What Your Heart Rate Can Tell You About Your Fitness

June 19, 2024

If you wear a smartwatch or fitness tracker, you likely already have access to a steady stream of data about your heart health.

Beyond basic heart rate monitoring, smart watches and fitness trackers can also measure and track heart rate zones, heart rate variability and heart rate trends.

To make the data useful, Kathryn Larson, a cardiologist at the Sports Cardiology Clinic at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., asks patients about their health and fitness goals. “The discussion changes a lot based on what that patient or athlete wants to do with that data,” she said. The New York Times (PAYWALL)