The power of knowing how to take all four pulses

By Jerry Vance

For the Appeal

In spite of the snow and sore backs from shoveling, people are finally returning to fitness.

Regardless of the form that your exercise takes, it's a good idea to understand how your body works. One of the most important parts of exercise is how to take your pulse and why.

There are four major areas of the body where you find a pulse. The apical pulse, located in the chest just over the heart; the carotid pulse, located in the neck; the temporal pulse, in the temple; and the radial pulse, found in the wrist.

Everyone has their own favorite method of pulse taking. If you are starting aerobic conditioning for the first time, you need some direction on the use of all four areas.

Your carotid artery is located on the side of the throat. Slide your fingers under your chin from the base of the ear halfway to the chin. One of your fingers should be able to pick up the heart beat.

Press VERY gently and count the beats. Too much pressure on the carotid artery can start a reflex that may cause the heart to slow, reducing the blood flow to the brain. Dizziness, becoming light-headed or fainting can result.

The radial pulse is found by following up from the base of your thumb to the valley between the first two wrist bones, about an inch up from the thumb base.

Don't use your thumb for taking pulses. It reflects heart beats and will only tend to confuse you, use your index and middle fingers.

Taking a temporal pulse is easy. Again use your index and middle fingers, not the thumb. Place your hand on your head about an inch above your eye, or just above and in front of the ear. It is the area we rub when a headache occurs, because the pounding seems to emanate from there.

The apical pulse can be found by placing the flat of your hand over the left side of the chest. I find this method is harder for the student to trace unless they have been working hard enough to substantially raise the heart rate.

Pulses should be taken at either six or 10 second intervals. The six-second method is a favorite of mine. You don't have to think very hard to accomplish the results.

A six second count of pulse requires only a zero added; thus, 12 counts would be 120. However, the more accurate is the 10-second method multiplied by six. Anything under a 10 second count lends a larger chance for error and anything over ten seconds gives the pulse rate time to drop.

Guidelines for how often you should take that pulse depend on whether or not you are a beginning student or advanced. The beginner should try about every 10 minutes, graduating up to every 15 minutes.

In an advanced class, the pulse might be taken only once or twice during an hour workout. A lot of outside factors interrelate with the pulse, the age of the student and any risk factors; whether the heart beat is irregular, soft or faint; whether the beat is frantic, loud or harsh sounding.

In any case, proper pulse readings, and proper interpretation can give you a lot of body knowledge you need for a safe aerobic workout.

• Jerry Vance is the owner of Sweat Shop/Wet Sweat. She offers classes through the Carson City Recreation and Aquatics Center and is a fitness instructor for the Carson City Senior Citizens Center.