For some reason when I sat down this afternoon I opened my phone’s stopwatch and counted my heart beats for a minute. I counted 52.

I had just been walking around so after sitting a few minutes did it again and got 50. A few minutes later I got 49, then another 49.

In physics labs in school, we learned to take at least 5 measurements. I downloaded an app to measure my pulse. It got a 49 too.

I looked up “resting heart rate men 46 years old” and found this site, with this chart:

It says I’m an athlete

According to the page, my heart rate is in the top 2.5% of my age and sex, describing me as an athlete.

I don’t think of myself as an athlete, though I like the label. I exercise less than an hour a day, which is nothing compared to the average American’s 5 hours per day watching TV. We spend our leisure time differently—exercising versus watching TV—but I spend less time at my pastime than they do. Maybe I lack their dedication and discipline.

If I spent as much time exercising as most people did watching TV, I’d be in better shape.

Update

I check my heart rate with the app now and then and find that when I’m sitting reading it drops below 49. My lowest so far is 45 beats per minute, which I took screen shot of:

This result puts me off the chart above, presumably in a fraction of the top 1%.

Update 2

Lest one think the above measure was a fluke, a few weeks later I got:

• ← Real-Life Spider-man, Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Strange, and the Hulk Are Saving Lives
• I wish I had the dedication and discipline of most Americans →