You’re sitting on the couch, maybe scrolling through your phone or watching a movie, and you feel that familiar little thumping in your chest. You glance down at your Apple Watch or Fitbit, and there it is: 89 beats per minute. It’s a weird number. It isn’t 100, which is the official "emergency" cutoff for tachycardia, but it’s definitely not that athletic 60 bpm you see people bragging about on fitness forums.
Is a heart rate 89 at rest something to worry about?
The short answer is: it depends. Honestly, medical textbooks will tell you that anything between 60 and 100 bpm is "normal." But if you ask a cardiologist like Dr. Eric Topol or look at recent longitudinal studies, they might give you a slightly more nuanced take. A resting heart rate of 89 is sitting right on the edge of what many experts now consider the "high-normal" range. It’s not a crisis. It’s a signal.
The Reality of the 60 to 100 Range
For decades, the medical establishment has used the 60–100 bpm range as the gold standard for a healthy heart. It's easy to remember. It’s clean. But bodies aren't clean or easy. In reality, most healthy adults who aren't currently stressed or caffeinated tend to sit between 55 and 75 bpm.
When you hit 89, you’re essentially running a high idle.
Think of your heart like a car engine. If you're parked but the engine is revving higher than it needs to, you’re burning more fuel and wearing out the parts just a little bit faster. Research published in BMJ Open actually tracked thousands of men over several decades and found that those with a resting heart rate on the higher end of the "normal" scale—specifically above 80 bpm—had a higher risk of cardiovascular issues compared to those in the 50s and 60s.
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This doesn't mean you're in danger right this second. It just means your heart is working harder than maybe it should be for a body that's supposed to be at peace.
Why is Your Heart Rate 89 Right Now?
Context is everything. If you just finished a cup of coffee or you're slightly dehydrated, your pulse is going to jump. It’s just physics. Blood gets thicker when you're dehydrated, and your heart has to push harder to move it around.
- Stress and Anxiety: This is the big one. Even if you don't feel panicked, low-level chronic stress keeps your sympathetic nervous system—the "fight or flight" side—in the driver's seat.
- Poor Sleep: One night of tossing and turning can send your resting heart rate up by 10 beats the next day.
- Digestion: Ever heard of the "meat sweats"? Digestion takes a ton of energy. If you just ate a big meal, your heart rate will stay elevated for a few hours while your body processes the nutrients.
- Subclinical Infection: Sometimes a heart rate of 89 is the first sign you're coming down with a cold or the flu, even before you start sneezing.
I’ve seen people freak out over a single reading of 89. Don't do that. Your heart rate is dynamic. It changes every second. What matters isn't the 89 you saw at 2:00 PM on a Tuesday; what matters is the trend. Is it always 89? Even when you first wake up in the morning before you’ve even moved your legs? That’s the "true" resting heart rate that doctors actually care about.
The Problem with Being "High Normal"
There’s a concept in medicine called the "Allostatic Load." It’s basically the wear and tear on the body that accumulates when you’re exposed to repeated or chronic stress. Having a heart rate 89 at rest consistently puts you in a state where your body is never truly "downshifting."
According to the Copenhagen Male Study, which followed nearly 3,000 men for 16 years, every increase of 10 to 22 bpm in resting heart rate was associated with a significantly increased risk of mortality. Now, that sounds scary. I know. But the nuance here is that these were people whose heart rates stayed high over years.
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If your heart is beating 89 times a minute, it’s beating about 128,000 times a day. If it were beating 65 times a minute, it would be doing about 93,000 beats. That’s a difference of 35,000 beats every single day. Over a year, that’s millions of extra contractions. You want to give that muscle a break.
How to Actually Lower a Heart Rate of 89
If you’re seeing 89 on your tracker and you want to see 69, you can’t just wish it away. You have to change the environment the heart lives in.
Magnesium and Electrolytes
A lot of people are walking around magnesium deficient. Magnesium is basically the "off switch" for your muscles and nervous system. If you’re low, your heart—which is just a big fancy muscle—can stay "twitchy" and fast.
The Power of Zone 2 Cardio
It sounds counterintuitive to work your heart to make it slow down, but that’s how cardiovascular fitness works. Specifically, Zone 2 exercise (where you can still hold a conversation but you're definitely working) strengthens the heart's left ventricle. A stronger heart can pump more blood with a single squeeze. If the squeeze is more efficient, the heart doesn't have to beat as often. Simple as that.
Vagus Nerve Stimulation
The vagus nerve is like the brake pedal for your heart. You can actually trigger it manually. Deep, diaphragmatic breathing—the kind where your belly sticks out—signals the vagus nerve to tell the heart to chill out. If you sit and do 5 minutes of "box breathing" (inhale 4, hold 4, exhale 4, hold 4), you will likely see that 89 drop into the 70s almost immediately.
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When to See a Doctor
Look, I'm a writer, not your personal cardiologist. If your heart rate 89 at rest is accompanied by other things, you need to stop reading and go get a checkup.
Are you feeling dizzy? Do you have palpitations where it feels like a fish is flopping in your chest? Are you unusually short of breath when you walk up a single flight of stairs? These are the red flags. Also, check your blood pressure. Often, a high resting heart rate and high blood pressure go hand-in-hand as part of metabolic syndrome.
One thing people often overlook is the thyroid. An overactive thyroid (hyperthyroidism) acts like a gas pedal for the whole body. It can keep your heart rate high regardless of how much yoga you do or how much magnesium you take. A simple blood test can rule that out.
The Wearable Trap
We have more data than ever, but sometimes it just makes us neurotic. If you're checking your wrist every ten minutes, the act of checking is probably keeping your heart rate at 89. It’s a feedback loop.
Try this: Take your tracker off for 24 hours. Reset your nervous system. Often, the anxiety of "optimizing" our health is the very thing standing in the way of it.
Actionable Next Steps
If you want to move the needle on that heart rate 89 at rest, start here:
- Hydrate properly: Not just water, but electrolytes. Add a pinch of sea salt and lemon to your water or get a sugar-free electrolyte mix.
- Morning Check: Measure your heart rate the second you wake up, before you get out of bed. If it's still 89 then, it's worth a conversation with a pro.
- Cut the liquid energy: Try half-caff for a week. Caffeine stays in your system way longer than you think (it has a half-life of about 5-6 hours).
- Check your meds: Some asthma inhalers, ADHD medications, and even OTC decongestants can artificially inflate your pulse.
A heart rate of 89 is a yellow light. It’s not a red light. It's a prompt to look at your sleep, your stress, and your movement. Take care of the engine, and the RPMs will eventually come down on their own.