SGUK Outdoor Skills Challenge 34: How to Take a Pulse

Knowing how to take a pulse is a useful skill to have outdoors. If someone feels unwell during a walk, struggles during a strenuous climb or needs a moment to recover after exertion, being able to measure a heart rate gives you another piece of information about how they’re doing.

It’s also a straightforward way to learn more about your own body. Take your pulse at rest, repeat the measurement after exercise and you’ll start to appreciate how your heart responds to different demands.

Finding a pulse is easy once you know where to look, although getting an accurate reading takes a little practice. For this challenge, you’ll learn to locate the pulse at your wrist, count the beats correctly and understand the limitations of what you’re measuring.

Your Challenge

Learn to locate and measure your pulse, calculate your heart rate in beats per minute and compare your resting reading with one taken after gentle physical activity.

By the end, you should be able to take a reading without relying on a smartwatch or fitness tracker, explain what your result means and recognise when a pulse reading is not enough to assess someone’s condition.

What You’ll Need

• A watch with a seconds display or a timer.
• A chair or somewhere comfortable to sit.
• A notebook or phone to record your results.
• A safe place to walk or carry out some gentle exercise.

You don’t need any specialist equipment. A fitness watch can be useful for comparison, but the point is to learn the manual method.

Take the Challenge

Step 1: Find the pulse in your wrist

The easiest place to start is the radial pulse, found on the thumb side of your wrist.

Sit comfortably and rest one forearm with your palm facing upwards. Using the index and middle fingers of your other hand, place the fingertips on the inside of the wrist, just below the base of the thumb.

Press gently until you can feel a regular beat beneath your fingers. You may need to move your fingertips slightly or adjust the pressure. Pressing too hard can make the pulse more difficult to feel.

Don’t use your thumb to measure a pulse. Your thumb has its own pulse, which can confuse the reading.

If you cannot find it immediately, don’t worry. Relax your hand, keep your wrist still and try again a little further towards the centre of the wrist or closer to the base of the thumb.

Step 2: Count the beats

Once you’ve found the pulse, count the beats for 30 seconds and multiply the total by two to calculate your heart rate in beats per minute.

For example, if you count 36 beats in 30 seconds:

36 × 2 = 72 beats per minute.

If the pulse feels irregular, count for a full 60 seconds instead. Doubling a short count can give a misleading result when the rhythm varies.

Keep your fingers in position throughout the count. If you lose the pulse, reposition your fingers and start again rather than guessing how many beats you missed.

Step 3: Measure your resting pulse

For a useful resting measurement, sit quietly for around five minutes before taking your pulse. Avoid talking or moving about during the count.

Record the result, the time and anything that might affect it, such as recent exercise, caffeine, stress or feeling unwell.

For most adults, a typical resting heart rate is around 60–100 beats per minute. However, this is a general guide rather than a pass-or-fail range. Some healthy, physically active adults have lower resting rates, and medication, illness, age and other factors can affect the result.

One reading on its own rarely tells you very much. Your usual resting rate and how you feel are important parts of the picture.

Step 4: See how your pulse responds to activity

Take a brisk walk for a few minutes at a pace that is comfortable for your current fitness level. You should be able to continue without pushing yourself to exhaustion.

As soon as you finish, stop somewhere safe and measure your pulse again. Record the time between finishing the activity and starting your count, because your heart rate begins to recover as soon as you rest.

Compare this reading with your resting result. It will usually be higher after exercise because your muscles need more oxygen and your heart must circulate blood more quickly.

Rest comfortably and, after a few minutes, take another reading. Record that result too.

You now have three measurements: resting, immediately after activity and following recovery. The comparison is more useful than any single number because it shows how your heart rate changes with activity and rest.

Don’t try to reach a particular number. The aim is to observe your own response, not to compete with somebody else’s reading.

Step 5: Check the rhythm as well as the rate

While counting, notice whether the beats feel reasonably regular or whether the spacing between them seems uneven.

An occasional difficulty feeling the pulse can simply be down to finger position or pressure. However, a consistently irregular rhythm, particularly if it is new or accompanied by symptoms, should not be ignored.

A manual pulse check cannot diagnose a heart condition. If you repeatedly notice an unusual rhythm, arrange medical advice. If it occurs alongside chest pain, severe breathlessness, fainting or other serious symptoms, seek urgent help.

Step 6: Understand what a pulse can tell you

Your pulse is one part of assessing someone’s condition, not a complete health check.

A faster pulse can follow exercise, anxiety, pain, dehydration or illness. A slower pulse may be normal for some people, particularly those who are very fit, but it can also have other causes. Temperature, medication and the circumstances all matter.

If a walking companion becomes unwell, don’t assume that a normal pulse means they’re fine. Look at the wider picture: are they alert, breathing comfortably, able to speak normally and behaving as you would expect?

If someone collapses and becomes unresponsive, do not waste time trying to find or measure their pulse. For a first aider, the priority is to check responsiveness and whether they are breathing normally, call 999 and begin CPR if they are unresponsive and not breathing normally. Follow the emergency call handler’s instructions. The British Red Cross first-aid guidance explains what to do.

Safety

Keep the exercise gentle and stop if you feel dizzy, faint, unusually breathless or unwell. Don’t use exercise to test your limits, particularly if you have a medical condition that affects physical activity.

If you’re checking another person’s pulse, explain what you’re doing and ask their permission when possible. If they’re seriously unwell, getting appropriate help matters more than obtaining a precise measurement.

Check Your Results

Review your notes and make sure you can answer these questions:

• Could you find the radial pulse without using your thumb?
• Did you count for the correct length of time and calculate the rate accurately?
• Did you record a resting pulse after sitting quietly?
• Did you observe how your heart rate changed after gentle activity?
• Did you notice whether the rhythm felt regular?
• Can you explain why a pulse reading must be considered alongside the person’s symptoms and circumstances?

If your results seem unusual, repeat the measurement after resting and check your technique. Don’t keep measuring repeatedly in an attempt to obtain a particular number. If you have concerns about your own readings or symptoms, seek appropriate medical advice.

Complete the Challenge

Take and record your resting pulse, your pulse after gentle activity and a further reading after recovery. Include the counting method you used and a short explanation of what changed between the measurements.

You should also be able to explain where the radial pulse is found and why checking a pulse is not the priority when someone is unresponsive and not breathing normally.

How to Submit Your Challenge

Share Your Evidence

1. Go to your SGUK member profile.
2. Open Social Activity.
3. Upload a photograph of your recorded results to the activity wall.
4. Add the hashtag #SGUKChallenge34.
5. Share the post for verification.

Your photograph could show your written readings and a brief explanation of what you learned. You don’t need to share any private medical information.

Once you’ve shared your evidence and it has been verified, the SGUK Outdoor Skills Challenge 34 is complete and the completed challenges figure will be updated on your profile.

Challenge 34 Checklist

Have You Completed Every Part?

Want to Push Yourself?

Repeat the exercise on another day under similar conditions. Compare your resting measurements and see whether they are broadly consistent. Record anything that might explain a difference, rather than assuming that every change indicates a problem.

You could also learn how to measure your breathing rate at rest. Counting breaths for a full minute gives you another basic observation that can be useful when assessing someone’s condition. Practise on yourself or with a willing partner when everyone is well, and remember that neither measurement replaces proper first-aid training.

If you regularly hike, consider taking a recognised first-aid course that covers casualty assessment, recognising serious illness and responding to emergencies outdoors. Knowing how to take a pulse is useful; knowing when not to rely on it is just as important.

What’s Next?

If you haven’t already completed the previous challenge, try SGUK Outdoor Skills Challenge 33: Learn the Float to Live Technique.

That challenge covers an important water-survival technique, while this one develops your ability to take a simple physiological measurement.

Remember, SGUK Outdoor Skills Challenges can be completed in any order. Choose whichever challenge suits your interests and the skills you want to develop next.

Learn. Practise. Master.

That’s what the SGUK Outdoor Skills Challenge is all about.