HRV Training

What is Heart Rate Variability (HRV) and how can I use it to optimize performance? These are probably the two questions that any endurance athlete needs answered. We have a history of success with athletes using HRV and believe in its efficacy to help guide training. Here are the basics of using HRV and what we use here at KP.

What is HRV? Put simply, HRV is a measurement of a person's variability between heart beats. This variability is a result of systemic stress in your body. If your HRV is low (a more uniform heart rate) it tells us that your sympathetic nervous system activity is elevated and you may not be fully recovered from previous workouts. If variability is high it tells us your parasympathetic system is elevated and your body is relatively rested and recovered.

So now that we are familiar with what HRV is (you can find a much more in-depth description using google) how do we use it with our athletes? To start, there are many companies cashing in on the HRV trend recently. They're selling HRV tracking products for hundreds of dollars, but I still recommend a simple bluetooth heart rate monitor such as the Wahoo Tickr paired with a free iphone or android app of your choosing. After recording your HRV first thing in the morning daily, these apps see movements in your fluctuating HRV numbers. They recommend resting or working out hard based on these trends. However, I prefer a slightly different method of recording the data.

In the graph below there are three lines. The middle blue line is a 7-day rolling average of an athlete's daily morning HRV numbers. the outside lines are boundaries based on the 30-day rolling average. In general steep decreases in the blue line are signs that your body is overreaching and tired, and increases generally occur during rest. Fluctuation is what we want, as overreaching with a subsequent recovery is what we need for the body to get stronger. However, a gradual increase over time as seen in the chart (especially in 30-day rolling avg.) is what we want to see. Along with knowing one's own body and when to take a rest, this HRV chart we use with our athletes is a very powerful tool to gain insight into the body that we may otherwise not be able to see.