The easiest place to find your pulse is on the inside of your wrist, just below the base of your thumb. Place the tips of your index and middle fingers on that spot, press gently, and you should feel a rhythmic tapping against your fingertips within a few seconds. A normal resting heart rate for adults falls between 60 and 100 beats per minute.
Finding Your Radial Pulse (Wrist)
The wrist is the go-to spot for checking your own pulse because it’s accessible and reliable. Here’s how to do it:
- Turn one hand so your palm faces up.
- Find the groove between the bone on the thumb side of your wrist and the tendon that runs alongside it.
- Place the tips of your index and middle fingers from your other hand into that groove.
- Press lightly until you feel each beat. Pushing too hard can actually block blood flow and make the pulse harder to detect.
Never use your thumb to check a pulse. Your thumb has its own pulse, and you can easily confuse it with the one you’re trying to measure.
Finding Your Neck Pulse (Carotid)
Your neck carries a strong, easy-to-find pulse on either side of your windpipe, in the soft groove between the windpipe and the large muscle that runs down the side of your neck. Use the same two-finger technique with gentle pressure.
Two important safety rules apply here. First, only check one side at a time. Pressing on both neck arteries simultaneously can restrict blood flow to your brain. Second, avoid pressing high up near the angle of your jaw, where a pressure-sensitive structure called the carotid sinus sits. Compressing it can cause your heart rate to drop suddenly or make you feel lightheaded.
Other Pulse Points on Your Body
Your wrist and neck are the most practical spots, but pulses can be felt at several other locations. These are useful in different situations, from checking circulation in your legs to monitoring a baby’s heart rate.
- Inside of the elbow (brachial): Found just above the crease of your inner elbow, between the bone on the inside of your arm and the bicep tendon. This is the preferred location for checking an infant’s pulse during an emergency.
- Top of the foot (dorsalis pedis): Located on the top of your foot, roughly in line with the tendon that runs to your big toe. Useful for checking blood flow to the feet, especially if you have diabetes or circulation concerns.
- Behind the inner ankle (posterior tibial): Found just behind the bony bump on the inside of your ankle. This is considered the hardest pulse to find, even for experienced clinicians, so don’t worry if you can’t locate it easily.
- Behind the knee (popliteal): Felt in the soft area behind your knee, slightly to the outside of center. You typically need to press firmly with both hands cupped around the knee to detect it.
- Groin (femoral): Located in the crease where your leg meets your torso. This pulse is strong but primarily checked in medical settings.
How to Count Your Heart Rate
Once you’ve found your pulse, watch a clock or set a timer. Count the number of beats you feel, starting with zero on the first beat, then begin counting with the next.
The most common shortcut is counting for 15 seconds and multiplying by four. This gets you a reasonable estimate, with an average error of about 2 beats per minute. But that average hides a wider range: about 5% of the time, your reading could be off by 5 or more beats per minute. So if you count 70, your actual rate could be anywhere from 65 to 75.
Counting for 30 seconds and multiplying by two cuts the average error roughly in half, to about 1 beat per minute. For everyday checks, either method works fine. If you’re tracking your heart rate closely for a health condition, or if the rhythm feels uneven, count for a full 60 seconds to get the most accurate number. Those errors only account for natural heart rate variability. Real-world factors like miscounting or losing track of time make the margin wider.
Normal Resting Heart Rate by Age
What counts as “normal” depends heavily on age. Younger hearts beat faster.
- Newborns (0 to 1 month): 100 to 160 bpm
- Infants (1 to 12 months): 80 to 140 bpm
- Toddlers (1 to 3 years): 80 to 130 bpm
- Preschoolers (3 to 5 years): 80 to 110 bpm
- School-age children (6 to 12): 70 to 100 bpm
- Adolescents and adults: 60 to 100 bpm
Well-trained athletes often have resting rates in the 40s or 50s because their hearts pump more blood per beat. A rate below 60 in a fit, healthy person is typically nothing to worry about.
What Affects Your Pulse
Your heart rate shifts constantly throughout the day. Stress, anxiety, and fear trigger your body’s fight-or-flight response, flooding your system with adrenaline and pushing your heart rate up so muscles get more blood and oxygen. Caffeine, dehydration, heat, and illness can do the same. Your pulse naturally slows when you’re resting, relaxed, or sleeping. Certain medications and medical devices like pacemakers also influence your rate.
For the most consistent reading, check your pulse first thing in the morning before getting out of bed, or after sitting quietly for at least five minutes. This gives you a true resting heart rate you can track over time.
What an Irregular Pulse Feels Like
When you’re checking your pulse, pay attention to the rhythm as well as the speed. A healthy pulse feels steady and evenly spaced, like a metronome. An irregular pulse might feel like a skipped beat followed by a stronger-than-usual thump, or beats that come at uneven intervals.
Occasional skipped beats (premature heartbeats) are common and usually harmless. They feel like your heart paused and then caught up with an extra-strong beat. But a pulse that consistently feels irregular, racing, or unusually slow is worth getting checked. Persistent irregularity can signal conditions like atrial fibrillation, which is treatable but important to catch.
Pulse Checks in an Emergency
If someone collapses and you’re unsure whether their heart is beating, the current American Heart Association guidelines say that non-medical bystanders should skip the pulse check entirely. Instead, focus on whether the person is responsive and breathing normally. If they’re unresponsive and not breathing (or only gasping), call emergency services and start chest compressions.
Even trained healthcare professionals find pulse checks unreliable under pressure and are directed to spend no more than 10 seconds trying. If they can’t definitively feel a pulse in that window, they start CPR immediately. Delays from prolonged pulse-checking are a recognized problem in emergency response, so acting quickly matters more than confirming a pulse.