All articles tagged with #heart rate
Apple Watch Series 12 introduces the new Health Sensing System with a faster heart-rate monitor, enabling the Heart Rate complication to show live readings instead of just an app launcher. The five-second heart-rate polling makes the small complication more useful, and pre-orders start at $399 for the Series 12 and $799 for the Ultra 4, with launches on September 18.
Apple says the Health Sensing System in the Apple Watch Series 12 (and Ultra 4) delivers the most accurate heart-rate sensing of wearables, backed by a multi-site study with 1,460 adults that compared Series 12 against rivals like Garmin, Google Pixel Watch 4, Huawei, Samsung, WHOOP, and Oura Ring. In 159 comparisons, Series 12 was more accurate in 139. Pre-orders start at $399 for the Series 12 and $799 for the Ultra 4, with a September 18 launch.
Bloomberg reports Apple is testing continuous 24/7 heart-rate monitoring for the Apple Watch Series 12 and plans to refresh the Fitness and Health apps with more wellness metrics, aiming to rival Garmin and Whoop. The update could also include hardware tweaks like a faster processor, larger battery, and the return of ceramic cases, ahead of Apple’s September 9 event.
A recent review highlights that heart rate reflects cardiovascular health, metabolic rate, and autonomic nervous system activity. Resting heart rate is linked to lifespan, with lower rates (often seen in fit individuals) associated with longer survival, though extremes can signal issues in non-athletes. Maximum heart rate declines with age and varies by person, so individualized formulas or field tests are better than generic rules for setting training zones. Heart rate reserve (max minus resting) helps tailor workouts, while heart rate variability remains controversial and should not be the sole training guide. For measurements, use reliable monitors (chest straps over many wearables) and, above all, listen to how you feel and log your training to decide when to train.
Apple's ECG app on Series 4 and later (including Ultra) offers detailed heart-electrical readings beyond basic heart-rate data, showing results like sinus rhythm or AFib. Setup is via the Health app, availability varies by country, and Apple notes it isn’t a substitute for medical care.
Five blue whales and four humpbacks were tagged to measure heart rates during lunge-feeding; results show heart rates rise to about 21.9 bpm (blue whales) and 28.2 bpm (humpbacks) during lunges and then slowly fall between lunges, indicating a mix of anaerobic energy and rapid recovery that enables feeding while conserving oxygen. Resting rates were as low as 18.5 bpm, highlighting a shared metabolic pattern and potential health indicators for whales amid changing prey and noise pollution.
Ohio State researchers found horses instantly recognize predators like wolves on a silent video, triggering rapid heart-rate increases even as they appear calm and unmoved. The stress is greater in males and dominant horses, suggesting internal agitation may accompany outward composure. Eye movement data imply quick cognitive assessment within 20 seconds, challenging the idea that prey animals only panic and run. Findings have welfare and rider-safety implications, especially around canines.
Experts say walking counts as cardio when you raise your heart rate into aerobic zones: aim for a brisk pace or hills to reach about 70–90% of your max heart rate (roughly 220 minus age) with a cadence around 100 steps per minute for moderate intensity. For extra benefit, add short bursts of higher intensity (1–4 minutes at ~80% max HR). Even short walks can lower blood pressure and blood glucose and reduce all-cause mortality, while longer easy walks are fine for stress relief. The walk’s quality matters as much as its length.
Walking offers cardiovascular benefits, and whether it counts as cardio depends on how much your heart rate rises. Brisk walks, hills and short high‑intensity bursts can place you in aerobic zones and boost heart health, while casual strolls may not reach training levels. Large studies link more walking with lower mortality and cardiovascular risk—5,000 steps daily is associated with lower risk, and every extra 500 steps reduces cardiovascular death risk by about 7%. For max benefit, track your heart rate to hit zones 2–4, add intervals and elevation changes, and weave walking into a broader program that includes resistance training; even without HR tracking, moving regularly improves health.
A ZDNET test compared the Fitbit Air to a Polar H10 chest strap during a gym workout. Heart-rate data were fairly close with minor lag, but calories burned were consistently underestimated—about 12% during treadmill work and up to ~30% during strength training. The results reflect how wrist wearables can miss rapid heart-rate changes and rely on formulas that combine HR with other factors, so use HR data for training and calorie estimates as rough figures. The author cautions that two tests aren’t enough to draw sweeping conclusions about overall accuracy.
New tests show AirPods Pro 3 track heart rate with surprising accuracy—averaging around 1.67% error against a Polar chest strap—nearly matching many smartwatches, but the Apple Watch Series 11 still offers the best precision; earbuds are becoming a credible secondary health tracker and hint at a future where wearables beyond the wrist lead heart-rate data collection.
On a 10km run, the author compares Google's new screenless Fitbit Air with the Apple Watch Ultra 3, using a Polar H10 chest strap as a backstop (which malfunctioned). Both devices rely on optical HR to estimate calories, but the Air piggybacks on the iPhone’s GPS (no built‑in GPS) while the Ultra 3 has built‑in GPS, so Apple is expected to be more accurate for distance metrics. Health data from Google Health and Apple Health aren’t linked in this test. The piece also touches on Fitbit’s app changes and the Air’s AI Health Coach, with the run results shown in a navigable on‑page chart detailing heart rate, calories, and pace differences.
Google’s Fitbit Air is a $99, screenless fitness tracker that works with the Google Health app. This seven‑step setup guide walks you through enabling alarms, setting wrist preference to improve step accuracy, adjusting vibration, sharing heart‑rate data with apps/equipment, selecting a main fitness goal, configuring heart‑rate warnings, and turning on AFib irregular rhythm alerts—delivering a quick, subscription‑free path to start tracking sleep and workouts.
A 29-year-old man with atrial fibrillation experienced a racing heartbeat at hospital admission. A routine digital rectal exam, combined with a Valsalva maneuver, is thought to have stimulated the vagus nerve and slowed his heart rate to about 80 bpm, with the irregular rhythm resolving and not returning months later. Standard AFib treatments typically involve medications or electrical cardioversion; this rectal-exam approach is not established therapy and requires more research. The patient was also prescribed an anticoagulant to prevent clots.
Samsung Display’s Sensor OLED Display, unveiled at SID 2026, pairs a 6.8-inch 500ppi OLED panel with built-in privacy via Flex Magic Pixel and integrated organic photodiodes that can measure heart rate (and potentially blood pressure and fingerprints). The 33% jump in pixel density over last year’s 374ppi version matches modern flagship sharpness, leveraging a co-deposition process to fuse OLED and OPD elements in one layer, a technology also seen in the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s Privacy Display.