Checking your heart rate (pulse) is an easy way to see whether or not you're physically fit and healthy. You want to check your heart rate while you're resting. The best time to measure it is after a good nights sleep. Check it while you're still lying in bed in the morning. Be sure you are breathing normally.

How to check your heart rate is by counting the beats in a set period of time such as 15 to 20 seconds. You then multiply that number to get the number of beats per minute.

The more fit you are, the lower your resting heart rate will be. There is some debate on what exactly is a healthy resting heart rate. What most consider healthy for a man is between 60 and 75 beats per minute and for women it should be between 60 and 80 beats per minute.

People who are extremely fit and active, such as professional athletes, can have a resting heart rate as low as 30 beats per minute. Athletes like to measure their heart rate to see if they are over trained.

There are many factors that can affect your heart rate whether it is slowing it down or speeding it up. They include:

- Sex (men's rates are usually lower)

- Age

- Drugs / Medication

- Genetics

- Physical Fitness

- Anxiety / Stress

- Caffeine (can speed it up)

- Nicotine

- Weight

- Working out prior to measuring your heart rate

- Common Cold / Fever

- Dehydration

- Anemia

- Overactive Thyroid

- Eating Disorders

- Diabetes

These factors can affect your heart rate, which means your measurement might not be completely accurate.

Although, measuring your heart rate is not the only way or the best way to determine your health. Some people may just have a lower or higher heart rate that cannot be attributed to a single, specific cause. Most say though, that a rate above 84 beats per minute can be dangerous for one's health.

A heart rate above 95 beats per minute for men or women would be considered fast, which is called tachycardia. A fast heart rate rarely means heart disease because it can be caused by a number of things such as the many factors listed above.

Measuring your recovery heart rate after working out is another good way to see how healthy your heart is. Your recovery heart rate is how fast your heart "recovered" right after you stopped working out.

For example, if you exercised on a bike for 10 minutes and then stopped, your recovery rate is how much your heart beat slowed down in the first minute of resting. The quicker it slows down, the better condition your heart is in.

If you are worried with where your resting heart rate is now, speak to a physician because almost all of the reasons as to why you have a fast heart rate can be treated and reversed.