There are many ways to lower your heart rate, and various good reasons to do so.
For adults, a normal resting heart rate should fall between 60 to 100 beats per minute. Although what is considered normal varies from different persons throughout the day.
Here are 5 proven ways to lower your resting heart rate:
How to Lower Your Heart Rate:
1. Add More Fish into Your Diet
Similar to exercising, maintaining a healthy diet is very beneficial for various reasons. For one, consuming more fish has been linked with lower resting heart rates, as per a study from the American Heart Association.
Don’t enjoy consuming fish? Consult your doctor about taking fish oil supplements, which may have positive effects on your heart rate as well.
2. Exercise Regularly
It is common and possible to lower your resting heart rate through exercise, according to Tyler Spraul, a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and Head Trainer at Exercise.com. “The type of exercise is not very important, as long as you are challenging your cardiovascular system with your exercises or workouts.”
The 4 most Important types of exercise for health include stretching, strengthening, balance, and aerobic exercises. And exercise doesn’t just lower your RHR. Harvard Medical School also reminds us that exercise will also enhance your sex life, fight depression, improve your sleep and sharpen your wits.
“As you train your cardiovascular system, according to Spraul, “you will increase its efficiency and capacity. What happens is that your heart is able to do more work with less effort (it is able pump more blood throughout your system while requiring less exertion and energy to do so), therefore, your resting heart rate goes down.”
Also, it is important to find activities you like, and to mix it up, in order to avoid boredom and make sure you are working all parts of your body. Interval training or alternating intensive workouts with periods of rest, is a very effective way to lower your RHR.
3. Get Enough Sleep
Chronic lack of rest or sleep puts stress on your whole body, including the heart. Most adults should get between 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night.
4. Stay Hydrated
When your body is dehydrated, the heart has to work harder to help in stabilizing blood flow. All through the day, drink plenty of caffeine and sugar-free beverages, including herbal tea and water.
5. Relax
Whether you are resting, or are stoked with adrenaline during a ‘fight or flight response’, your hearts are in play.
Reduce stress, and your Resting Heart Rate will naturally fall. Increase stress? And it will rise, regardless of exercise and sleep. Stress in teens (which is measured by parental corporal punishment) was found to increase adolescent resting heart rate variability, while positive parenting helped improve HRV and RHR.
But, reducing stress is easier said than done. Some stress is beyond your control.
The below interventions are very successful in reducing stress.
- Exercise
- Breathing exercises
- Yoga
- Meditation
Sources:
Blog.Biostrap
SCMP
Hackensack Meridian Health
Healthline
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