Heart Rate Variability

(Central Florida Bob ) #1

I’ll just leave this here since there’s not much traffic on the forums anymore.

What are some good resources on heart rate variability?

Early last month, when I got my FitBit Sense2 watch, all I knew was that “variability is good.” But that’s got to be a silly way to look at it. Too simple. For the first time, I’ve been able to measure it and track changes. I just don’t know what’s a good range for “good” versus “uh oh.” The watch simply tells me my HRV (currently says 113 milliseconds) but I recall one day it said it was too high while never saying it’s too little variability.

I’m 71, currently in weight maintenance, switching my exercise patterns to put less time on “cardio” and more on muscle building.

(Allan Misner) #2

Hi Bob!

Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is about your body’s current state of recovery. It’s a tool you can use to determine when it’s good to go harder and when you should back down.

Very fit individuals will have a high HRV (very good) when they are fully recovered. Since it is mostly athletes that use HRV, this isn’t a metric you have to adjust like we do with every other health metric that focuses on normal individuals. When it is high or very high, you’re a go to train hard. If it is low, it’s a good time to back off and focus on recovery.

#3

Other than simply tracking the trend, there really isn’t. They vary huge, there’s no such thing as normal, and if you do compare it to “good” numbers, if you have an Apple Watch know that Apple uses a weird measurement method that makes the numbers way higher than most you’ll see.

(Bob M) #4

I thought at HRV was all the rage for a while? I always wanted to look into it but never did.

(Central Florida Bob ) #5

I did some searches for HRV, looking for charts like the ones that show up all sorts of other things that show values vs. age. I found charts that had numbers for various age groups and all of them were much lower than mine for my age group. I have that 113 today (and have seen in the 130s) while all the charts I saw were around the 60s for people over 65 years old. I don’t know what to make of that.

I guess that means I’m good to do sprints until my HRV drops far below what it is now.

(Alec) #6

Bob
I have done quite a bit of research on HRV to help my running. Here’s my view:

  1. “High” HRV is not necessarily good.
  2. You want your HRV in a range that is good for you: everybody’s range is personal.
  3. The best way to get your personal ideal range is to wear an HRV capable watch for a few weeks. These will take your HRV during the night and the software will work out your ideal range.
  4. My watch is a Garmin, and my current range (it changes) is 50-60ms: see screenshot below.
  5. HRV in your normal range means you are not over-inflamed or under too much stress (my green line in the chart)
  6. HRV outside your normal range means you are overtired, inflamed, stressed, or all 3.
  7. Be careful with the unit of measure on HRV: like many immature science arenas the standard units are still forming, and there is not one universal standard yet. So your measure may be different from mine.

Happy to answer questions if you have some.
Cheers
Alec

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(Central Florida Bob ) #7

Thanks, Alec. Very interesting!

A little more background might be helpful - I got my FitBit watch to help me monitor my Afib. At my annual check-in with my cardiologist back in April, they noticed I was having Afib during the entire time they had an EKG hooked up, and I was completely unaware it was going on. That pattern repeated for three more encounters with the office, and a hospital visit for a TEE (transesophageal echocardiogram). While the watch isn’t capable of detecting it except during sleep or other times I’m very motionless, it does detect it overnight every night. Well, it detects something. Whether or not it’s actually Afib is something I can’t know. This morning it tells me my HRV is 103 ms.

Before this started, I had been diagnosed with Afib 12 years ago and saw the cardiologist once a year, so that he’d recognize me.

Also before this started, my resting heart rate in the morning over coffee was typically in the upper 60s, but would also show up in the upper 50s. Now it’s around 80. I assume the change is because the amount of blood being circulated isn’t adequate because the Afib caused a leaky valve so my body increases the rate. We are nothing if not adaptive systems.

I have a copy of the current user manual for the FitBit Sense2 open looking for ways to download everything from the watch to my computer. So far no luck. Hard to imagine it’s not in there somewhere.