Embodiments of a system and method for heart rate monitoring are generally described herein. A method may include receiving, at a device, a spectrogram including a plurality of bins of represented frequencies corresponding to potential heart rate measurements, selecting a bin of frequencies from the plurality of bins of represented frequencies with an average power that exceeds average powers of remaining bins of frequencies of the plurality of bins of represented frequencies, determining whether a frequency of the bin of frequencies represents a valid heart rate based on the average power and a past valid heart rate, and in response to determining that the frequency represents a valid heart rate, outputting a heart rate corresponding to the frequency.
