Heart Rate

I read your post about you tracking your heart rate so I decided to do the same.  I've got a Polar too that I used while cycling, but I haven't used the heart rate function in a long time.  Dead battery!

I went to a drug store and tested myself and the results are below.  I'm reasonably pleased with the resting heart rate (57 BPM), but the blood pressure is a touch outside of the norm, so I'll need to watch that.  Probably just recent stress, but nothing serious.

This did make me curious about what is considered 'normal'. For a maximum target heart rate, I found a handy chart on the website for the American Heart Association that provides some guidance.  Once rule of thumb is that your maximum heart rate is about 220 minus your age, but this is only a guide and other factors come into play. Learn more here:
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4736

I also found this chart on resting heart rates:

MEN
AGE	18 -25	26 -35	36 -45	46 - 55	56 -65	65+
ATHLETE	49-55	49-54	50-56	50-57	51-56	50-55
EXCEL'T	56-61	55-61	57-62	58-63	57-61	56-61
GOOD	62-65	62-65	63-66	64-67	62-67	62-65
ABOVE AV	66-69	66-70	67-70	68-71	68-71	66-69
AVERAGE	70-73	71-74	71-75	72-76	72-75	70-73
BELOW AV	74-81	75-81	76-82	77-83	76-81	74-79
POOR	82+	82+	83+	84+	82+	80+

Looks like I still fit  in the 'athlete' classification, if only by the skin of my teeth!  I'm not sure that's completely accurate at this stage, but I'll take it. 

Learn more here:
http://www.netfit.co.uk/fitness/test/resting-heart-rate.htm