I started measuring my HRV using a wearable called Biostrap recently. I noticed that my nocturnal HRV is very low ranging from 62-38 (miliseconds). I have not been sleeping a lot (<5 hours on average). Perhaps I should sleep more.
I was wondering if you all could share your HRV numbers? Also what is your Nocturnal HR?
My Nocturnal HR is 48-53
HRV is one fo those things that doesnāt really compare well across from person to person. Itās more about getting a baseline for YOU and then seeing when you deviate from that (either low OR high) then you should be alerted that something is up.
Iāve been taking mine first thing in the morning with HRV4training and my baseline is 75.5 rMSSD. Yesterday was 65.3 but I was coming back from a trip and had a stressful day ahead of me. This morning it was 102.7 but I had a great night sleep and felt awesome! (Nailed 5x10ā Sweet Spot too lol)
I like that HRV4training takes into account both your rMSSD and your subjective scores that you answer every day and gives you a score of 1-10. While I was high today, the subjective scores were all positive so the app told me to āgo for it!ā But Iāve had days with low subjective scores and a high HRV and it told me to take it easy.
So rMSSD is the official value thatāll universally translate? Iāve only recently started recording this value and have been recording simultaneously to HRV4TRAINING and āstress scoreā on my 1030, though the values seemingly arenāt the same units or measure.
Seemingly every device does things slightly different. I donāt know what metric garmin uses (actually it would be First Beat who does the software for that feature) but they take some metric and then translates that into the āStress scoreā you get on the device.
rMSSD is what HRV4Training uses and they translate that to their ārecovery pointsā on a 1-10 scale. I know that Apple uses sDNN as the metric they record as HRVā¦ and the guy behind the HRV4Training app has verified that they can translate that into their system for recovery points. There are some other measurements that could fall into the HRV category but those are the main two that Iāve seen.
I canāt speak to whoop or any of the other guys out there. I just havenāt taken the time to look into it because Iām happy with the app I use and it works well for me. They also have some good academics behind their software (not that the other donātā¦ just that I havenāt read anything on it)
The main thing is to pick one system and stick to it. Like I said before, itās about knowing YOUR baseline and watching if you vary too far from that.
From what Iāve read RMSSD is the best measure. To compare against any benchmarks however, the measurement duration, time of day, and body position need to be the same.
Ie a 1 minute measurement, 5 mins after waking up, while standing is not comparable to a 2 minute measurement, 1 minute after waking up, while still lying in bed.
FWIW, Iāve been tracking this for a few weeks, and the rMSSD has varied from a low of 49 to a high of 186. Weekly average has been around 120 or so.
The HRV4Training app lets you compare your own values to a distribution of a bigger population, filtered by gender and age. This implies it is possible to compare metrics from one person to another. Of course, they also let you compare your HR to that of other people, which strikes me as a dubious proposition.
Iām not sure about how valuable or meaningful any of this is, but it does underscore the point that I do a crappy job getting enough sleep!
Typically higher rMSSD values are ābetterā - there is some data looking at populations in general and overall stressed/clinical/ill groups have low rMSSD. However, do track this individually over time to get a clear picture of your own response
Iāve been tracking my HRV (or rMSSD) with HRV4Training for almost a year now. Actually donāt know why Iām still doing it, from a training perspective I seem to be a non-responder. This means, I can kill myself in training, fill crap the next morning but this my HRV stays the same.
I do get a response when I have to travel, business travels bring down my HRV. Or other non-training related stressors. But not training.
Or - and this is not really motivating - after the night before important races I almost always get a low reading: great when the app tells you āyou may want to take a rest day todayā 
Yep. I find HRV can pick out the extremes - when I feel great vs when I feel crappy. But for the in-between, the data is too noisy to make sense of. And for this reason, Iāve not yet found it to be super useful.
But Iām still measuring it and tracking. Maybe over a longer period of time more clear correlations will emerge (what I really need to do is to correlate my perception of effort during workouts to the HRV from that morning - something I havenāt started to do yet).
yep, the same here. I have been tracking my HRV with HRV4Training (I use the optical sensor and I always get optimal reading qualities) consistently for almost 2 years and my rMSSD does not correlate with Training either. Sometimes I repeat the measurement 3 times (keeping measuring procedures the same) because I am curious, and the results in rMSSD vary so much that I donāt know what to believe. The app suggestions vary from āyour HRV is within your normal values, proceed as plannedā to āyour HRV values are below your baseline, you should avoid intensive workoutsā.
The creator of the HRV4T app (Marco Altini) has done a great analysis of HRV & performance:
Clearly, there is much spread in the data, and your baseline HRV might not be the best predictor of performance. However, our findings seem to back-up recent research highlighting how individuals with higher HRV might be better at high intensity workouts, potentially performing better, in the context of running. These data also supports the theory that a genetic link between HRV and performance might be explaining how these variables are related, more than training load.
I am in the same boat. I dont use HRVtraining to tweak my training. But Iāve been using HRVTraining for almost 2 years now. No Plans to stop
On the other hard I am my rMSSD averages around 70.
The other thing I like about HRV4training is their V2O estimator, I find it pretty close whereas Garmin is way off
HR 56 and HRV 60. Thatās an average. Does this seem ok?
This.
I find that after VO2 max sessions that my HRV is decreased significantly and that after rest days I have a significant increase in my HRV. It is interesting to track.
I have also found that drinking alcohol the day before significantly decreases my HRV.
I really avoid strenuous workouts or working out at all when my HRV is lower than normal.
Other things can increase your HRV without it necessarily being a true measure of beat to beat variability. If you have abnormally high HRV then this can actually be bad. Atrial fibrillation, premature ventricular contractions and premature atrial contractions (when there are a lot of the premature beats) can increase your HRV but not be a true measure of beat to beat variability that speaks to underlying parasympathetic tone.
HRV is very personal, and also very time dependent. So measure when relaxed and very important use a forced breathing protocol in the same position you always use . This can be lying down, seated, or standing. The latter position can be beneficial to very trained people which would otherwise suffer from parasympathetic dominance in the other positions. A forced breathing protocol means that you inhale through the nose, exhale through the mouth and remain without action for approximately similar periods (e.g 4-6 seconds each) and repeat this cycle until the measurement is finished, typically 5-6 minutes
I observed my HRV before and several timepoints after training for a few months to establish a baseline. I found out like that that an HRV of 185 means I am recovered (ln(rMSSD) = 5). Now since that I measure just once in a while if have an intense training period or suspect am sick. In the case of lower HRV than the threshold (i.e. 185 in my case) I will consider adapting the training or not train at all depending the circumstances (fever, high body temperature, muscle ache etc).
Sometimes my HRV goes op to 275+ (ln=5.6) which is hell high, but it just fits my profile and I am not worried about it, my heartbeat is just really slow in rest and that poses me no problem, but causes extreem variation between the inhale and exhale/rest periods (30-32 vs 38-45). The increase when inhaling is absolutely normal.
Hi all
I realise that HRV is pretty much unique to each individual. However, my monthly rMSSD averages are 31-33 which puts me in the lowest bracket and amongst the āsedentaryā population. My turbo can attest that iām not sedentary! Iām using the oura ring + HRV4training.
I usually get around 7h sleep and have a decent diet. My job isnāt particularly stressful.
Anyone else also suffer extremely low rMSSD results?
I started tracking HRV at the start of June. My rMSSD was in the high 30ās, but I was pretty messed up (a lot of my other readings were/are totally whack, including an insanely high LF). Lots and lots of only Endurance/Z2/MAF riding over the last 3 months has raised it to 90 (today). For my age group, 40-49, the median value is 30 and the range is 10-110, lots of wiggle room.
rMSSD has a high correlation with HF (rest & recovery), is that low as well?
35-50 years is a huge range! Weird they do it that way.
And yes, train harder at doing less. You donāt have many friends at the pointy end.
As the saying goes, business in the front, party at the back!
(what kind of juice is that dude way out at 233 taking?!)
Cheers for the reply, much appreciated!
Unsure what you mean by LF and HF? My rested heart rate fluctuates around the mid 50s, which has been the case for a few years.
My rMSSD is low 30ās and even dropped to 25 a few times. I know I shouldnāt compare too much with other peopleās numbers, but when youāre in the bottom 10% or so I makes you wonder if thereās some underlining heath issues and potential risk of future issues (low rMSSD is linked to lots of nasty conditions).
