Heart Rate Variability and other RECOVERY markers

Your ability to recover and absorb training (amongst your usual daily stress) is paramount in improving. Most athletes train without thinking about the big picture. Heart rate variability is an excellent marker to help you recognise if you are digging a training black hole or getting adaptation from your long and hard sessions.

Before I unpack Heart Rate Variability (HRV) I want to mention 8 recovery markers that can also be looked at to get an even clearer picture of your recovery status. If you really want to "geek out" then it's a good idea to keep track of several of these markers so better, more informed decisions can be made based on consistent measures, on a day to day basis. To put it more simply most people have a disconnect between mind and body so have difficulty with understanding how they are tracking. I think it is far better to use a few markers that you understand fully than trying to track several that you have no idea about. As a coach my ultimate goal is to empower people to understand themselves better. 

1) Resting Heart rate (RHR)

There is a well known link between fluctuations in RHR and over-training. the difficulty is a raised RHR can indicate a stressful day, or dehydration as well as training stress. To muddy the waters further a raised RHR can be a sign of sympathetic nervous system over-training (too much intensity), while a decreased RHR can indicate parasympathetic stress (too much aerobic- long slow work). As you will learn NEVER take one marker in isolation. You need to look at measures in context with what is happening in your daily life.

2) Body Mass

An acute loss of more than 2% of your normal body weight can negatively effect recovery, performance, and your cognitive ability. Regular weighing of pre breakfast body mass can help you monitor this BUT make sure your hydration status is as constant as possible.  Remember mood effects this - it has been shown that increased stress leading to more cortisol in the system is linked to sodium retention and fluid related weight gain.

3) Sleep

If you are having trouble getting to sleep, tossing and turning, or waking up earlier than your usual waking time (this can indicate advanced adrenal fatigue) then these are all signs of poor recovery. Your QUALITY of sleep can be affected by poor eating after a tough workout, too hot, alot on your mind, or even depleted anabolic hormones that are imperative for muscle repair. The science suggests we need 7-9 hours of QUALITY sleep made up of around 5 x 90min cycles a night. 

4) Oxygen Saturation

This is how much oxygen the blood is carrying as a % of its capacity. Healthy saturations are between 96-99% (at sea level). If this measure is below 95% then it can indicate poor recovery. It could also show anemia (especially if accompanied by weakness, fatigue, and shortness of breath during sessions).

5) Hydration

Every cell in your body needs water for efficient metabolism. A simple indicator of hydration status is the colour of your urine. A pale to slightly yellow colour is your aim.

6) Appetite.

Your appetite tends to decrease with under recovery from a high training load cycle. This can of course cause a negative cycle with amino acid, fatty acid, and hormone depletion. This has to be taken into context thou as a decrease in appetite can also mean you are becoming more metabolically efficient. 

7) Muscle soreness

Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) is micro tearing of muscle fibres which causes intra muscular inflammation, and microtrauma at a cellular level. This is normal to high intensity training but will increae your risk of injury if you don't have relative rest afterwards. Persistent muscle soreness is a sign of overtraining.

8) Energy Levels & Wellbeing.

This can seem a little intangible but the goal is to be able to differentiate between low motivation from poor recovery, and low motivation from non-physical factors (laziness, or mental stress after a tough day at work). My favourite way to gauge this is to start your work out and after 5min see how you feel. If you are still fatigued following your warm up you are probably poorly recovered.  Qualitative variables such as headaches, diarrhea, and sore throats are common symptoms of excessive fatigue, and illness. Prolonged upper respiratory tract infections are another common manifestation of poor recovery, and if ongoing can be a strong indicator of over training.

Heart Rate Variability (HRV)

Your sinoatrial (SA) node in the heart produces a certain number of impulses per minute, which regulates your heart rate. The SA node activity, heart rate, and rhythm are mostly controlled by your autonomic nervous system (Parasympathetic - REST & DIGEST, and Sympathetic - FIGHT or FLIGHT). 

The Parasympathetic nervous system affects your HR through the release of acetycholine by the vagus nerve, this inhibits activation of the SA node and the variations in amount of time between heart beats (decreased HRV). In contrast the Sympathetic nervous system affects HR by realeasing epinephrine and noradrenaline stimulating the activation of the SA node, increasing the variations in the amount of time spent between heart beats (increased HRV).

If you are well rested, and training is in balance with all aspects of your life then your Parasympathetic nervous system dovetails well with your Sympathetic nervous system and produces well co-ordinated responses in your HRV to breathing, temperture, blood pressure, and total stress. Therefore you will have consistent and HIGH HRV values (measured on a 1-100 scale) SO THE HIGHER THE HRV SCORE THE BETTER. Translated it means that the amount of time between heart beats is changing slightly from beat to beat indicating your hearts electrical activity is VERY RESPONSIVE to the signals by your nervous system.

If you are not well rested then the normally healthy heart beat variation in your heart rhythm begins to decline. Abnormal variability  (consistently low HRV values - below 60, or values that jump around day to day can be problematic. This indicates that your sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems are no longer in balance - meaning you are OUT OF BALANCE.

In a strength and speed athlete there is more sympathetic nervous system over-training and a highly variable HRV on a daily basis. In contrast the endurance athlete doing the long slow stuff there is more parasympathetic nervous system overtraining and low HRV values. Part of the EVERFIT training is getting the mix right between the short/fast work and the long slow so overall balance is maintained.

I have used Azumio's Stress Check App (it uses the phones camera lens to check HRV) to generate general stress scores. It is not highly accurate BUT is gives you a general idea about where you are at. 

The other app that is a bit more detailed on HRV is the ELITE HRV app. This gives the HRV reading between 1-100 (as detailed in the above article) along with other measures such as HR to give you a picture of where your training readiness is.

If you are interested in getting more structured ongoing data on your HRV and other recovery markers than download the apps and start looking into it. I am happy to start monitoring some of these measures as part of your ongoing coaching. If reading this just freaks you out then don't stress, just work on the basics - getting good sleep, encompassing restorative training sessions (mindfulness, yoga, pilates, EASY swimming) keeping the training sessions blended with your normal life, eating whole food, and keeping it FUN. If JOY isn't enhanced with your training then get in touch to make a change.

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