Resting heart rate

Resting heart rate is the minimum number of beats required of the heart to maintain body function at rest. This is determined by your basal metabolic rate (BMR) ‰ÛÒ the minimum requirement for oxygen needed by the body.

Resting heart rate will decrease as aerobic fitness improves. This is due to improved efficiency of the cardiorespiratory system and in particular, an increase in stroke volume (the amount of blood ejected by the heart with each beat). An increased stroke volume means that for every heart beat an athlete will be able to pump more blood from the heart to the working muscles. This means that the heart does not have to work as hard to provide the oxygen required.

Trained athletes generally have a lower resting heart rate than untrained individuals. Highly conditioned endurance athletes can have resting heart rates below 40 beats per minute (bpm) with some recorded as low as 30bpm (Lance Armstrong - Tour de France cyclist). Another impact of training is on post-exercise heart rate. The more aerobically trained an individual the quicker the individual‰Ûªs heart rate returns to resting levels.

How does resting heart rate change as a result of training? 
The graph below shows the effect of exercise on heart rate (HR) for a trained and an untrained individual. Both individuals were required to do exactly the same amount of work and their heart rate responses are shown. The graph shows heart rate response over time i.e. beats per minute (bpm).

For more information on resting heart rate click on the following links:
http://excitementofscience.org/RestingHeartRate.aspx

http://www.aussiefitsport.com.au