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How to Check Your Pulse
Checking your pulse allows you to determine your heart rate without any special equipment.
This can be useful if you're exercising or you have a heart condition. Once you've mastered the technique of checking your heart rate (pulse), teach your friends and family!
Steps
Understand the basics. Every heartbeat creates a wave of pressure, as blood flows along the arteries. Where these arteries lie closest to the surface, this pressure wave can be felt as a pulse. In adults, normal resting pulse beat is 60 - 80 beats per minute; children's resting pulse rates tend to be higher. If the pulse rate is irregular or abnormally fast or slow, this can be a sign of illness.
Use your fingers when finding a pulse. Don't use your thumb if checking someone else's, as it has its own pulse.
Check radial pulse.
This is also known as the pulse on the inside of the wrist. Use the pads of three fingers. Place these just below the wrist creases at the base of the thumb. Press lightly until you feel a pulse (blood pulsing under your fingers). If necessary, move fingers around until you feel the pulse.
Check carotid pulse. Alternatively, to feel a pulse on the side of the neck, place two fingers, preferably your index and middle finger, in the hollow between the windpipe and the large muscle in the neck. Press lightly until you feel a pulse.
Check and record the rate, strength and rhythm. Use a watch or clock with a second hand. Make a note of the rate of the pulse, which is the number of beats per minute. Check the strength of the pulse to see if it is strong or weak and if the rhythm is regular or irregular.
If you don't have a watch or a clock around, the Cleveland Clinic Health System recommends counting the beats you feel for 10 seconds and multiplying this by six to get your heart rate per minute:
Check your pulse: _______________ (beats in 10 seconds) x 6 = ________________(your pulse)[1]
Tips
If there are any irregularities in your pulse, seek medical advice as soon as possible.
You can also take your pulse at your temple or chest, but these methods are far less common.
To measure your relaxed heart rate, try laying down on the floor for one minute before taking your pulse.
If you're taking your pulse during exercise, keep your feet moving as you do so or blood might accumulate in your extremities.
Warnings
Do not press too hard on your neck as it can stimulate a reflex mechanism that can slow down the heart.
Seek appropriate independent medical advice to ensure that this method is applicable to your own circumstances.
Do not palpate both carotid arteries on your neck simultaneously as it will decrease the blood circulation to the brain.
If you notice skipped beats whilse doing this precedure seek medical attention.
If you notice that your heartbeat is really fast, above 135, and is not normal for you, seek medical advice.
If you can obviously tell that your heartbeat is irregular as well as really fast, follow up with medical attention.
If you are wishing for a more accurate method, try counting the beats for 15 seconds and then multiplying by 4.
This can be useful if you're exercising or you have a heart condition. Once you've mastered the technique of checking your heart rate (pulse), teach your friends and family!
Steps
Understand the basics. Every heartbeat creates a wave of pressure, as blood flows along the arteries. Where these arteries lie closest to the surface, this pressure wave can be felt as a pulse. In adults, normal resting pulse beat is 60 - 80 beats per minute; children's resting pulse rates tend to be higher. If the pulse rate is irregular or abnormally fast or slow, this can be a sign of illness.
Use your fingers when finding a pulse. Don't use your thumb if checking someone else's, as it has its own pulse.
Check radial pulse.
This is also known as the pulse on the inside of the wrist. Use the pads of three fingers. Place these just below the wrist creases at the base of the thumb. Press lightly until you feel a pulse (blood pulsing under your fingers). If necessary, move fingers around until you feel the pulse.
Check carotid pulse. Alternatively, to feel a pulse on the side of the neck, place two fingers, preferably your index and middle finger, in the hollow between the windpipe and the large muscle in the neck. Press lightly until you feel a pulse.
Check and record the rate, strength and rhythm. Use a watch or clock with a second hand. Make a note of the rate of the pulse, which is the number of beats per minute. Check the strength of the pulse to see if it is strong or weak and if the rhythm is regular or irregular.
If you don't have a watch or a clock around, the Cleveland Clinic Health System recommends counting the beats you feel for 10 seconds and multiplying this by six to get your heart rate per minute:
Check your pulse: _______________ (beats in 10 seconds) x 6 = ________________(your pulse)[1]
Tips
If there are any irregularities in your pulse, seek medical advice as soon as possible.
You can also take your pulse at your temple or chest, but these methods are far less common.
To measure your relaxed heart rate, try laying down on the floor for one minute before taking your pulse.
If you're taking your pulse during exercise, keep your feet moving as you do so or blood might accumulate in your extremities.
Warnings
Do not press too hard on your neck as it can stimulate a reflex mechanism that can slow down the heart.
Seek appropriate independent medical advice to ensure that this method is applicable to your own circumstances.
Do not palpate both carotid arteries on your neck simultaneously as it will decrease the blood circulation to the brain.
If you notice skipped beats whilse doing this precedure seek medical attention.
If you notice that your heartbeat is really fast, above 135, and is not normal for you, seek medical advice.
If you can obviously tell that your heartbeat is irregular as well as really fast, follow up with medical attention.
If you are wishing for a more accurate method, try counting the beats for 15 seconds and then multiplying by 4.
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