Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is a measurement that has become popular with the new-found trend of focusing on recovery and wellness. HRV is a way that we can utilize your body’s information (biomarkers) to explain why you feel how you feel. If you can better interpret how you feel then you can better decide what to do.
Should you go for a walk instead of doing your intense sprint workout?
Should you do an extra set of deadlift because you’re feeling so good?
We want to help you learn how to answer these questions through mostly introspection and self-actualization. Yet, tracking it via any number of ways (i.e., apps, services, or wearables) is very powerful because it can help you with accountability (it’s harder to ignore your smartwatch telling you to go to bed early than it is to submit to you feeling tired). It can also validate how you feel.
Example 1: How HRV can help optimize your performance and wellness?
Scenario 1: You’re feeling pretty tired in the morning (who doesn’t though, right?). Throughout the day you struggle to differentiate if you’re tired at work because you’re overstimulated during a low-key day or if you are just dragging from the last few days of hard workouts or work.
Solution 1: The wearable you use (Oura Ring, Whoop, or Apple Watch) says you are not “recovered,” so you decide to skip your sprint workout today, do your food prep for the week and get to bed early. You schedule the sprint workout for tomorrow instead.
Solution 2: The wearable says you are “recovered” so you go for a walk around the office to get yourself stimulated and do the hard workout afterward.
There’s your validation and accountability in one measurement. Next, let me quickly define the scientific concept behind HRV.
What is HRV
Heart Rate Variability is defined as the consistency or lack thereof in time between your heartbeats. *Editor’s note: I hate it when people use a word in the name of something to define that something. You’ll see a lot of sources say “HRV is the variability in time between your heartbeats.” Ugh. Anyway, moving on.*
In general, lots of inconsistency is generally a good thing because it may indicate that your body is responsive and ready for whatever you plan to subject it to (e.g., a long day at work or a hard workout). Think about it this way, your HRV should be like driving your car through a busy city. Very responsive. Lots of increases and decreases in speed that is directed by the flow of traffic. In this example, being too fast or slow on the gas pedal can be trouble, and being too fast or slow on the brakes can be trouble.
In our bodies, your fight-or-flight system is the gas pedal and your rest-and-digest system is the brake. This analogy isn’t perfect because both are kinda like gas pedals for different cars but this should give you a rough idea about HRV.
You can read more in-depth articles on the matter from Whoop (a leader in tracking your preparedness and recovery) and Harvard Medical School. Just like many other topics, we’ll continue to discuss the information in these articles and from the research community.
You’re “recovered” but maybe not recovered.
You might have noticed I said “recovered” in the above example. I said it that way because these services work very hard to develop proprietary algorithms and tech to make these measurements and outputs. The fact that each company has a unique approach to measure HRV may be surprising. Furthermore, be aware that these companies calculate it, but we don’t have access to the algorithms used to calculate it. Without knowing the secret sauce, we’ll never be able to exactly calibrate the readout to you or interpret the results. Lastly, you need to remember that all of these are estimates. The Gold Standard is to wear a heart monitor that you get from a Cardiologist’s office for several days/weeks, which gives you a very precise recording of your heart’s function via ECG.
Maybe none of that is important if you acknowledge the information from your wearable is an estimate and you use the info in concert with how you feel.
The Regulation of Heart Rate Variability
So what can influence HRV? Plenty. From a single high-intensity workout or a week of consecutive low-intensity workouts to a lack of sleep or even being dehydrated. Of course, things like stress at work or home can influence this too. These are all things the FMR Team encourages you to think about when trying to be your best self. This is why wearables give HRV a number that can help guide your actions.
For you, the utility of HRV is most important. The science behind HRV is something that we will continue to talk about, including the podcast this week (Fuel. Move. Recover. A Performance and Wellness podcast. Episode 36). We constantly push to know the science and medicine between these topics and if we don’t, we will try to find the answers! Anyway, HRV is the measure of the average between the beats of your heart. When and how this is exactly measured totally depends on the app or company that you are using to record your HRV. The time between heartbeats changes with your activity level and the balance between your fight-or-flight system (sympathetic nervous system) and your rest-and-digest system (parasympathetic nervous system).
During the podcast, we will talk about things to consider when looking at this kind of information. Essentially, HRV gives you an inside look at your recovery so you can feel your best while also achieving your goals.
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