Monitoring a person's pulse is one of the simplest forms of medical assessment. Blood moves throughout the body as the smooth muscles lining the walls of the arteries contract and relax, in time to the beating of the heart. The pulse rate then represents the number of times a heart beats in a single minute. Healthy adults have a resting heart rate between 60 and 100 beats per minute.Factors Influencing Pulse RateA number of factors influence an individual's resting heart rate including age, gender and fitness levels:Age: Children's pulse rates have a different pattern than adults' pulse rates. This differential begins in utero: The normal heart rate of a fetus is between 120 and 160 beats; lower rates are often interpreted as an indication of fetal distress. During the first year of life, pulse rates typically range between 100 and 160; between the ages of one and ten, a child's pulse rate is generally between 60 and 100. After the age of 11, a child's pulse rate should be the same as an adult's.The elderly are prone to suffer from either abnormally low pulse rates (bradycardia) or abnormally high pulse rates (tachycardia.) It also take a much longer time for an elderly individual's pulse rate to increase when he or she exercises, and to decrease after exercise is finished.Gender: Women typically have a higher resting pulse rate than men because their hearts are smaller and therefore have to work harder. Women who exercise have lower resting pulse rates.Fitness: Individuals who engage in regular aerobic exercise have stronger hearts. Consequently, their resting pulse rates tend to be lower. Some athletes consistently have resting pulse rates in the 40s and they are perfectly healthy!How To Take a Resting PulseThe body has a number of points where the pulse may be palpated. The most frequently used pulse point is the radial pulse on the wrist at the base of the thumb. Take your index and middle fingers and press them gently to the inside of your wrist a little less than an inch beneath your thumb. That throbbing you feel is your radial pulse; if you don't, you may have to press down slightly but don't press down so hard you occlude the pulse.Count the number of beats you feel over a 15 second interval, then multiply times four to obtain your resting pulse rate.