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In medicine, the normal pulse rate for humans ranges between 60-100 beats per minute (bpm), though there are some exceptions like the well-conditioned athletes who can have a heart rate as low as 40 bpm and newborns with heart rate as high as 180-190 bpm. The pulse of a person is influenced by several underlying factors, with age, weight and activities that the person indulges in being the most prominent of them all. Immense variations are observed when the person indulges in different physical activities. For instance, the heart rate of the individual may drop down to as low as 40 bpm when he is sleeping, but can increase to as high as 150-200 bpm when exercising.

Adults: In adults, the normal pulse rate ranges somewhere between 60-90 bpm - though its average tends to differ in accordance to gender. While the same for men is approximately 68-75 bpm, in women it is approximately 72-80 bpm. With age and weight have an important role to play, a young woman is more likely to have a higher heart rate compared to a woman older than her. Similarly, a woman who is overweight is more likely to have a higher pulse rate compared to a woman with considerably less weight.

Children: In children, pulse varies according to the age. While an infant would have a normal pulse rate ranging between 100-160 bpm, the same in toddlers or young children would range between 70-120 bpm. In older children, it would be between 60-100 bpm. As they start growing it decreases, and by the age of 10 years they join the adults with their average pulse rate ranging between 68-80 bpm.
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