Calculating resting heart rate - Instant Heart Rate application for smartphones

Krusty_Clown

I think it was originally RacoonQueen who pointed this out, but chatting to a number of other runners, they don't seem to be aware of this option. If you want to measure your resting heart rate, typically, there are two tried and tested methods:

1) When you wake up first thing in the morning, stick on your Garmin/Polar/other HR strap, wait a few minutes until your heart rate settles down, and then using your watch (or other receiver) read the HR value.
2) With a watch in front of you, locate your pulse (typically from your wrist) and count the number of beats during a 10 second (or longer) interval. Multiply by 6 (or other value depending on the time interval) to get your resting heart rate. Repeat three times and take the average.

Instant Heart Rate application
There is a third option for those of you with smart-phones (with compatible camera lens/flash). The Instant Heart Rate application (Android, iPhone) works by measuring light/colour changes that pass through your finger, when it is placed on the lens of your smart phone (links are to the free version). It actually works rather well and is a very hassle free method of establishing your resting heart rate.

I was a little skeptical. So when I was having dinner with two work-mates, we each measured our heart rates (three times). Mine was consistently 50-53. Next person: 82-86. Final person: 100-104. Each time, each of the individuals got consistent results, so it's good enough for me. No, I don't make any money from this application, just surprised that others don't use it or haven't heard of it.

jeffontour

Yeah, it's a decent little app.

Does the final person in your experiment make a habit of sitting on an exercise bike for dinner?

dna_leri

Yep, been using it for a couple of months after someone else here recommended it.
It does seem to be consistent although I have not calibrated it with another method.

rom

Using the app with a case is hard on an iPhone. http://tinyurl.com/8vq5jwc I use one of these every morning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CugsOc6qMaU

I use the Pulse Oximeter in bed every morning, lying flat. I wait for about 2 mins and then check the reading. You can't take this reading only the 2nd one with the phone (which has less controls in the measurement). I only check the lying down one and add it to my training log. I am sick at the moment and is elevated over 8 beats. I have compared with phone app and garmin hrm. You could also put you hrm strap on too and lie down for a few more mins but putting it on raises your hr so it takes longer for it to go back down.

Krusty_Clown

jeffontour wrote: »

Yeah, it's a decent little app.

Does the final person in your experiment make a habit of sitting on an exercise bike for dinner?

I couldn't believe it either. But we were rotating the testing, so it was me, then the next person, then the next person, and he consistently got 100-105. High metabolism I guess.

ger664

jeffontour wrote: »

Yeah, it's a decent little app.

Does the final person in your experiment make a habit of sitting on an exercise bike for dinner?

Herself indoors had a HRM strapped to her about a month ago. Lowest resting rate at any time including sleep was between 110-120. I will add she is very unfit.

I think we frighten the ****e out of GP's when we go for checkups with our low pulse rates.

robinph

Have had that on my phone for a while. Just use it out of curiosity when a bit bored in work in the afternoon and usually get 35-45. Have freaked a running club mate out with it when on the beers and on the look out for a kebab van and I was still only in the low 60's.

Haven't done any proper at resting tests in a good while.

huskerdu

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

I couldn't believe it either. But we were rotating the testing, so it was me, then the next person, then the next person, and he consistently got 100-105. High metabolism I guess.

Was he after drinking strong coffee ?

jeffontour

ger664 wrote: »

I think we frighten the ****e out of GP's when we go for checkups with our low pulse rates.

It's actually a good point, some docs really don't get it. Thankfully I have been away from the GP for a good few years but got a chest infection earlier this year and wanted to get it checked out just to be safe. The doc told me I had great blood pressure, in a kind of "sorry to see you're sick, little fella but on the plus side of things!" kinda way.

I must start monitoring morning HR though, I think it's a good habit to get into once you avoid being too uptight about the results.

opus

jeffontour wrote: »

Yeah, it's a decent little app.

Does the final person in your experiment make a habit of sitting on an exercise bike for dinner?

Been using it for a good while & even bought the pro version when it was in some Android app sale around six months ago, only difference I think is that you can keep a history of your HR readings.

That's an impressively high number for your colleague, I'd suspect the coffee theory as well.

Krusty_Clown

opus wrote: »

Been using it for a good while & even bought the pro version when it was in some Android app sale around six months ago, only difference I think is that you can keep a history of your HR readings.

That's an impressively high number for your colleague, I'd suspect the coffee theory as well.

I have the full version too. No advertising. Nope, not a coffee thing. He just seems very... hyper...
If coffee brought your heart rate up from a typical 50-60 bpm to 100+ I think it would be banned for health and safety reasons.

opus

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

If coffee brought your heart rate up from a typical 50-60 bpm to 100+ I think it would be banned for health and safety reasons.

A few years back I was working in one of the local colleges and signed up for an exercise program for someone doing a project in Sports Science. When I went for the initial check-up, she took my blood pressure & think was about to dispatch me to the local hospital when she thought to ask had I just drank a coffee! Was told to come back the following day caffeine free and turned out my blood pressure was normal (which was reassuring to hear!).

Krusty_Clown

opus wrote: »

A few years back I was working in one of the local colleges and signed up for an exercise program for someone doing a project in Sports Science. When I went for the initial check-up, she took my blood pressure & think was about to dispatch me to the local hospital when she thought to ask had I just drank a coffee! Was told to come back the following day caffeine free and turned out my blood pressure was normal (which was reassuring to hear!).

I'm not doubting the effects (which are well documented) just the scale of the increase. Regardless, the app would do a pretty good job for someone like him, or someone who had drank little or no coffee.

digger2d2

[Quote=Krusty_Clown;80879195

digger2d2

Interesting stuff kc, I downloaded one of the apps and tried it on two separate Androids last night and this morning, consistent readings of 49 and 50 respectively. I'm now off to see if I can find my HRM strap and will fire up the Garmin.

average_runner

Thanks for that Krusty.

Was in bed checking my heart rate at its as 54, my wife did it and hers was 75. She is 7 months pregnant so now saying she is working harder than me:D

Did 20 mile run and after 30 mins rest took heart rate again and my wife was higher. So apparently i am doing nothing compare to her :eek:

She is addicted to it now!!

lway

There is another app that claims to give your heartrate by taking a photo of your face.

A friend had this on his iPhone, you line up your face with the markings on the screen and it gives you your heartrate, supposed to work on the same principal as the finger one. Can't remember what it was called but would be curious how it compares to the finger one.

Found a link: http://www.cardiio.com/

TFBubendorfer

Just don't think that a lower RHR means you are fitter.

The lowest I have ever measured was over 3 years ago at 36. Then I ran a disappointing 3:10 in Boston.

Two years later my RHR was about 42, yet I was in much better (= sub-3) shape.

Krusty_Clown

I think it's most useful from a relative reference perspective (e.g. if your resting HR on Monday is 38, and in similar circumstances it is 48 on Wednesday, it is worth think about what may have changed (e.g. illness, lack of sleep, over-training, etc).

Thomas: maybe you were fitter when you ran 3:10, and were just better marathon trained when you ran sub-3?

average_runner

So if it goes higher than your average u might of over trained?

Will keep an eye on this over the next week or so!!

Thanks KC

rom

On a similar vein http://restwise.com/

TFBubendorfer

average_runner wrote: »

So if it goes higher than your average u might of over trained?

It is one of the warning signs (amongst irritability, excessive fatigue, loss of appetite, insomnia and a few other things)

TFBubendorfer

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

I think it's most useful from a relative reference perspective (e.g. if your resting HR on Monday is 38, and in similar circumstances it is 48 on Wednesday, it is worth think about what may have changed (e.g. illness, lack of sleep, over-training, etc).

I fully agree with that one

Thomas: maybe you were fitter when you ran 3:10, and were just better marathon trained when you ran sub-3?

... but not with that. I was in much better overall shape 2 years later and set PBs all over the place that year, from 5k to the marathon. And my RHR was consistently in the low 40s.

sconhome

rom wrote: »

On a similar vein http://restwise.com/

Looks like a cool system.

robinph

You were probably 2 years older though.

TFBubendorfer

robinph wrote: »

You were probably 2 years older though.

The maxHR goes DOWN with age. I really don't think the RHR tends to go up at the same time.

average_runner

TFBubendorfer wrote: »

It is one of the warning signs (amongst irritability, excessive fatigue, loss of appetite, insomnia and a few other things)

I experienced some of that last year about 2 weeks before Dublin marathon!! Not very nice and hence a disaster of a marathon!!

But we learn and thats whats great about running even though frustrating too.

jfh

Great spot krusty, something i was on the look out for, hate messing about with trying to take a pulse.
did ye download the free version or the paid?
only difference i could find was that the paid holds more than 5 days records.

Krusty_Clown

jfh wrote: »

Great spot krusty, something i was on the look out for, hate messing about with trying to take a pulse.
did ye download the free version or the paid?
only difference i could find was that the paid holds more than 5 days records.

I stuck with the free version but after a couple of months, bought the paid version in an Android sale (think it was €0.75). No real additional features, just giving something back to the developers (albeit at sale price!).

ciaranmac

Tried this app out a while back on a recommendation from a work colleage - on my old iPhone 3G it was wildly inconsistent going from 55-90 within less than a minute. Didn't have the same issue on his iPhone 4. I gave it a second chance when I got a Samsung S3 last week and it's spot on. Looks like my resting HR has dropped by 10-15 beats over the month or two since I started running

Murph_D

Has no one cross tested with a real HRM yet? Interesting, but I am sceptical.

digger2d2

murphd77 wrote: »

Has no one cross tested with a real HRM yet? Interesting, but I am sceptical.

Yep, I did, got 49/50 on the app and 43/44 on the Garmin HRM

Krusty_Clown

digger2d2 wrote: »

murphd77 wrote: »

Has no one cross tested with a real HRM yet? Interesting, but I am sceptical.

Yep, I did, got 49/50 on the app and 43/44 on the Garmin HRM

I just cross tested against my pulse and got:
App;36
Pulse;36

By the way, it is similar (in implementation) to the methods used to monitor heat rate in hospitals.

Murph_D

digger2d2 wrote: »

Yep, I did, got 49/50 on the app and 43/44 on the Garmin HRM

Not very encouraging then. Krusty's test is more positive though.

Krusty_Clown

murphd77 wrote: »

Not very encouraging then. Krusty's test is more positive though.

To be honest, having used Garmin HRMs constantly for the last 5 years (11,364 miles according to my profile), I would trust a talking seagull looking me squarely in the eye, to provide a more accurate HR reading that a Garmin. What would bother me more in terms of accuracy is (as a poster above stated) it provided a different reading across different devices. This would definitely point out a flaw in the system (though you could still use it from a relative difference perspective, rather than paying any attention to the actual value.

Interestingly, the app actually provides a visual indication of when it detects a 'beat', so if you check your pulse at the same time, you can see that they are in synch (may need three hands ). I have an iphone as well as an Android, so I'll compare results (though it might worry my work-mates).

Savage Tyrant

Very interesting app. Thanks.
Don't know to much about HR's and only been running a little over 3 months or so.
I tried about 5 readings over the last hour. Not completely resting but sitting on the sofa. I have had to get up between the readings but they are consistently between 49-54.
I assume being well in the green zone that (if accurate) they'd be quite good readings for a previously very unfit 30 year old.
My GF's readings are in the high 70's and my sister in the high 80's and early 90's

Krusty_Clown

Just took my HR on the iPhone and Android at the same time.
First time:
iPhone: 62
Android: 61

Second time:
Android: 58
iPhone: 57

That's good enough for me.

opus

I read earlier that Google are having an app sale over the next five days to celebrate 25 billion app downloads :eek: so worth keeping an eye on the market to see if you could snag the pro version for cheap.