How to Lower Resting Heart Rate: What the Trials Show
How to lower resting heart rate, based on a meta-analysis of 191 exercise trials: how many BPM endurance training and yoga took off, plus sleep, alcohol and what else moves it.
Reviewed by Sameer Sontakey, Co-founder and Chief AI & Algorithms Officer at Sensor Bio. ChatPPG is independent and device-neutral; it is not a Sensor Bio product.
Short answer: regular aerobic exercise is the best-tested way to lower resting heart rate, and the effect is modest. A 2018 meta-analysis of 191 controlled studies found exercise groups ended up about 3.3 beats per minute lower than control groups (Reimers et al., 2018). Endurance training and yoga were the only types that lowered it significantly in both sexes. This article covers what the studies measured. It is not medical advice, and a resting heart rate that has changed without explanation is worth raising with a clinician.
How low is normal?
The American Heart Association calls 60 to 100 BPM a normal resting heart rate for adults who are sitting or lying down and calm. In US national survey data (NHANES 1999–2008), the median seated pulse was 69 BPM for men aged 20 to 39 and 74 BPM for women the same age. You can place your own number on our resting heart rate chart, which shows percentiles by age and sex.
Lower is not automatically better, and a lower number is not a goal in itself for everyone. The AHA notes that a pulse under 60 is common in athletes and in people on beta blockers. The reason resting heart rate gets attention is its link with outcomes: a meta-analysis of 46 studies and more than 1.2 million people found all-cause mortality risk rose by a relative 9% for every 10 BPM higher resting heart rate (Zhang et al., 2016). That is an association across populations, not proof that lowering your own number changes your risk.
What the exercise trials found
Reimers and colleagues pooled 191 studies with 215 samples of healthy people. Most tested endurance training (121), followed by strength training (43), yoga (21), combined endurance and strength training (15) and a handful of tai chi, qigong and school sport programs.
| Type of training | Effect on resting heart rate vs control |
|---|---|
| All exercise types pooled | −3.3 BPM (−4.7%) |
| Endurance training | Significant decrease in men and women |
| Yoga | −5.2 to −5.5 BPM; significant in men and women |
| Strength training | Not significant overall; −2.2 BPM in women only |
| Endurance plus strength | −3.8 BPM in women only |
Source: Reimers et al., J Clin Med 2018 (DOI: 10.3390/jcm7120503).
Two patterns stood out. People who started with a higher resting heart rate saw larger drops, and drops were smaller in older groups. The authors also cite an earlier meta-analysis of older adults in which endurance training lowered resting heart rate by about 6 BPM.
The AHA makes the reverse point: a small amount of physical activity usually doesn't change resting heart rate much. The trials that moved it involved regular sessions over weeks to months.
Sleep, alcohol and other things that move it
Some influences on resting heart rate are short-lived rather than training effects.
- Alcohol. Among 4,098 Finnish employees who wore beat-to-beat heart monitors, drinking was linked to more sympathetic and less parasympathetic activity in the first three hours of sleep, in a dose-dependent way and even at low intake (Pietilä et al., 2018). If your watch shows a higher overnight heart rate after drinking, that matches what this study measured.
- Sleep and season. In 92,457 Fitbit users, average resting heart rate differed with sleep duration, age, sex and BMI, and dipped in July and peaked in January (Quer et al., 2020). One in five people had at least one week when it moved by 10 BPM or more.
- Heat, emotions and pain. The AHA lists higher body or outside temperature, stress, anxiety and pain as reasons heart rate rises.
- Medicines. Beta blockers and calcium channel blockers slow heart rate. Changing a prescribed medicine is a decision for your prescriber.
Measuring it so you can see a change
Resting heart rate moves by a few beats from day to day, so a change from training shows up as a trend over weeks. Measure the same way each time: the AHA suggests counting your pulse for 60 seconds while seated, calm and rested. A wearable's resting heart rate is calculated from your quietest periods and often reads lower than a seated check, so compare a watch with itself, not with a clinic reading. Our heart rate app accuracy guide covers how phone apps compare with ECG.
When to talk to a professional
The AHA advises telling a healthcare professional if your heart rate has been slower or faster than usual, especially if you feel weak, dizzy or faint, and calling 911 if it is suddenly very high or very low for you along with chest pain, shortness of breath or fainting.
References
- Reimers AK, Knapp G, Reimers CD. Effects of exercise on the resting heart rate: a systematic review and meta-analysis of interventional studies. J Clin Med. 2018;7(12):503. DOI: 10.3390/jcm7120503
- Zhang D, Shen X, Qi X. Resting heart rate and all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in the general population: a meta-analysis. CMAJ. 2016;188(3):E53-E63. DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.150535
- Pietilä J, Helander E, Korhonen I, et al. Acute effect of alcohol intake on cardiovascular autonomic regulation during the first hours of sleep in a large real-world sample of Finnish employees. JMIR Ment Health. 2018;5(1):e23. DOI: 10.2196/mental.9519
- Quer G, Gouda P, Galarnyk M, Topol EJ, Steinhubl SR. Inter- and intraindividual variability in daily resting heart rate and its associations with age, sex, sleep, BMI, and time of year. PLoS One. 2020;15(2):e0227709. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0227709
- Ostchega Y, Porter KS, Hughes J, Dillon CF, Nwankwo T. Resting pulse rate reference data for children, adolescents, and adults: United States, 1999–2008. National Health Statistics Reports No. 41. NCHS; 2011.
- American Heart Association. All about heart rate (pulse). Last reviewed May 13, 2024.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the fastest way to lower resting heart rate?
- No trial shows a fast fix. In a meta-analysis of 191 exercise studies, regular training lowered resting heart rate by about 3.3 BPM more than control groups over programs that ran for weeks to months. Endurance training and yoga were the two types that lowered it in both men and women.
- How much can exercise lower resting heart rate?
- On average a few beats. Across all trials in the Reimers 2018 meta-analysis the drop was 3.3 BPM (4.7%) more than in controls, and yoga programs averaged 5.2 to 5.5 BPM. People who started with a higher resting heart rate, and younger participants, tended to see bigger drops.
- Does alcohol raise resting heart rate?
- It raises heart rate during sleep. In 4,098 Finnish employees wearing heart rate monitors, alcohol was linked in a dose-dependent way to more sympathetic and less parasympathetic activity in the first three hours of sleep, even at low doses.
- When is a resting heart rate too high?
- The American Heart Association describes 60 to 100 BPM as normal for adults at rest and says a rate over 100 may indicate tachycardia, which is not always a problem. It advises telling a healthcare professional if your heart rate has been faster than usual, especially with dizziness or weakness.
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