If you are in shape, your heart rate is about 60 beats per minute. If you are not in shape, it beats faster, let us say at 80 beats per minute. About how many more beats does a heart that is not in shape beat than an in-shape heart? (By the way, if you squeeze a tennis ball with your hand, that is about how hard your heart works on one beat. Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze . . .. think about it!)
Solution
The excess of 80 bpm over 60 is 20 bpm. There are 60 minutes in an hour and 24 hours in a day. That makes 28,000 extra beats per day. There are 365 days in most years, so that makes 10,512,000 extra beats per year---over 10 million. This is at 20 bpm. An in-shape heart, at 60 bpm for the year, would be three times that. Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze . . . amazing, no?