#48 - A Beginner’s Guide To Tracking HRV [Heart Rate Variability]

HRV heart rate variability. These devices have been popping up all over the place over the last couple of years and they've become pretty popular. And so in this episode of the podcast, I'm going to teach you everything you need to know about HRV that you can know whether or not you should spend a few 100 bucks on a Garmin watch or a Woop band or an Apple Watch or whatever it may be. Because some of you listening to this, an HRDV device might make literally 0 difference in the

results you see. But for some of you, it can provide you with extremely useful information to alter your training and your recovery plans that you can get better results in everything that you do in and outside of the gym.

And so throughout this podcast, I'm going to break down the different tools you can use as well as explain and define what HRV really is, why it's an effective tool to gauge your stress and recovery levels, and exactly how you can use those metrics to adjust your training accordingly week to week. Greatest things in life all start with a challenge. You must accept that everything is hard before it gets easy. Every, every, every, every, everything you want in life

begins with a hard path begins. The first thing to understand with HRV heart rate variability is that it's not just about fitness. A lot of people assume this is strictly used for athletes, especially ones who are doing endurance sports or things like mixed martial arts where you're constantly going from a low intensity to a high intensity and being explosive, right? That's not the case. HRV can be a tool to really just gauge your overall health,

well-being, and stress levels. So somebody could be just training a couple days a week, but they have an extremely taxing and stressful lifestyle due to their career or their family situation or maybe some trauma they're going through and their stress levels are chaotic and they need to recover and take care of themselves and their well-being. They can use HRV as well. In fact, sometimes that might even be a more applicable way to use it for most people.

However, I would suggest most people who are probably going to land on this video based on the other types of content we create, which is all fitness based. You should be using or considering using HRV if you want to make sure you're getting the most out of your training and not allowing the stress from other areas of your life to enter into your training recovery.

Because if your other areas of life are busy or hectic are stressful and that's causing a level of stress that is then bleeding into your training, allowing you to not train as hard as you can, not train as as often as you can, or not recover well enough to continue training often enough to get the result you're after, then using HRV might be something that you want to do. So what exactly is HRV? Well, the definition is pretty damn literal.

I mean, it's right in the name, heart rate variability, and it means it's the variability between heartbeats. So we're literally trying to measure the time in between each heartbeat. So, for example, if you have 60 beats per minute, that does not necessarily mean that you have one beat per second sixty times in a row to lead to a minute, because you could have 0.98 seconds and then you can have 1.02 seconds. It could be 0.7 seconds.

There is going to be variability because each beat is going to take a different amount of time. And that means there's going to be space and gaps in between each beat that vary over the course of many heartbeats. And that's what HRV is measuring. It is measuring the time between each and every heartbeat. Now, why care? Why should you care about your HRV score, right?

And why should you care about the time between each heartbeat, which seems very minuscule, seems kind of like a small minor detail to be paying attention to. But that small minor detail is the best way to gauge what type of autonomic nervous system we are stepping into. And so the autonomic nervous system has two branches. We have the parasympathetic and the sympathetic. The sympathetic nervous system is our fight or flight. This is the, you know, people talk about the caveman.

There's a Saber tooth tiger and it has to Sprint and get away or attack. That is our sympathetic nervous system. Stress demand high stimulus. This is strength training. This is power development. This is go, go, go. High stress in your life. Parasympathetic is chill. This is relaxing, this is getting a massage, maybe doing yoga and stretching and meditating and these kind of things because we are in our parasympathetic tone, which is rest and digest or recover.

So we have these two types and we have to be able to balance them, but the only way for us to truly know we are more dominantly in one versus the other is to track our HRV. Now we can guess because most people can say I'm really sore, I'm really tired, I'm really stressed out, I'm anxious. You're probably in your sympathetic nervous system. However, when you start training a lot, you might be stressed on

an internal basis. You might be stressed in your joints, in your muscles, or might be inflammation you're unaware of. And you're not going to be able to intuitively understand that, right? But your HRV score can tell you that you are in a stressed state, and that can guide us in our training and everything else. So when we use HRV, it's just a tool to track these two things. And if we look at our HRV scores, it's really just looking at which ones high and which

ones low. If our HRV score is really high, we have a high number. And I'm just speaking in generality, right? High as in good. Because the Garmin watch the aura ring, the woops, they all track it differently, right? They all have different scoring and stuff like that. But all of them follow the same pattern. Meaning when HRV is high, you have a high score, whether the bar is raised or the number is up. That typically means you are in

the green light. And that is you can train, you can do whatever because you are mainly in a parasympathetic tone. You are recovered. That's what that means. If your HRV is low, that means you're stressed out, you're in the red. That means that you are under recovered and you might not be able to perform at your best because maybe you just got done performing or you had some poor sleep or some argument or some

bad day at work. But you had something go on that caused a lot of stress in your life. And now your HRV score is tanked because of your nervous system being shifted into this sympathetic tone. Now knowing what I just said, you would probably assume high is good, right? A high HRV means good. It means better, it means you're recovered. It means like that's where we want to be. And that's not exactly what it means.

Because the truth is, if your HRV score is always up, it means that there's no stress present, which in certain areas of your life is amazing. You don't really want stress present, but if you are trying to grow, if you're trying to get stronger, if you're trying to run faster, if you're trying to lose body fat, if you're trying to do anything that requires a stress before an adaptation can occur, which is how every type of performance or body transformation happens, right?

You can't build muscle if you don't first stress the muscle by creating a high demand stimulus that breaks down the muscle tissue and therefore you recover from the stress and adapt by growing bigger, stronger muscles. Well, if we never get to that stressed state, we are actually never pushing our body to a place where it is going to be required to adapt to that stimulus and actually build muscle from it. And so as you can see on this chart, we want to have a balance between these two.

We actually want to be able to stress our body out so that we can essentially adapt in a favorable way because whatever goal you're chasing requires you to adapt from a stress. The adaptation is the goal, the stress is the path, but you cannot adapt if you don't recover. And that's why, as you can see, there's these up, down bars because we need to be recovered in order to go to the gym, hit it hard and apply a great amount of stress.

But then we need to back off so that we can recover from that stress. But once we are recovered from that stress, now we got to go back to the gym and apply that stress once again. So we have this pattern of being being stressed and recovered, stressed and recovered. And that's what a good HRV score is.

In fact, if you really think of, again, just looking at the name as literally and logically as you can, heart rate variability, if there's no variability in your score and it's just constantly good, it means you're not pushing yourself in the gym. You're always recovered and you're never applying enough stress to actually transform your physique. So with that being said, this is kind of what I recommend as the ideal ratio because balance really is the key here.

A good rule of thumb is to have two to three low HRV days per week. That means you have 4 to 5 moderate or high HRV days per week. And I say moderate to high because it's not always going to be perfect. Like this graph you see on the screen is perfect. It's it's high green, low red, high green, low red. It's just like perfect across the board because AI designed it. So it's trying to be perfect, but that's not reality.

What is reality is probably like green, red, yellow, green, red, yellow, green, because you are going to be probably training while you're still recovering from that stress that you applied. So if you are in the red, it means yesterday you hit it hard, you did your job. You should probably have a rest day or an active recovery day the next day. You still might not be in the green, but if you're in the yellow, if you're moderate, you

shouldn't take another rest day. We need volume in order to grow. We need intensity in order to build muscle. But you can choose exercises that are less intense or less intensive on the nervous system, on the joints and don't require as much recovery demand from you. You could also choose to do a lower intensity cardio on that day to just continue recovery, but still work on the adaptations you're after, like aerobic capacity, if that's your

goal. So the point is, is that it's not going to be perfect and it's never going to be exactly 2 to 3 low and four to five high. It could be moderate. You could have a whole week of low and just need a deload week. You could have, despite programming perfectly. You could have a whole week of moderate and feel like you're pushing it in the gym, but maybe you're just not getting after it as much as you thought or you're really on top of everything

else. Maybe you can do more volume than you realize because you're sleeping 9 hours a day, Your job is cush and not stressful right now, and you are in a state or a season that you can apply more stress. Well, your HIV score is going to tell you that and you should follow it. But if it's constantly in the red, I can promise you you're probably too stressed and you

need to look at it now. If you have done everything under the sun and you are still in the red, seek out a professional, whether it's a coach or a doctor or something. Because there's probably something going on that is throwing off your score on HRV, which is very rare. But there are times where people can be taking it off and not being consistent, or they're doing something that throws off their score and they're reading so it's not accurate.

Or you got something going on that's stressing you out and you just don't even realize it. Go seek professional help. So now that we know HRV can be useful, we know what it is, we know why it works and how it works, and ultimately we know that it's just a guide. It's going to tell us what we can do with our training and when we're recovered when we're

not. And that's the biggest thing that you need to look at. The first step in actually applying this information and doing something with it is to get an HRV device. So get some kind of device that's going to track it. The top five HRV devices according to ChatGPT, which I'm assuming means that what is most popular on Amazon and what is purchased the most often is

going to be these five devices. The first one is going to be the Whoop Band, which is known for its 24/7 tracking, detailed recovery metrics and user friendly app. This is ideal for athletes. This is one that is really common across people. And just from my experience, I think it's probably one of the easier ones to wear and use because it's it's a very light band that goes on your wrist. You can also get ones that go on your upper arm.

And I do believe they have a chest strap monitor as well. So they have different options and it's just not clunky. It's not getting in the way of training. So it is a good device. And I would say this too, and this goes for every device I'm going to go over the devices that are going to be the best and most accurate, have the most research because they are the most successful. And therefore they actually invest money back into research to prove that their device works.

So look at the device and find the research using the device. And especially when a device like the Woot band is it's all this is all it does. There's no whoop watch and whoop necklace and oh also we sell whoop clothing and I mean I'm sure they do 'cause every brand does but you get the point. I'm going to talk about Apple Watch in a SEC. Apple is not a HRV company. The Apple Watch is a smart watch. It just also does HRV. So it's probably not going to be the best one to use.

But #1 whoop #2 is. Or ring. This is very similar to whoop as far as what it tracks. It tracks HRV during sleep instead of the other ones actually tracking it after sleep. You wake up and test it most of the time accordingly with exceptional accuracy, which I would agree. The ordering does well with tracking HRV as a score. It provides detailed readiness scores every morning when you wake up. It is. I've used this as well. I've tested most of these.

It's a really easy app to use. The thing about the ordering that I don't like is that you can't wear it when you lift. It gets in the way. It's very annoying and it just gets scratched up. I don't want to lift with jewelry on, so I always took it off. And then it kind of defeats the purpose of tracking your activity. So I'm not a huge fan of ordering for that and for the purpose of step counting.

When I type a lot, and the more I type, the more my fingers move, the more my fingers move, the more likely that my step count is inaccurate. And I found that to be true when I wore the ordering and I wore another device on my wrist and they were different and I actually wore a pedometer. I put it in my pocket. I tracked all three to see 'cause I have clients that asked me this and the ordering was way higher than the rest of them via step count. The third device is a Garmin watch.

Garmin's do include HRV tracking so that's what I'm wearing right now. I don't actually use this for HRV tracking to be honest, but it's a great tool for GPS functioning and for running. I think Garmin is Agps and a running company. It's not an HRV company. It works and it does track your heart rate well because it has to while running. So I think it's honestly probably the best runner up to WOOP for HRV performance wise. But they they are again, like if we're just talking HRV, get a

company that just does HRV. They're going to pour the most research into that topic. The third one is the Polar H10 chest strap, one of the most accurate HRV monitors on the market. And it's the least convenient for most people because you have to wake up, you got to put on your chest. A lot of times you got to get it a little wet because the sensor has to read you and you have to

have it damp. Unless you get like get real sweaty during your sleep, then I guess you can just throw it on, but you put it underneath there right after you wake up. You can't drink coffee, you can't eat anything, nothing like that. First, right when you wake up, put it on. You have to lay down and then basically meditate and do deep breathing while it tracks your score for about 1 to 2 minutes. And so there's a timer and it's

doing it very inconvenient. That's the last thing I want to do when I wake up at 5:00 in the morning. I want to try to keep waking up, not lay back down and track my heart rate. However, Polar is probably like the OG in it. It's also why if you look at these devices, it's the most ghetto looking. The other one's got like gold finishes and stuff like Polar is just, I don't know it, it doesn't like it's not the newest, the shiniest, the coolest, but they're one of the

OG's. They were one of the first ones to do it. So I will say they probably are the best and most accurate for getting a general score every day for your HRV. But if you want to track all the other stuff and you don't want to wear a heart rate monitor on your chest all damn day, it's probably not the one to go with. And the last one is Apple Watch, which it's not specifically an HRV device. It just has apps from third

parties that can track your HRV. And that means it is a very, very, very expensive digital watch that kind of tracks HRV on the side. I probably wouldn't recommend it. I don't think it's the best for these things, but it's cool and Apple Watch is cool. So there's that. I would go with the loop strap out of all these or the Polar or the the Garmin, Those are the three most versatile. The Garmin and the loop strap are are are probably my 2 top for sure.

So now that we know what devices we can use, what do we do to read it? So this is really simple. Number one, you need to track your HRV every single day. HRV is absolutely pointless if you don't track it daily because even in the first couple weeks, the score kind of means nothing. You're not going to change anything in your training or your lifestyle based on the score of the first couple weeks.

It's the sequence of consistent days and weeks stacked up that really starts to give you an accurate score, which gives me, you know, goes to my next point, which is focus on the trend over days. Not a single score. So you can wake up and see the score, but day 12345 all the way through the probably second week, those individual scores don't mean much, but after a couple weeks you can see the

trend. And then after a month or two, you can see a trend and where it's going and your, your device is going to be able to start reading things better. So consistency is very important. It's important to follow the trend, not any individual day. Don't get married to 1 number. Look at the whole trend. It is also very important to make sure you do this first

thing in the morning. Either A, you're wearing a device that tracks it all day and then it gives you a score in the morning, or B, you do it in the morning. If you're using something like a Polar or even a Whoop strap or something where you're just using it to put on and track your HRV, that is a point in time in the morning where you're going to have your best baseline stable state. So your body, your heart rate, everything is going to be in its

most stable raw place. This is why it's good to take your weight even in the morning. But we haven't had a bunch of fluids going through us. We haven't had any caffeine. There's no stimulants literally being consumed. But also visually looking into lenses or, or screens, it is our most stable and raw state. It's the best baseline that we can use to track HRV and not have anything as a variable distract or or detour that track, right?

That, that record, we're going to be able to get a score that's very raw. And then last after consistent use, let it help guide your training. Don't let it dictate because there's going to be times where you're stressed from something and it it might actually tank your HRV. And I still believe you should go train because you might need to actually relieve that stress

by going to the gym. The gym might be a safe place for you that you actually feel so much better in life and you don't want to skip the gym constantly because of that. Now if you are constantly low, it does mean it should guide your decisions with your lifestyle, with your sleep, with your nutrition, with your hydration.

Maybe even with the type of training we can still train in the gym and tone down the the demand on your nervous system by lowering the loads and going for higher reps, using less barbell movements, using more machines and cables and bands, doing more mobility and cardio. Low intensity metrics versus hard high intensity stuff. Like there's ways to make your training less intense and and cooperate better with a lower

HRV score. So I don't suggest that you skip the gym if your HRV score sucks, but you got to let it guide your decisions is the point. Again, don't let it dictate your program entirely or what you do. Let it guide your decisions out of the gym to help you influence your decisions in the gym. And if you're outside of the gym lifestyle is on point, but your HIV score is still low and you're not recovering, then maybe you do need to tone down the training and you can let

this guide you in doing that. So to conclude, this really boils down to a few answers in my opinion, right? Like, is this critical for results? No. Is it helpful for stressed individuals? Yes. Is it a useful tool for serious lifters and athletes? Yes. Is it worth it for body composition results? Maybe, Right. So I think that at the end of the day, you don't need this.

This is like a supplement. It's a cool tool that can help you, but you don't need it. There's a lot of data to support what HRV is and how it can impact you, but you don't need it. It's not critical. Is it helpful for people who are stressed? Absolutely. It can be the red flag that actually kind of slaps you in the face. There's a lot of people, and I can relate to this, where you're just a stubborn person who does not want to slow down or recover anything. And sometimes people can tell

you. Sometimes you can even know for a fact that you're maybe not sleeping enough. But until you get a coach or a metric like an HRV score telling you day after day after day, you got to do this or you're not going to get where you want to be, you might not actually create the change. So I think it is very helpful for stressed individuals, not because it's a magic tool, but because it might be the accountability and provide the

awareness that you need. Now for serious lifters and athletes, I would say yes, it is a useful tool because these metrics allow you to guide, better guide your decisions with your program, with your intensity. And you can wave your intensity in the gym day-to-day. So you can have days of higher intensity, higher loads, higher volumes and days of lower intensity, lower loads and lower

volumes. And you can alternate these to optimize your recovery so that those higher intensity and volume days are trained at your best. Because a lot of times people are always in that like yellow or red HRV, and they have a high volume program, but their intensity and effort sucks because they're really not fully recovered, which they may not even realize.

But if you had something like this and then you could wave your intensity up and down and your volume up and down throughout the week, you would be able to train in your hardest and best state in those moments where your HRV is in the green,

right? And you can get the most out of it. And then for athletes who are in combat sports like MMA or endurance athletes or Sprint athletes, track athletes, any professional athlete, I think it's a very useful tool because when it comes to conditioning and cardio, it can be a very, very valuable metric. And it can show you if you're becoming more well conditioned for your sport. Because the greater your HRV score is as you progress, it means the more conditioned you

are. If you continue to push in the gym and you are running faster times or longer distances and you're able to maintain a positive balance in your HRV, that is a direct result of you being more aerobically fit and conditioned, which you may need for your sport. And then lastly, is it worth it for body composition results? I say maybe because really it's not going to create a calorie deficit for you. It's not going to build muscle for you. But if it can guide your

decisions to be less stressed. And we know that stress increases cortisol, and research shows that cortisol is directly correlated with overeating due to cravings and excess hunger. And yeah, I think it can be helpful because it can teach you that you're stressed. It can help you make better decisions because you have more awareness around these things. It can also help you guide your decisions in the gym, which may also lead to more consistency as well.