How Sitting Too Long Affects Your Heart

Sitting for long periods isn’t just about losing time. It can quietly affect your heart rate, often raising your resting heart rate and gradually weakening your heart. Those small changes in heart rate are your body’s way of saying, “Hey, this isn’t good for you!” Keeping an eye on these two key numbers is one of the easiest ways to know when it’s time to get up and move.

Resting Heart Rate: Your Heart’s “Baseline”

Your resting heart rate is how many times your heart beats when you’re completely at rest. The best time to measure it is in the morning, right after waking up, before you even get out of bed.

  • Normal range: For most adults, it’s 60–80 bpm (beats per minute). For athletes or those in great shape, it can be as low as 40–60 bpm.
  • Impact of sitting: If your resting heart rate increases significantly over a period of time (e.g., from 65 to 75 bpm), it shows that your heart is becoming less efficient at pumping blood. The heart has to “work overtime” to do what it used to handle with ease. This extra workload puts a gradual strain on your heart over time.

Active Heart Rate: Your Heart’s “Real-Time Test”

When you sit too much, your heart’s ability to handle even light activity can drop.

  • Daily signs: Actions you used to do easily—like climbing 3-4 flights of stairs or walking briskly for 10 minutes—might now cause your heart rate to spike and leave you out of breath.
  • Recovery after exercise: A healthy heart should see its rate drop by 15–25 beats in the first minute after exercise. Slow recovery means your heart and lung function may be compromised.

If you have existing health conditions, check with your doctor before changing your exercise or daily routine.

How to Improve Your Heart Health

Sitting for long stretches keeps your body in a low-energy, low-circulation state. The good news? Simple changes can help your heart recover over time.

  • Take micro-breaks: Every 30–60 minutes, get up and move for 3–5 minutes—march in place, walk around, or follow a Relaxo stretch video.
  • Keep active regularly: Try 3–5 sessions a week of 20–30 minutes of light exercise—like brisk walking, jogging, cycling, or swimming—to gradually lower your resting heart rate.
  • Look after your overall health: Sleep well and eat a balanced diet with less saturated fat and salt to give your heart the support it needs.

Tip: If you have any existing health conditions, check with your doctor before changing your exercise or daily routine.

Learn more about heart rate: What is heart rate? What is resting heart rate?

​

References

Barantke, M., Krauss, T., Ortak, J., Lieb, W., Reppel, M., Burgstahler, C., Hombach, V., Marx, N., & Koenig, W. (2008). Effects of gender and age on heart rate variability in a large population-based sample. Journal of Cardiovascular Electrophysiology, 19 (9), 939–945.

Agelink, M. W., Malessa, R., Baumann, B., Majewski, T., Akila, F., Zeit, T., & Klieser, E. (2001). Standardized tests of heart rate variability: Normal ranges obtained from 309 healthy humans, and effects of age, gender, and heart rate. Clinical Autonomic Research, 11 (2), 99–108.

Acharya, U. R., Joseph, K. P., Kannathal, N., Lim, C. M., & Suri, J. S. (2006). Heart rate variability: a review. Medical & Biological Engineering & Computing, 44 (12), 1031–1051.

Biswas, S. (2020). A study on resting heart rate and heart rate variability of athletes, non-athletes and cricketers. American Journal of Sports Science, 8 (4), 95-98. doi.org/10.11648/j.ajss.20200804.13

Lindgren, M., Unnarsdóttir, A. B., & Petersson, S. (2024). Resting heart rate in relation to socioeconomic status, medical conditions, and lifestyle factors: Cross-sectional analysis of the Prospective-BioMe biobank cohort. JMIR Formative Research, 8, e60493.