Fit people - advice please?

[Megatron]

After a long illness I'm starting to try to regain some fitness. I'm not doing much - walking for half an hour a day and on stationary bike for around 10 mins so no marathons for me yet!

My question is this - I've been keeping an eye on my resting heart rate. How long would it take before you would expect to see a slightly lower resting heart rate? I do have a reason to ask which I'll explain if anyone can answer. Thanks!

Are you using Fitbit, or something more sophisticated? With Fitbit mine started reducing fairly quickly once I started running. It's now about 40 bpm less than it was when I started using mine in jan 2018 and have added the graph for you.

I also note that my resting heart rate varies by about 10bpm from my lowest, to the highest which occurs when I ovulate and then during my period. This appears to be fairly accurate as last month I could track that I had actually ovulated 10 days later than expected and could plot the exact day to expect my (late) period.

Sorry, I lied- it's 30 bpm less than when I started!

Wow that's a massive difference! I'm using Fitbit and the reason I wondered is that I've only really been taking a bit more exercise (and watching my diet a bit) for about three weeks but my rhr has gone down by an average of 10 bpm already. It's really encouraging that just doing something makes a difference.

It is a big difference. I literally went from zero exercise to running 10 minutes a day in January and gradually built up and it really did drop quickly.

It's genuinely making me want to keep going to do a little bit more each day.

Resting heart rate is not the best measure of fitness.

The speed your heart rate returns to normal once you have finished exercising is a far more representative factor.

No I know, I'm not fit at all, it'll take me a while yet. I spent a lot of time in hospital over the last 12 months (my high heart rate was becoming a worry). It's just encouraging to see any changes at all over a short period of time I suppose.