HealthThe BestieBeginner
How Your Heart Works, a free health course on Tomo

How Your Heart Works

Like Duolingo, but for How Your Heart Works. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.

For the part of you with thirty open tabs that never became anything.

A short one: 11 levels across 2 sections, about 22 minutes end to end, roughly 4 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Listening to the Signs and Inside the Pump. It starts from scratch.

11 bite-size levelsAbout 5 minutes each

Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android

Harvey the Hound, the guide who teaches the How Your Heart Works course
How Your Heart Works
with Harvey the Hound
11
Levels
2
Sections
5
Min/day
What you'll learn

Key ideas in How Your Heart Works

  • The pulse is a pressure wave created when the heart contracts forcefully, not the physical arrival of blood that just left the heart
  • Arterial walls are elastic and stretch outwards with each surge of pressure from the heart
  • A well-conditioned heart muscle pumps a larger volume of blood with each individual squeeze (stroke volume)
  • Because each pump moves more blood, the heart needs fewer beats per minute to supply the body's resting oxygen needs
  • A healthy heart rhythm naturally fluctuates in sync with breathing rather than ticking like a rigid metronome
  • Inhaling prompts the nervous system to speed up the heart, while exhaling engages the brakes to slow it down
  • A well-conditioned heart recovers rapidly, dropping significantly in rate within the first two minutes after hard exercise
  • A steeper drop indicates the nervous system can quickly dial back heart exertion once the demand ceases
  • The top number reflects the peak pressure created when the heart actively contracts
  • The bottom number measures the remaining pressure in blood vessels while the heart pauses to refill
  • The heart continuously adjusts pumping force to deliver oxygen whenever body demands change
  • Routine actions like moving, talking, and feeling stress naturally raise blood pressure temporarily
  • A shifting reading across the day shows the cardiovascular system responding normally to daily life
  • Flexible arteries expand to absorb the shock of each strong surge from the heart
  • When artery walls stiffen, they lose their cushioning effect and transmit harsh, high-pressure shockwaves directly into organs
  • Artery walls do not have pain receptors to warn you when excessive pressure causes micro-tears
Why not just Google it

You've tried the other tabs

Wikipedia

Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.

YouTube

You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.

ChatGPT

One answer, then back to scrolling.

Online courses

Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.

Tomo gives How Your Heart Works the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.

Try a question

Here's what playing it feels like

A real question from this course. Take your best guess.

Feeling Your Heart Beat

When you feel your pulse at your wrist, what are your fingers actually picking up?

Get it right to open this lesson and 10 more in the app.

Course map

Where How Your Heart Works takes you

Understand the tireless muscular engine powering your body. Learn what your pulse and blood pressure reveal, how the dual pump keeps you alive, and how daily habits reshape its strength.

  1. 1

    Listening to the Signs

    • Reading Your Pulse and Rhythm
    • Understanding Blood Pressure
  2. 2

    Inside the Pump

    • The Two-Sided Hydraulic Circuit
    • Building Heart Resilience

2 sections · 4 units · 11 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.

How it's taught

You pick the voice

This course
The Bestie

How Your Heart Works is taught in the The Bestie style: your friend who just gets it. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.

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Start free

Start How Your Heart Works today.

Download Tomo, search How Your Heart Works, and play your first lesson in under a minute.