It is important for overall health to know when you can train hard, and when you should give your body a bit of a break. One of the most effective ways to do this is by understanding your own individual heart rate patterns. By understanding some basic terms and concepts about heart rate, you will be able to exercise more effectively and reduce injury and over training.

To design and implement any sort of serious exercise program it is essential to understand your own heart rate, maximum heart rate, anaerobic thresholds and your resting heart rate.

The speed that your heart pumps blood around the body is measured in beats per minute (bpm). As more blood is required by muscles, etc., your heart will pump faster. Keep in mind that your heart rate will be higher when your body is also stressed, sick or working ineffectively, so high heart rate is not always a good thing.

While maximum heart rate appears to be more related to age than fitness, your resting heart rate shows a direct correlation to your improved health and fitness. It is the speed at which your heart beats when there are no other demands made of it. If you are healthy and fit, your heart will be able to move more blood with less effort, and so will have a lower resting heart rate.

Therefore, it is important to measure at the beginning of a program what your current resting heart rate is, which lets you know how fit you are now, and gives you a basis to see if you are improving later.

It is very simple to measure your resting heart rate. All you need is a clock that counts seconds. The best time to take your resting heart rate is as soon as you wake up, before you have gotten out of bed. However, it can also be taken after any extended period of lying down with no movement, such as watching TV.

There are two places you can easily find your pulse. First is the radial artery on your wrist just below your thumb. This is not as strong, but easy to find. Remember to only use your index and middle finger to feel for the artery, as your thumb has its own pulse and can confuse the counting. The other place is your carotid artery in your neck, which can be found on either side of your throat.

Once you have found the pulse and can count it, time yourself for ten seconds and count the number of beats, starting at 'zero'. Multiple this number by 10 and you have the beats per minutes. You can also use other divisions of 60 such as 10 seconds and multiple by 6, or 30 and times by 2 etc.

The general ranges are: Below 60 = fit, 60-80 = average, 80-100 = high but still okay, and 101+ is not good and you should talk to your doctor.

In order to get the most reliable number, you should consider trying to take it every morning for about a week. This will average out any miscounting or unusually high rates from nightmares etc.

Further, if you are serious about a new exercise program, particularly if you are an athlete, it is highly recommended that you take your resting heart rate every single morning. The major reason for this is that your resting heart rate will generally go up about 10 bpm if your body is starting to fight an illness, and is a good indicator that you should cut down on your training until it returns to normal. This is an excellent way to avoid over-training.