I’ve just selected the option on my Garmin edge 530 to log HRV and I’ve seen that this outputs some values onto the FIT file.
I understand Garmin uses this to present their “Performance Baseline” metric in the first 10 minutes of an activity, I guess to inform us whether we show the conditions to go hard or achieve a good result. It also uses this at the end of the activity to show us their “Performance Condition” chart, which is a little bit more cryptic.
As far as I understand, the best way to use HRV for training is to have the metric logged while laying still and especially during sleep. This advises us whether we’re fully recovered or still processing the training load.
What would be the usefulness of logging it during an activity? Is HRV supposed to decreased as we get tired during the session. Does that somewhat inform us of when to stop?
Also, I see there’s no activity field for HRV, and no community chart for it (I found an activity chart called HRV but the script seems to be empty).
I’d like to hear your thoughts.
It handles mostly resting HRV but if you search the thread for dfa-a1 (a mathematical derivation of HRV which can be used during exercise) you will find some answers to your questions.
Sorry about this one. I’m still scrolling the other one to understand if today there’s anything that intervals.icu computes with the fit files HRV values from Garmin and if I can get any insight about it.
Your understanding of the best way to log and monitor HRV values is while asleep is incorrect.
Best way it to take a reading while sittind after waking each morning. Use bathroom first if needed. Follow the same routine each day before measurement
There isn´t in Intervals. But you can use the HRV stream in other platforms like ´Runalyze´ for example.
The simplest solution, if your Garmin is IQ compatible, is the AlphaHRV IQ data field. It records a dfa-a1 stream that can be configured in Intervals.
There´s a topic AlphaHRV on the forum, and the dev of the IQ field is also active here.
HRV was a really big deal when it came out. Of course many people are invested in it for various reasons. And the drum beat for HRV goes on and don’t we all like metrics.
Many have derived benefit from it as an alert to oncoming illness for example. I have found it totally at odds with other proven measurements such as Resting HR. As a short term indicator of how much to train today, I’d pay attention to the qualification given with the measurement of HRV along the lines of may or maybe or might or could. Nothing is ever given as a definitive when HRV is given to you in a recommendation.
It still is, believe me. A lot of the pro´s use it, but never on it´s own, always in conjunction with other objective or subjective metrics.
The big difference between pro´s usage and ´everybody´s´ usage is the strict consistent protocol to get a meaningfull measurement.
Lot´s of amateurs simply take a number from their wearable without having a clue what they´re doing. And then they say that it doesn´t work…
HRV is a very important data, as long as you know how to interpret it correctly, interpretation is everyone’s big problem (they don’t know how to interpret it). Everyone is left with a number like the rMSSD and the HRV has other very interesting metrics that allow us to see the balance of the sympathetic and parasympathetic, you can have a HRV within your normal values and have a more important activation of the sympathetic which could have an effect of bad feelings to the athlete. As @MedTechCD says, it cannot be used alone and it is necessary to evaluate and cross-reference data from the athlete’s perceptions, as well as hours of sleep, quality of sleep, etc…
HRV on exertion will always be depleted due to sympathetic activation by exertion. When faced with a threatening event for the organism, the body becomes alert and activates the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system, analysing the rMSSD on exertion is not very productive. It can be used to see how the body recovers after exercise and to create reference values.
So, from my reading of the main post on HRV (DFA), some answers here and even blog posts from Marco Altini on DFA1 analysis, I’ve concluded that:
People are still relying on rested/morning HRV readings to get informed on the body’s response to training or other life stressors;
HRV usage in the workout file to compute DFA1 and other metrics such as RR/A1 in order to identify VT1 and VT2 thresholds did not prove to be the holy grail it set out to be.
And I guess that’s it. Please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong on my conclusions.
The problem is that very few people know how to interpret these metrics (I have been analysing DFA for 3 years), the problem with DFA thresholds is that all the papers are based on a fixed value of 0.75 and 0.5 and that is like saying that 2mmol is LT1 and 4 mmol is LT2. As for RRa1 there is no study because it is a metric that first nobody knows how to calculate (only Iñigo and I) and there are no studies on RRa1 (we have already finished the first phase of data collection for the study). We get aerobic threshold through RRa1 and even FR and DFA, but we don’t use the fixed methods. DFA is going to depend a lot on the branch of the autonomic nervous system that is active and I can see that with the HRV, DFA is going to depend on many things that if you don’t control them and know how to use it, it is a metric that is worth very little. In fact, I am already applying a first draft to my athletes with intervals.
Hot topic my friend
I follow and record my hrv for over a year.
I mostly don’t take care about it anymore.
Currently I am in the red under average value BUT I never had legs like with excellent recovery and kind of unlimited power (kind of is important here)
I used to use whoop but very inaccessible and currently using Garmin forerunner 265.
Your method of measurements with both the Whoop and the Garmin are the issue here, not HRV itself as a health metric. It’s been discussed ad nauseum how to correctly measure HRV but people don’t seem to want to listen.
@Luisma_Gallego_Soy_P Do you have an ETA on when your papers are out? I’m a keen AlphaHRV user and use it during ramp tests to establish training zones & in the field to make sure I’m not brewing an illness (large suppression is clear when I’m going to be sick soon). Would love to read how you’re using it.
Right now AlphaHRV is used to see adaptation in similar trainings, when RRa1 is low for the same stimulus we say that you have “adapted”, when it is too high for the history, we evaluate which part has made it worse, we separate dfa and respiratory rate and we see which has had more involvement. Looking at the respiratory frequency I have put the athlete to work the inspiratory musculature with powerbreathe, obtaining very good results. Right now we are studying the possibility that with AlphaHRV, we can get the thresholds in an unstructured session or a race, at the moment we are comparing with ergo-spirometry and the results are promising. Training by zones according to alpha, you have to be very sure that the values are correct.
