How to Check Heart Rate Recovery on Apple Watch and iPhone

Mar. 6, 2020

As someone who goes by the age-old proverb, “Health is wealth”, Ikeep a track of my fitnessin various ways including HRR monitoring with Apple Watch. For the folks who are wondering how to see heart rate recovery on Apple Watch and more importantly, what it means, let me spell it out briefly. Heart rate recovery measures the rate of decline in the heart rate after a bout of exercise. Notably, HRR isused in many fitness tests to analyze the heart’s ability to recover from exerciseas it plays a vital role inestimating a person’s fitness level. So, if you are willing to check out the heart recovery on your watchOS device or cycle through all the HRR data on your iPhone to figure out where your cardiovascular health stands, you’ve arrived at the right place to get started!

View Heart Rate Recovery on Apple Watch and iPhone

As heart rate recovery has a big role to play in terms of keeping our body fit, it would be better to dive a bit into the detail.

According to several studies, the rate at which our heart rate declines solelydepends on how fast the nervous system switches from sympathetic to parasympathetic. For the uninitiated, the sympathetic nervous system guides the body’s rapid involuntary response to tense or dangerous situations, while the parasympathetic (aka rest and digest system) conserves energy by slowing down the heart rate. Our body’s ability to switch between these two nervous systems has a significant impact on health. Moreover, HRR is also considered to be a predictor of not only cardiovascular disease but also mortality.

Less than 12 beats in the first minute after exerciseis an indication of an abnormal heart rate recovery. Similarly, HRR ofless than 22 beatsis a strong predictor of serious health issues (and even risk of death). So, if your numbers are 13 or higher beats after 1 minute of exercise and 22 or higher after 2 minutes, you don’t need to worry about your fitness. Now that you’ve got a good hang of HRR, let’s go through the quick steps, shall we?

2. Now, scroll down to the bottom. You should see aRecovery sectionif you have recorded a workout for the day. Tap on it to dive into the details.

3. Next, you will see how much your rate decreased after the workout. The heart rate should show the BPM after1 and 2 minutes. It should show something like 20/30 BMP after 1/2 min.

Note:In some cases, Apple Watch may take some time to show the BPM number (i.e check out the screenshot above). So, don’t get confused, if the watch doesn’t show data right after you have finished your last lap.

If you want to view the HRR data from previous days, you will need to (you guessed it) go inside the Activity app.

1. On your pairediPhone, open theActivityapp.

2. Now, select the day which data you want to check.

3. Next, scroll down to the bottom and select a recorded workout. After that, swipe from right to left on theHeart Ratesection. There you go! Your heart rate recovery data will be right up there to view.

That’s pretty much it! So, that’s the way you can keep a track of the HRR data using your watchOS device or the iPhone. As it’s a vital fitness indicator, check it out frequently so that you have a better idea about where your fitness stands. As we are talking about health and fitness, I would recommend also recommend you to check out thebest calorie trackersandworkout appsas they can help you get fitter and stronger. Have any feedback? Be sure to sound off in the comments below.

An old school bibliophile who turned a tech nerd out of obsession. When he is not digging into hacks and tracking down stories that are breaking the internet, you may find him reciting poems.