Using HRV for readiness to train

Sheila Leard

Reading comments about how to measure recovery got me thinking about who uses HRV, Heart Rate Variability, as a measure of how your body is responding to yesterday's workout or today's stress.  The right balance between parasympathetic and sympathetic systems allows us to train. When I accumulate lots of stress my training suffers. An HRV reading takes 3 minutes in the morning -  (while the coffee is brewing).

The Ap I use is HRVTraining. It integrates directly to Training Peaks and Strava.  I have found that the day after a hard training session my HRV will pick it up and tell me to back off. I found this particularly true on days when I did double workouts. If sleep is off it will also pick up on that.

There are several Aps out there that claim accuracy. Another one I've played with is EliteHRV. 

Anyone measuring HRV?

Satish Punna

I have been measuring HRV for over a year- using the HRV4Training app.

I have the data but to be honest I'm not sure what to do with it. 

When the app tells me I'm tired, I usually feel tired.  When the app tells me I'm well, I usually feel well.  If the app tells me I'm well and I feel tired- I use that as a whip to get me through my workout.  Rarely the app tells me I'm tired but I feel well- then I'm conflicted- usually I push through and do the workout and almost invariably it's a good workout and the next day I'm fine too so I'm not sure what to read into that.   

For me HRV in isolation doesn't add too much to the other usual indicators of well being (sleep, mood, motivation, soreness etc). 

In my app, my state is usually green-(good) when it turns to yellow for several days that is an indication to take it easy, but this happens rarely and I usually know why. This year for the first time it was red (maladaptation)  for a few days during my taper before IMAZ, which might explain why I was a bit flat for that race in retrospect, but there wasn't much I could do about it the time, and it didn't slowly turn from yellow to red, it was green than BAM suddenly red, so no way to prevent it.  I guess in the future I could see if the same stressors will be present and try to head them off before it turns to red...

tim cronk

I tracked it twice for several months each time... I found it to be absolutely worthless... On numerous occasions I was absolutely fried in a state of obvious over-training being very tired and fatigued and I was getting "green your good to go" readings, and then when I was tapering and well rested feeling great I got a few "red you need to rest readings" But that is just my experience and YMMV... 

Anyone who is "seriously" training for an Ironman, or even OS with lots of intensity , would probably test high in almost any measure of overtraining metric... For instance I routinely test WAY overtrained when measuring Cortisol and Testosterone... But that was not the case with HRV for me... 

Sheila Leard

@tim cronk  @scottmlay @Satish Punna

Tim - which Ap were you using? HRV is only one tool. Low grade inflammation that many endurance athletes carry around may not be picked up by HRV. Did you look at the RMSSD ?  Other things that can affect HRV is blood sugar and blood volume. 

tim cronk

@Sheila Leard I forget the app since I tried it twice and removed it. I did try several months each time and before during after IM's.  So gave it plenty of time.   I did not look at RMSSD what is that?  I realize HRV may be affected by other things but what would be the point in tracking HRV only to then say I am not getting the readings I want so it must be something else that needs to be adjusted to get me the HRV readings I want?  

IMHO  Inflammation and overtraining is what is necessary to get stronger, better, faster, providing we rest, recover, and adapt to those stressors.  If I followed the overtraining metrics to ensure I never over trained I would not be competitive. I think this is another area athletes need to stop relying on some metric and go by feel, I think we all know when we have done too much and need more rest. I think very few people have the mental and physical genes to train themselves into a true unhealthy overtrained condition that actually requires more than a few days rest.  Yes it is real and some can put themselves so deep in a hole it may require a year or more to get back to normal I do believe it's pretty rare specially among age groupers.

sometimes it's just as simple as train hard, eat right, and rest....becoming in tune with our bodies based on how we feel?

Tim Sullivan

I measure HRV and use the Elite HRV app.  Don't rely on it but just use it as a data point.  I only back off training based on how I feel. I love numbers and data but ithe numbers can only tell you so much.

I agree with @tim cronk  I just read the same thing about over training from Joe Friel. He basically said iover training is talked about alot but doesn't ocurr very often.  That said if I saw a bunch of red days in a row from my HRV app I would double check what was going on. Same with an elevated resting HR. 

Dave Tallo

My experience is exactly the same as Tim’s.  After a full season of measurement, at best, the relationships between real life and HRV constituent numbers / data have been conicidental.   There were countless times the measures were telling me exactly the opposite of what I KNEW was what I should be doing. 

And i really wished it worked as intended.   It could be so so useful.  

I used HRV4training.   

Small consolation is I got better at recording morning resting HR, which did give useful information of trends and patterns and gives me some baselines.   But not day to day red light/green light guidance.   

Derrek Sanks

I've been using EliteHRV since 2017 OS. As mentioned above, I also use it as a data point along with resting HR, PMC chart, workout performance, how I feel and how my legs feel walking up stairs. I've never had a HRV RED "do not workout today" reading. I've had many Yellow "consider an easy workout today", but I still did my planned workout because my RHR and level of fatigue were normal. My PMC, RHR, HRV, etc. would all have to be in the bad range for 2-3 days before I'll take extra rest days or reduce workout intensity.