The knowledge of heart and respiratory rates (HRs and RRs) is essential in assessing human body static. This has been associated with many applications, such as survivor rescue in ruins, lie detection, and human emotion detection. Thus, the vital signal extraction from radar echoes after pre-treatments, which have been applied using various methods by many researchers, has exceedingly become a necessary part of its further usage. In this review, we describe the variety of techniques used for vital signal extraction and verify their accuracy and efficiency. Emerging approaches such as wavelet analysis and mode decomposition offer great opportunities to measure vital signals. These developments would promote advancements in industries such as medical and social security by replacing the current electrocardiograms (ECGs), emotion detection for survivor status assessment, polygraphs, etc.