Heart rates

For a while now I've been meaning to take a record of my Resting Heart Rate first thing in a morning before I get out of bed. I intend to keep some form of record and use this to see any improvements in my fitness levels.

So last night I made sure my running watch was on the bedside table and this morning I took my HR twice - once from the radial artery and once from the carotid artery - both results were exactly the same.

My RHR is, or was this morning, 56 beats per minute.

Well this information meant nothing to me so I've delved online to find out what it means and what I should be aiming for.

Apparantly the fitter we are the more efficient the heart pumps blood and our resting heart rate reflects this with a lower value.

I found the charts below on THIS website

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
Excellent	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 Average	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 Average	74-81	75-81	76-82	77-83	76-81	74-79
Poor	82+	82+	83+	84+	82+	80+

Women
Age	18-25	26-35	36-45	46-55	56-65	65+
Athlete	54-60	54-59	54-59	54-60	54-59	54-59
Excellent	61-65	60-64	60-64	61-65	60-64	60-64
Good	66-69	65-68	65-69	66-69	65-68	65-68
Above Average	70-73	69-72	70-73	70-73	69-73	69-72
Average	74-78	73-76	74-78	74-77	74-77	73-76
Below Average	79-84	77-82	79-84	78-83	78-83	77-84
Poor	85+	83+	85+	84+	84+	84+

Do you see that? Apparantly I have a resting heart rate of an Athlete, go figure!
Of course I'm dubious about this information so I checked other sites online and the answer is pretty much the same - cool huh!

So what is your resting heart rate?