): Effective jogging pace, great for stamina.
Zone 4 (80-90% max heart rate): Anaerobic conditioning – great for shorter runs and sports that require bursts of energy.
Zone 5 (90-100% max heart rate): Sprinting only – maximum effort. Also great for intervals!

You can calculate your heart rate zones online. For endurance training, you want to stay in the first four and focus on sustaining higher zones for longer periods of time.

These are really easy to keep track of by how hard they feel, and you can get a simple tracker if you need a better idea of how hard your heart is working. You only have to get familiar with these few zones to set yourself effective training goals (like staying in zone 3 for a minute longer).

The benefits are obvious: it’s simple, easy, and you can figure out your workout on the fly.

Training for a Better Heart Rate

Dietary Choices
Before we even get to weight, there are some easy switches you can make in your diet to boost heart health.
Preferentially choosing unsaturated fats (such as those in olive oil or fatty fish) over saturated fats (like bacon or butter) improves blood pressure and reduces heart risks.

You should also be consuming a variety of nutrient-dense plant foods – primarily as vegetables. This also includes things like pulses, wholegrains, and other fantastic plant-based ingredients.

Control Your Bodyweight
The structure of your body determines how much stress you’re placing on your heart.
Obesity is one of the fastest ways to increase the risk of heart disease, as well as other serious illnesses.
Reducing your overall body fat is a key way to reduce your blood pressure and – as a consequence – improve your heart rate.

This is a simple – but not easy – process. It’s a matter of reducing caloric intake and boosting activity, which takes us to our second key point for a healthier, safer heart…

Stay Active
Obviously, your heart rate and fitness improve in response to being active. To start with, this doesn’t have to be exercise – activity covers a whole variety of movements.

A more active life is one of the best predictors of a healthy bodyweight, keeps heart rate regular, and is very sustainable.
This could just be commitment to a few physical activities a day, to start with such as walking the dogs, playing with the kids, or it might be structured exercise.

When you add up your overall physical activity, variation between people comes out to THOUSANDS of calories. This can make a significant difference to your health, weight, and fitness!

Exercise: Cardio Means Heart
Cardio exercise is named after the system including the heart and blood vessels. Clearly, it’s going to be key here.

Cardio training extends from a brisk walk to interval sprints. Anything that raises your heart rate above normal and gets you breathing harder is likely to have positive effects on cardiovascular health.

Common types of exercise – like running, rowing, and cycling – are all great ways to improve this. There are many alternatives, though, and finding a way to enjoy cardio is key. Martial arts, rock climbing, and parkour are popular ways of having fun with endurance training. Also consider making a music playlist that compliments your workout routine.

If you can have fun with it, you’ll never struggle to stick with your exercise routine.

Exercise: Strengthening Your Heart
Getting your heart rate to a healthier resting level is great. It’s also a huge benefit to improve the rest of your cardiovascular system.

Strength exercises – from weight training to gymnastics – can help here.
You might think resistance training is just for big muscles, but it’s actually a great way to improve artery health and prevent serious health problems.

Studies already show that resistance trained individuals have less heart-health problems and better resistance to changes in blood pressure. Preparing yourself for the possibility of higher blood pressure is a great way to handle heart risk.

If you’re trying to keep your heart healthy, try combining strength training with traditionally heart-friendly cardio exercise and day-to-day activity.

Pump Those Legs
Exercising the lower body is particularly important. The muscles of the legs are key to keeping your heart healthy.
Venous return is when the “spent” blood is pumped back to the lungs and heart. For most of us, better pressure here is key to keep the blood flowing back to the heart.

This is much easier with a stronger – or at least more active – lower body. This increases the pressure in the veins, helps you get blood back to the lungs and heart, and keeps your stroke volume full and healthy.
Never skip leg day – it’s key to building a well-balanced physique and keeping your heart rate healthy.

Closing Remarks
Heart rate – and how much it changes – are key indicators of how healthy and fit you are. They’re key to understanding your body whether you’re training for health or trying to improve your performance/recovery as an elite athlete.

Living your best, healthiest life is going to require at least some focus on keeping your heart rate low and variable. These two simple measures are a great way of improving your overall quality of life.

Put some time into heart rate – you can measure with or use it to direct your training. It’s one of the easiest, most important tools and this article has provided a great starting point for using heart rate in your training!