Normal Sinus Rhythm

A normal heart rate is known as normal sinus rhythm in the medical arena. This means that your heart is beating normal, the rate is between 60 and 100 beats per minute (bpm), and the beats are synchronized. Everything inside your heart is functioning correctly.



A normal heart rate can be determined by listening to your heart, by looking at a rhythm strip printed on paper, by looking at your heart on a cardiac monitor, or by different tests like an ekg or an echocardiogram.

Have you ever wondered what the health care people are listening for when they place the stethoscope on your chest? They are listening to your heart paying special attention to the heart rate, rhythm, and for extra sounds. In other words, is your heart regular? Is it beating at a normal rate? Are there any abnormal sounds like a heart murmur or a bruit?

When your heart rate is printed on paper, the rhythm strip will look perfect. Just like the one below.

Regular Heart Rhythm

As you can see, the rhythm strip looks very nice and clean and it does not show any irregularities.

Calculating the heart rate
The easiest method of calculating the heart rate is to divide 1500 by the number of small boxes between the R waves. On the rhythm above, there are 19 small boxes. If we divide 1500 by 19, we get 78. The heart rate is 78 beats per minute.

You can also divide 300 by the number of large boxes between the R waves. There are 3.8 large boxes. The heart rate will still be 78 beats per minute.

Morphology of a sinus rhythm