Your heart beats thousands of times every single day – but have you ever stopped to think about how it actually works?
Hidden inside your chest is an excellent electrical system that acts like the heart’s own built-in controller. It sends tiny signals that tell the heart muscles exactly when to squeeze, when to relax, and how to keep blood flowing smoothly throughout your body.
The infographic below takes you through this process step by step. It starts with the very first electrical spark in the SA node, follows the signal as it travels through the heart, and ends with the heart’s complete “reset” that prepares it for the next beat. Along the way, you’ll also see how each phase appears on an ECG, the wavy line doctors use to understand the heart’s electrical activity.
Think of the heartbeat as a repeating rhythm – a carefully timed pattern your heart follows again and again. Once you see how the cycle works, you’ll realize that a heartbeat isn’t just a simple “thump.” It’s a brilliant, coordinated sequence of actions that keeps you alive every moment of the day.
Now let’s explore how it all works.
