The present disclosure discloses a heart rate detection method and a heart rate detection apparatus, the method includes: acquiring a heart rate signal； extracting a heart rate characteristic from a waveform corresponding to the heart rate signal； judging whether the heart rate characteristic satisfies a predetermined condition； and outputting a corresponding heart rate value according to the heart rate signal when it is judged that the heart rate characteristic satisfies the predetermined condition. In the technical solution of this embodiment, the feature based on the waveform of heart rate signal may judge whether detection of the heart rate is in a normal condition, which is favorable to rapidly calculating a heart rate value, and capable of preventing an error for the reason that a correct heart rate value is obtained by calculating the heart rate value based on the heart rate signal in the normal condition.
