Pay Attention to the Resting Heart Rate on Your Smart Watch

Why knowing your personal norm can help you keep tabs on your health

Lauren Tanabe
Elemental
Published in
7 min readMar 19, 2021

--

A woman stretching while wearing a smartwatch.
Photo: Grace Cary/Getty Images

“According to my Fitbit, I’m probably going to die soon,” I informed my husband.

“Probably from stressing about those numbers,” was his not completely unreasonable response.

--

--

Lauren Tanabe
Elemental

I’m a writer in Detroit and former scientist. I have a sciencey PhD from Columbia University and two young kids. I like coffee, silence, and brains. ltanabe.com