Does Your Heart Rate Decrease Over Time With Exercise?
Your heart rate does decrease over time with regular exercise training. With physical activity, specifically aerobic exercise, your body makes changes to its physiology that make it easier for your heart to pump the blood your body needs without working as hard. This means your heart rate is lower at a resting and exercising state, which makes it possible for you to exercise longer and harder. In fact, some athletes can have a resting heart rate between 40 and 60 beats per minute.
LEFT VENTRICULAR ADAPTATIONS
The left ventricle is the last stop for blood inside the heart before it is pumped out to the rest of the body. This means the left ventricle has an important job -- it provides blood delivery to the parts of your body that need it. With regular exercise training your left ventricle is able to hold more blood because it becomes larger. A larger left ventricle not only holds more blood, it also is more powerful and pumps more blood. This means the heart has to work less and your heart rate decreases.
STROKE VOLUME
Stroke volume is the amount of blood your heart is able to pump per beat. Part of this increase has to do with the size of your left ventricle increasing. In any case, if the heart increases its stroke volume, it is able to deliver more blood per beat and can beat less often to deliver the same amount of blood. This means your heart rate decreases, but this cannot happen without regular exercise.
BLOOD VOLUME
The amount of blood your body holds also increases with regular exercise. The increase in blood volume is both blood plasma and red blood cells. If your body has more red blood cells, the blood is able to carry more oxygen. With a larger amount of oxygen in your blood, the heart rate can decrease because with each contraction more oxygen is available to the whole body. Therefore, the heart can pump less.
BLOOD FLOW
Blood flow is greater and more efficient in a trained person, allowing the heart rate to decrease. The capillaries are blood vessels that provide each working muscle with the blood it needs. Regular exercise training increases the capillarization of your muscles. This means with each pump of your heart, blood is able to reach more of the body which can lead to a reduction in heart rate.