How to measure your pulse

What you need to know before taking your pulse

Heart rate has three important characteristics of Your Health: How to Measure Your Pulse. When taking measurements, it is important to keep track of each of them.

Heart rate (HR). This indicator tells you how fast your heart beats to distill the amount of blood your body needs.
Rhythm. It is the regularity of the blows. The pulse is rhythmic if the beats of the heart follow each other at regular intervals.
Voltage. The pulse may be felt weak, barely audible. Or literally knocking through the wall of the artery being measured. A strong, tense pulse indicates high blood pressure. Weak - about lowered.

Where to measure your pulse

Heart rate is measured by placing the pads of the fingers (usually the index, middle and ring) to the place on the skin, under which the artery passes.

Here are the places where the arteries run close to the skin:

On the neck. Photo: Lifehacker

On the wrist. Photo: Lifehacker

At the temples. Photo: Lifehacker

On the shoulder. Photo: Lifehacker

On the foot. Photo: Lifehacker

Under the knee. Photo: Lifehacker

In most cases, the easiest way to find the pulse is on the wrist (on the radial artery, located between the bone and tendon on the side of the thumb) or on the neck (with the fingers wrapped around the windpipe). Almost everyone can feel the beating of the blood in these places, and not only doctors who are accustomed to palpating patients.

It is necessary to measure the pulse on the neck carefully Pulse: there is a risk, by accidentally pinching the cervical artery, to slow down the blood flow to the brain. This can lead to dizziness or fainting.

In children, the pulse is well defined on the femoral artery; in newborns, the pulsation of the large fontanelle at the crown can be monitored.

Take it easy and take a stopwatch

It is necessary to measure the pulse in a calm, relaxed state, not earlier than 10 minutes after physical exertion. Sit down Pulse or lie down, make sure to breathe evenly and not worry about anything.

Take a stopwatch (you can use the built-in smartphone). Start it up.

Pressurize the artery

Press the radial artery to your wrist with the pads of your index and middle fingers. You can also press the artery in your neck near the windpipe or select any other point from the above where you are comfortable taking measurements.

Make sure your fingers can clearly feel the blood beating in the artery.

Count the number of beats

Calculate What’s a normal resting heart rate? how many shocks occur in 15 seconds. Then multiply that number by four to get the beats per minute. Options for the patient: count the number of contractions in 30 seconds (and then multiply it by 2) or in a minute - in this case, the measurement will be more accurate, and the chances of catching an arrhythmia, if any, are higher.

Do not forget to pay attention to the rhythm and tension of the pulse.

What should be a normal pulse

A healthy pulse is rhythmic and elastic. It is easy to find it, it does not get lost under the fingers.

The heart rate has a wide range, since it depends on many parameters: age, gender. Gender- and age-related differences in heart rate dynamics: are women more complex than men?, weight, exercise habits, even the time of day (heart rate accelerates in the morning, slows down at night).

For an adult, the norm is considered to be a pulse in the range of 60-100 beats per minute.

But most healthy adults have a resting heart rate of 60–80 beats. What Is a Normal Heart Rate? Understanding Your Heart Rate per minute.

What to do if your heart rate is abnormal

The heart rate is influenced by both the state of the body and the environment. The heart beats more often All About Heart Rate (Pulse) in heat, after exercise, during stress, or when you get to your feet from a lying or sitting position. Some diseases and medications taken also affect the pulse: they can both slow down the heart rate and speed up it.

It is also important to check the rhythm of your heartbeat. People with irregular rhythms may have atrial fibrillation. It increases the risk of stroke. What’s a normal pulse rate? …

Emily Reeve Nurse, Cardiac Rehabilitation Specialist

Be sure to consult a physician or cardiologist if:

Your resting heart rate regularly falls outside the normal range.
You feel like your heart is skipping beats or they are irregular.
Your individual heart rate has changed. For example, before the heart rate was about 70 beats per minute, but at some point you noticed that the heart rate at rest accelerated to 80–90 (or vice versa, slowed down to 50–60).

Such symptoms, if repeated, can be signs of a rather serious disorder. It is important not to miss them.

This material was first published in August 2017. In April 2020, we updated the text.

How to measure your pulse

Table of contents:

What you need to know before taking your pulse

Where to measure your pulse