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6 Surprising Ways to Lower Your Heart Rate

Updated: Jan 12, 2022

Elizabeth Hertweck, MS, HN, HWC, FS


Heart disease is the #1 killer of our society, being responsible for 16% of the worldwide deaths reported today (WHO, 2020). Accordingly, heart health has become a primary concern for the medical community as well as a leading topic for modern-day research.

A person’s heart rate, or pulse, is calculated by how many times it beats per minute. A healthy heart rate for a typical adult is 60 to 100 beats per minute. If your heart is pumping more than 100 beats per minute, it could be an indication of a serious underlying health condition like anemia, pneumonia, hormonal imbalance, high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, and even psychological conditions like depression and anxiety (The Mayo Clinic, 2020). Luckily, there are a number of ways to lower your heart rate and get your ticker in tip-top shape.

1. Exercise – It may seem strange but getting your heart pumping as much as you can on a daily basis is proven to lower your overall resting heart rate. Your heart is a muscle, and cardiovascular (heart-pumping) activity is the best medicine for strengthening it. A recent study published in Germany examined approximately 200 worldwide exercise studies conducted over the past 50 years. They not only found that endurance sports and yoga significantly reduce a person’s RHR, but also go so far as to recommend these types of exercises as adequate therapy and treatment options for patients with high RHRs (Reimers, Knapp & Reimers, 2018).

2. Eat Fish – Many times when we think of healthy diets we look back to our roots and try to identify the foods our primitive ancestors might have eaten. One of the most longstanding foods in the human diet comes from the sea and rightfully so, is one of the most nourishing comestibles you can put in your body. Fish, especially those high in omega-3’s like salmon, mackerel, cod, and trout, are seen to dramatically reduce RHR. According to Harvard Health, eating 1-2 servings of fish per week reduces your risk of heart attack by 22% (Harvard Health Online, 2018).

3. Drink Coffee – We all love that morning cup of joe. Now love it even more knowing that you are helping your heart at the same time! We all appreciate coffee’s dramatic effects of waking us up and injecting us with the caffeine we need to get our day going. But did you also know that moderate to low doses of coffee have shown to reduce your overall RHR? Studies show that drinking coffee stabilizes blood pressure, which in turn, promotes a healthy pulse. This is true for both habitual and non-habitual coffee-drinkers (Sudano, Bingelli, Spiker & Luscher, 2005).



4. Bathe in the Trees – The Japanese practice of forest bathing has become a hot topic in the field of modern-day health and wellness. Forest bathing is a simple activity that requires you to disconnect from the busyness of urban life and take a moment to walk among the trees – literally. Just in the same way our environment induces stress, it can also reduce it if applied and integrated correctly. Being in nature, specifically in the presence of trees, is scientifically linked to lower blood pressure, lower cortisol levels, and yes – lower RHR. Walking just 15 minutes among the pines is shown to reduce RHR by 19.4%, and just looking at trees (not walking) was shown to reduce RHR by 18% (Park, B. J., Tsunetsugu, Kasetani, Kagawa, & Miyazaki, 2010). Now do you need a better reason to go on a hike?

5. Get Grounded – Similar to forest bathing, environmental health studies show that simply putting your bare feet on the grass-covered ground can do wonders for the heart. The earth emits certain electrons that are known to promote better cardiovascular health and neutralize harmful free radicals floating around in the body (Sinatra, 2020). Furthermore, grounding directly affects the human autonomic nervous system which relies on a stable and reactive heart rate. When a person experiences stress, it is natural for the heart to react with an increased or possibly, decreased, heart rate. This is called heart rate variability (HRV). If a person’s HRV does not react correctly – too slow or not at all – then it's possible your auto-nervous system is out of whack. The therapeutic effects of grounding have been shown to dramatically reduce stress and stabilize the nervous system – ultimately improving heart rate.

6. Dive In – Environmental science is at it again! Add open-water swimming to your list of heart-healthy activities. Remember that sensitive autotomic nervous system mentioned above? Well cool water is shown to stimulate this response - and in a good way. It relaxes the body, induces better sleep patterns, improves circulation, releases endorphins in the brain, and increases your metabolism – all while stabilizing your heart rate (“Discover the Benefits…”, n.d.). And get this – studies show that people who swim reduce their heart rate by 12 beats fewer per minute than those who exercise on land!



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