What are 3 different factors that increase heart rate?

Table of Contents Show

Respiratory rate
What is a normal resting heart rate?
How do I check my resting heart rate?
Which factors can influence heart rate?
If my resting heart rate is normal, is my blood pressure normal?
If my resting heart rate is slow, is it dangerous?
If my resting heart rate is fast, is it dangerous?
Resources and support

by John Furst · Published March 13, 2016 · Updated February 13, 2016

Being able to take an accurate pulse and respiratory rate is a core skill for first aiders. There are a number of factors which can affect pulse and respiratory rates, we’ll take a look at some of these in this blog post.

Pulse rate

When the heart contracts and pumps blood round the body, the vessels the blood runs through (the arteries) expand as the wave of blood passes.

We can feel this ‘pulse’ where the arteries pass over a solid structure like bone – the wrist is a good example. The pulse – its rate (the number of times per minute we can feel the pulse), its strength (whether it’s full and ‘bounding’ or weak and ‘thready’) and its rhythm (regular or irregular) – can tell us a lot about a casualty.

The pulse rate can be affected by:

Age – young children commonly have a higher pulse rate, in the elderly it may be slower.
Exercise – taking part in exercise will raise the pulse rate. Trained athletes may have a slower ‘resting heart rate’.
Disease – illness places pressure on the body, leading to an increased heart rate
Drugs – depending on the drug, it can speed up or slow down the heart rate
Body Temperature – cold will initially raise the pulse rate, before slowing dramatically. Fever (pyrexia) will cause an increase in pulse rate.
Posture – a patient lying flat will have a slower heart rate than when sat or stood.
Stress – stress increases the heart rate due to adrenaline/epinephrine release.

Respiratory rate

The rate and character of the respirations gives us important insights into people’s general health status. In addition, breathlessness is a very distressing symptom for many people, and it’s important that to identify problems early and deal with them.

A number of factors can influence the respiration rate, such as:

Age – younger children generally have higher oxygen demands and therefore breath faster
Pain – pain will cause an increase in respiration rate
Emotion – emotion will cause an increase in respiration rate
Resistance from air passages – increased resistance (e.g. in asthma) prevents as much air entering the lungs during each cycle. The demand for oxygen will then increase, increasing the respiration rate.
Fever – fever increases the body’s demand for oxygen, increasing the respiration rate
Elasticity of the lungs – the less elastic the lungs, the less air can enter the lungs each cycle, increasing the respiration rate. Chemical changes – chemical changes in the body, caused by hypoxia, metabolic disorders or medications / drugs, can cause the respiration rate to increase or decrease, depending on the stimulus

Your resting heart rate, or pulse, is the number of times your heart beats per minute when you are at rest — such as when you are relaxed, sitting or lying down.

Resting heart rate varies from person to person. Knowing yours can give you an important sign of your heart health.

What is a normal resting heart rate?

For adults, a normal resting heart rate ranges between 60 and 100 beats a minute.

Usually, a lower resting heart rate means your heart is working more efficiently and is more fit.

For example, an athlete might have a resting heart rate of around 40 beats a minute.

How do I check my resting heart rate?

To check your heart rate:

Sit down and rest for 5 minutes.
Turn your wrist so your palm is facing up.
Feel for a pulse at thumb side of your wrist.
Once you feel it, count how many times you feel a beat in 30 seconds. Then double it.

If you can't find your pulse at your wrist, put 2 fingers on the side of your neck, next to your windpipe.

If you still can’t find a pulse, ask someone else to feel it for you.

To check your heart rate manually, feel for your pulse at the thumb side of your wrist.

Many people now monitor their heart rate with a wearable heart rate monitor, activity tracker or smart watch.

Which factors can influence heart rate?

Many things can affect your heart rate.

Age — as you get older the rate and regularity of your pulse can change. This can be a sign of a heart problem.
Sex — heart rate is generally higher in females than males.
Physical activity — if you've been moving around a lot, your heart rate will increase.
Fitness level — your resting heart rate may be lower if you're very fit.
Air and body temperature — on hot days, your heart needs to pump more quickly.
Emotions — when you feel stressed or overly excited your heart beats faster.
Medicines — some medicines can decrease your resting heart rate (for example, beta blockers), While other medicines can increase it (for example, thyroid medicines).
Substance use — alcohol, caffeine and smoking can all affect your heart rate.
Time of day — your heart rate tends to be lower at night.
Body position — for example, whether you are sitting up or lying down.

If my resting heart rate is normal, is my blood pressure normal?

Your resting heart rate is not an indication of your blood pressure. The only way to check blood pressure is to measure it directly.

If my resting heart rate is slow, is it dangerous?

People can have a resting heart rate of 40 if they are very fit. But a slow pulse could also be a sign of problems. If you are not sure, or if you have been feeling faint, dizzy or short of breath, see your doctor.

If my resting heart rate is fast, is it dangerous?

A fast-resting heart rate (higher than 100 beats per minute) can be a sign of problems. See your doctor for advice.

Seek urgent medical attention if:

your heart is racing, and the rhythm is irregular
you feel short of breath
you have chest pain

Resources and support

You can call the healthdirect helpline on 1800 022 222 (known as NURSE-ON-CALL in Victoria). A registered nurse is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

CHECK YOUR SYMPTOMS — Use the Symptom Checker and find out if you need to seek medical help.

FIND A HEALTH SERVICE — The Service Finder can help you find doctors, pharmacies, hospitals and other health services.

Learn more here about the development and quality assurance of healthdirect content.

Last reviewed: July 2022

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As trainers, we know that the heart is an amazing piece of machinery. One muscle working constantly to allow our bodies to function?! Impressive.

The heart is a complex organ that operates uniquely within each of our clients. When we use heart rate training, it is important for us to understand the various factors that influence heart rate – both from a safety and programming perspective.

In this post, we’ll briefly cover several of these factors. While this is not an exhaustive list, we hope you can utilize this knowledge when programming for your clients and when answering their questions (which they will inevitably ask) about their heart rate. The MYZONE heart rate training wearable is a great tool for both you and your client to use in monitoring their heart rate over time and looking for variations to normal patterns.

Fitness Level:

Remember that cardiac output (the volume of blood pumped by the heart each minute) is the product of stroke volume (the volume of blood pumped per beat) and heart rate (the amount of times the heart beats per minute)? Individuals of a higher aerobic fitness level tend to rely more on stroke volume to increase cardiac output. As such, they tend to have a lower heart rate compared to untrained individuals at any work rate. Explain to your clients that as their cardiorespiratory system becomes more conditioned, their resting heart rate and submaximal heart rate at any work rate will most likely decrease. This means their heart has to do less work and is more efficient! It also means that as your clients become more fit, they may have to work harder and increase their workload to get their heart rate up into the yellow and red zones.

Biological Variability:

Even among healthy, well-conditioned individuals, heart rate naturally varies day-to-day during rest, submaximal exercise, and maximal exercise. In one study, exercisers performed exercise on a cycle ergometer at 10 different intensities. The test-retest reliability yielded a strong – but imperfect – correlation. This means our heart rate on Monday might be different from our heart rate on Tuesday, even if we’re doing the exact same workout. If your clients are concerned that their heart rate is slightly different between workouts, you can confirm that some variation between workouts is expected and normal.

Acute Fatigue & Cardiovascular Drift:

Have you ever seen your heart rate slowly increase during a longer workout – especially in a warm environment – even if you didn’t change the exercise intensity? This may have been due to the phenomenon of cardiovascular drift, which is characterized by a small, progressive increase in core temperature, reduction in stroke volume, and increase in heart rate after more than about 10-15 minutes of exercise. Research suggests that cardiovascular drift may be associated with dehydration, so make sure that your clients are staying hydrated during their workouts. If you notice that your client’s heart rate is increasing during prolonged exercise, check in with them about their rate of perceived exertion (RPE) and monitor for other signs or symptoms that suggest they should discontinue exercise (i.e. lightheadedness).

Emotional State:

Yep, having a stressful day can influence heart rate. Previous research indicates that feelings of nervousness or anxiety can elicit a heart rate response similar to that of moderate-intensity exercise!

If your client has had a stressful day at work, have them perform some breathing exercises before they jump into their workout, or have them spend some extra time warming up in the blue or green zones.

Music:

Music is an environmental factor that may increase or decrease heart rate, depending on the music itself! While calming music might result in a slower heart rate, upbeat music that gets us pumped up can have the opposite effect. When selecting music to play during workouts with your clients or in group fitness classes, match the music to the heart rate zone you are trying to elicit (more mellow for blue and green and more upbeat for yellow and red).

Chronic Fatigue/Overtraining:

Changes in our heart rate may be a signal that our bodies are in a state of chronic fatigue or overtraining. Some signs include an elevated resting heart rate, difficulty elevating our heart rate into higher-intensity zones, a slower recovery heart rate, and lower peak heart rate. If your clients exhibit these signs, it might be time for a low-intensity recovery workout or rest.

Sex:

Women tend to have a smaller cardiovascular system than men, resulting in lower stroke volume. This means they must rely more heavily on heart rate to get blood pumping to their muscles, and they tend to have a higher heart rate than their male counterparts.

Environment:

Is it getting hot in here? Heart rate tends to increase during exercise as the ambient temperature goes up. We also have higher heart rates during exercise as we move to higher altitudes.

Site of Muscular Activity:

Research has found that arm exercise, such as kranking on an upper body ergometer, increases heart rate more than leg exercise at any submaximal power output. Test this out with your clients. Have them perform 5 to 10 minutes of cardio on an upper body piece of equipment and a lower body piece of equipment at a consistent work rate (for example, use watts displayed on computerized equipment) and see which one produces a higher heart rate.

Body Position:

Heart rate can be expected to decrease when moving from standing to sitting to lying down.

Understanding how heart rate varies can be very valuable for programming and teaching our clients. If you notice any variations in your clients’ heart rates as they train with their MYZONE heart rate training wearable, use the aforementioned factors as reference. And, as always, refer your clients to their physician if the variations in their heart rate cause concern for either you or them.

Follow us on our Fitness Friday Periscope Broadcast for more tips on how to use MYZONE when training your clients. We would love to follow the progress of your clients with you! Please post (and have your clients post) to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram using the hashtags #myzone, #myzonemoves, and #effortrewarded.

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