Only three relevant journal articles presented titles including the search term “resting heart rate” (or synonyms of this term). Thus, the aim of this systematic literature review was to calculate the effects of any regular sports and/or exercise on RHR of healthy subjects through meta-analysis by considering different types of sports and exercise and by considering differences between men and women. However, to the best of our knowledge, a comprehensive review and meta-analysis of the effects of regular physical exercise on the RHR in various sports and exercise and a comparison of the effects of different exercise and sports is still missing. Furthermore, a decrease in heart rate at quiet condition was found after tai chi exercise in healthy adults as shown in the meta-analysis of Zheng, Li, Huang, Liu, Tao and Chen. In another meta-analysis encompassing 13 studies, Huang, Shi, Davis-Brezette, and Osness concluded that endurance training causes RHR reductions of 8.4% in older individuals which were even higher in controlled clinical trials with a training length of more than 30 weeks. Their meta-analysis revealed a reduction in heart rate of 6.59 bpm in studies that compared yoga with no-treatment usual care, or any active treatment in healthy participants. Thus, the examination of effects regular exercise and physical activity on RHR is of particular interest, and has been studied in previous systematic reviews: Cramer, Lauche, Haller, Steckhan, Michalsen, and Dobos found a significant reduction in heart rate through yoga interventions in their systematic review of randomized controlled trials on effects of yoga on diverse cardiovascular risk factors. However, in humans, RHR also seems to be an indicator of mortality, which has been analyzed in some studies. This might be due to advances in science, medicine, and sociology. Only humans fall out of the alignment and have reached a life expectancy of about 80 years. Furthermore, he calculated that the inverse relationship of RHR and life expectancy in mammalians could be expressed mathematically with on average 7.3 ± 5.6 × 10 8 heart beats per lifetime. The relationship between RHR and life expectancy has been studied in mammals by Levine, who found a semi-logarithmic relationship in mammals and concluded that the total number of heartbeats per lifetime is remarkably constant. One possible mechanism explaining increases in life expectancy through exercise and physical activity might be the mediating effect of resting heart rate (RHR): possibly, regular exercise and/or physical activity cause a reduction in RHR, and RHR seems to be inversely related with life expectancy and positively related with cardiovascular and all-cause mortality. Regular exercise and physical activity throughout a lifespan can improve life expectancy and disability-adjusted life expectancy, as shown in many studies. Life expectancy has increased rapidly during the last century and disability-adjusted life expectancy has been extending as well. This effect may contribute to a reduction in all-cause mortality due to regular exercise or sports.Ī major goal in healthcare is to increase life expectancy and eminently improve healthy and happy aging by compressing morbidity into a shorter period in a later stage of the lifespan. From this, we can conclude that exercise-especially endurance training and yoga-decreases RHR. The exercise-induced decreases of RHR were positively related with the pre-interventional RHR and negatively with the average age of the participants.

However, only endurance training and yoga significantly decreased the RHR in both sexes. 21 yoga, 5 tai chi, 3 qigong, and 2 unspecified types of sports. 121 trials examined the effects of endurance training, 43 strength training, 15 combined endurance and strength training, 5 additional school sport programs. The literature search analyzed 191 studies presenting 215 samples fitting the eligibility criteria. The studies were summarized by meta-analyses.

A systematic literature research was conducted in six databases for the identification of controlled trials dealing with the effects of exercise or sports on the RHR in healthy subjects was performed. The aim of the systematic review was to assess whether regular exercise or sports have an impact on the RHR in healthy subjects by taking different types of sports into account. Regular exercise causes a reduction in RHR.

Resting heart rate (RHR) is positively related with mortality.

Ideal heart rate while brisk walking