The heart beats in 'cycles' and each cycle consist of a systole and a diastole. Taking the average heart rate to be 75 beats per minute each cycle lasts just 0.8 seconds. In the systole, which lasts about 0.27 seconds, the ventricles contract pumping blood out into the arteries and in the diastole, which lasts around 0.53 seconds, the ventricles receive blood from the atria. It is during diastole that the heart muscle rests. Also, if we were to plot the contraction of a single heart muscle fibre on a graph it can be seen that there is a refractory period for the fibre during which it will not contract on applying a second stimulus. This prevents the heart muscles from developing tetanus.
Source: thehindu.com