Where the myth came from
The notion of finite heartbeats has its roots in comparative biology. Across many mammalian species, higher heart rates are linked with shorter lifespans. The abstract of the new study notes that “life span is predetermined by the basic energetics of living cells, heart rate serves as a marker of metabolic rate, and that life expectancy is inversely proportional to the heart rate.”
However, the same abstract immediately sets up the key counterpoint: “regular exercise also reduces the resting heart rate long-term, likely offsetting a transient exertional heart rate increase.” In other words, trained humans remodel their cardiovascular system in a way that changes the calculation entirely.
Athletes have 11,500 fewer heartbeats per day
The researchers examined average 24-hour heart rates using Holter monitors in 109 athletes and 38 healthy controls from the Pro@Heart study. All participants were encouraged to live normally and exercise as usual during monitoring. The data showed that the average heart rate throughout the 24 hours was lower in the athletes, with 68 beats per minute, versus 76 bpm for non-athletes.
Spread across a full day, this equates to roughly 97,920 beats for athletes versus 109,440 for non-athletes. Co-author Professor La Gerche puts it into simple terms: “Even though athletes’ hearts work harder during exercise, their lower resting rates more than make up for it. That is an incredible saving of about 11,500 beats a day.”
For cyclists, this is intuitive. Even a big 4-hour training session is just 16 % of the day. The remaining 20 hours are where efficiency shows up.
When training really spends heartbeats: Inside the Tour de France
The researchers also explored what happens during extreme endurance events by analysing public Strava data from the 2023 Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes. They estimated heartbeat totals during each stage and found that the heart-rate burden during a professional stage race far exceeds the reduction in total heartbeats associated with low resting heart rate.
This distinction matters because Tour riders are outliers. For recreational cyclists, even quite fit amateurs, daily exercise time is tiny compared to total daily hours. The main health benefits occur when people go from unfit to moderately fit, as Professor La Gerche notes. “Just a few hours of purposeful exercise each week can transform your heart’s efficiency and help make every beat count.”
What cyclists should take from this
The practical takeaways are straightforward.
First, the fear of spending heartbeats by training is unfounded for anyone doing normal cycling volumes. As the researchers note, what matters is balancing “increased heart rates throughout exercise and the lower resting heart rates observed in habitual exercisers.” For most riders, the balance is strongly positive.
Second, resting heart rate is more than a data point on your Garmin. It reflects vagal tone, metabolic efficiency, and long-term cardiovascular risk.
Third, the biggest return comes from moderate, consistent training. Extreme volumes have different physiological implications, but they do not apply to the majority of cyclists.
This new research dismantles a persistent myth. The heart is not a battery you should protect by avoiding exertion. It is a muscle that becomes more efficient the more you use it. For most cyclists, that does not spend heartbeats; it saves them.
