hi there 👋
I hope everything is well.
A few weeks ago I spoke with Mikki Williden on heart rate, heart rate variability, stress and lifestyle.
We discussed HRV, what it means, what affects it, how it is measured and the best conditions for doing so. We also talked about the impact diet can have on HRV and sex related differences, whether or not these are clinically meaningful. We discussed also HRV Biofeedback and the impact of simple actions that we can take to improve our stress response and HRV. Finally we talk about wearables and the limitations (and benefits?) of tracking sleep.
You can find the episode, here.
Actionability of HRV
When we see a negative response to stress (e.g. a suppressed HRV below our normal range, for a few days), common sense says we have two options:
reduce stressors
increase recovery
Reducing stressors is feasible at times, for example, in the context of training, this is as simple as reducing training intensity. For non-training-related stressors, things might be more complex, and option 2) might also help. An example of 2) could be sleeping more or taking a nap, or eating better.
Reducing stressors and increasing recovery are not mutually exclusive, of course, and we can also try to do both at the same time, as it often happens in life.
In sports science, there are quite a few studies covering 1), and typically showing either no change or improved performance when limiting training intensity on days or weeks in which HRV is suppressed. Stressor timing matters, and "losing" a few hard sessions does not seem to be as detrimental as doing them while in a negative stress state (see Javaloyes et al, or Vesterinen et al).
However, I haven't seen much (any?) research for 2) in terms of interventions using HRV. Is performance improved if we keep our hard sessions but e.g. try to get some more sleep, or eat better, etc. ?
I'm aware of many coaches using these strategies in professional sports (e.g. using HRV and trying to focus on the "increasing recovery" side of things, more than on "limiting stressors", which might not be an option with frequent games or other constraints), but it'd be nice to see some systematic studies on this.
What are your preferred strategies? How do you evaluate their effectiveness?
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See you next week!
Marco holds a PhD cum laude in applied machine learning, a M.Sc. cum laude in computer science engineering, and a M.Sc. cum laude in human movement sciences and high-performance coaching.
He has published more than 50 papers and patents at the intersection between physiology, health, technology, and human performance.
He is co-founder of HRV4Training, advisor at Oura, guest lecturer at VU Amsterdam, and editor for IEEE Pervasive Computing Magazine. He loves running.
Social:
Twitter: @altini_marco.
Personal Substack.