A common myth says we’re all born with a set number of heartbeats, and if you use them up through exercise, you’ll die sooner.
But new research from Australia proves this idea wrong—and in fact, shows the opposite may be true.
Scientists at the HEART Laboratory, led by Professor André La Gerche at the St Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research and the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, have discovered that people who are fit actually use fewer heartbeats every day, even though they exercise more.
Their study, published in the journal JACC: Advances, shows that regular physical activity makes the heart more efficient, leading to a lower resting heart rate.
In the study, athletes had an average heart rate of 68 beats per minute (bpm), while non-athletes averaged 76 bpm. Over 24 hours, that equals about 97,920 heartbeats a day for athletes versus 109,440 for non-athletes—around 11,500 fewer beats each day.
That’s about a 10% difference, which may not sound like much, but it adds up quickly over time. Over a year, that’s more than 4 million extra beats for the sedentary group.
You might think that exercise, which raises your heart rate, would mean more total beats per day. But the study found that even when including the increased heart rate during workouts, fit people still used fewer beats overall, thanks to their much lower resting rates for the rest of the day.
Some elite athletes had resting heart rates as low as 40 bpm. That’s far lower than the average resting rate of 70 to 80 bpm in the general population. A lower resting heart rate is a clear sign of a healthy heart and strong cardiovascular fitness.
Professor La Gerche says the idea that the body is like a battery with a limited charge, which gets used up by exercise, is just a myth. This outdated belief was even promoted by former US President Donald Trump. But science shows the opposite: the fitter you are, the more efficiently your heart and body work.
“When you’re fit, your body uses oxygen better and your heart doesn’t have to work as hard,” says La Gerche. “Even if you’re exercising for an hour a day, your heart beats more slowly for the other 23 hours. So you end up saving heartbeats overall.”
This is great news for anyone trying to stay healthy. It means that even a small amount of regular exercise—like walking briskly, cycling, or swimming a few times a week—can strengthen your heart, reduce your daily heartbeats, and possibly extend your life.
Besides improving heart health, exercise has many other benefits, including better mental health, lower risk of heart disease, and longer lifespan. While very intense endurance sports might briefly raise your total heartbeats for the day, the long-term health gains from regular moderate exercise are far greater.
The key takeaway is simple: moving from being inactive to moderately active can dramatically improve how your heart works. With just a few hours of activity a week, you can make your heart beat more efficiently—and make every beat count.
The study is published in JACC: Advances.
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