Do You Have the Heart of an Olympian?

Compare your heart rate to the heart rates of Olympians and your peers

Posted on August 9th, 2012 by Kyle Foreman

Olympians come in all shapes and sizes, from all over the world. There’s one thing they have in common, however—they’re all in really good shape.

Ever wonder how you compare to Olympians? One good indicator of your physical fitness is your heart rate. In general, the slower your resting heart rate, the better shape you’re in. Let’s see how your heart rate stacks up against the Olympians’!

Start by measuring your heart rate—while sitting in a relaxed position, feel for your pulse on your wrist or neck. Once you find your pulse, count your heartbeats over 20 seconds. Click the timer below to keep track:

Now take that number of heartbeats and multiply by 3 to get your heart rate. You can use this slider to help you with the math:

Input your heart rate below to visualize how fast your heart is beating:

So, how do you think you compare to the Olympians? In 2008, the New York Times posted the vital stats of some of that year’s US Olympians, which you can see below. Marathoner Deena Kastor’s heart beats just 28 times per minute when she’s resting!

Maybe it’s unfair to pit you against the world’s best athletes, so check out how you compare to average Americans in your demographic. Choose your gender and age below to see the average heart rate of your peers in the Practice Fusion dataset:

Our rich dataset even allows us to see the full distribution of heart rates for your age and gender. According to our data, your heart rate is in the 50th percentile of males aged 10 to 14 years. So, roughly of your peers have a lower heart rate than you and have a higher heart rate.

Lower heart rates aren’t just associated with gold medals – they can also lead to longer lives. Recent studies have shown that a fast heart rate might decrease your life expectancy. If you’re wondering how to keep your heart rate low, just exercise regularly—it’s the best way to maintain a healthy heart rate and improve your overall health. So keep on watching those Olympians, but make sure to get out and take a little jog yourself!





About Kyle Foreman

Kyle Foreman

Kyle Foreman is a Practice Fusion data scientist. Before coming to Practice Fusion, he researched epidemiology and biostatistics. Working with Practice Fusion’s massive EHR dataset allows him to marry his twin loves of health and statistics.

  • http://www.facebook.com/matthew.douglass Matthew C Douglass

    Also consider measuring your heart rate with Azumio’s Instant Heart Rate app. It gives very accurate RHR readings if you position your finger well against your camera.
    http://www.azumio.com/apps/heart-rate/

  • Tim

    your data is incorrect. Your graph shows that my heart rate is lower than 72% of my peers, yet your text says that 72% of my peers have a lower heart rate than me (should be 28% have lower than me).

    • kyleforeman

      Sorry about that, Tim, the numbers were accidentally switched during editing – thanks for pointing it out!

      • Tim

        Glad to help! Nice job on the interface!

  • bjorn

    Nice!

  • MARIANNE

    I WAS UNABLE TO CHANGE THE NUMBERS MY RESTING RATE IS ABOUT 60 BEATS . wHEN I FIRST WAKE UP IT IS AROUND 40. wHAT % OF MY PEERS HAVE A LOWER RATE. I AM 68 YO F.

    • kyleforeman

      Hi Marianne, it sounds like you must be in great shape, because your heart rate is very low! Only 11% of your peers have a lower heart rate than you do. Keep up the good work!

  • elaine

    cool an amazing tool

  • Nana Ohyeadwira

    This was very useful.

  • disqus_CscHMvSPxG

    What a cool tool! I probably like it so much because it turned out my heartbeat was slower than most folks in my age group ;-) I want my husband to do this too!

  • dog lady

    according to this, my heart rate is 69 bpm… not bad for an old broad like me!

  • sana attar

    why olympians pulse rate is low as compare to normal man

  • Alejandro

    When I’m lying in bed before sleep I have about 51 bpm, sometimes it goes down to 48 or so. My doctor said not to worry, as I run and train quite a lot. I’m male, 54 (sic), and I live in Spain (Western Europe), not the US.

  • Stan

    I suppose that 82% of my peers having higher heart beats than mine is a good thing for me and bad for them! True?

  • http://www.facebook.com/ron.nelson.7169 Ron Nelson

    My resting heart rate is 46 BPM, or actually lower “thats the sitting on the couch for about an hour heart rate…. Im in the top 1% of my age group, Crazy… Im working on loosing some weight, I work out however i’m not hardly an elite athlete… I