So I have a new Garmin watch.
It’s purple!
It’s a vivoactive 5 and does things my previous watch, the 4, didn’t. I’m finding the sleep reports useful, but there are other measures I’m not so sure what to make of.
One of those is heart rate variability, or HRV.
What the heck is heart rate variability? Heart rate variability, according to Garmin, is the tiny, constantly shifting gap between one heartbeat and the next. Counterintuitively, more variability is generally the healthy sign: it means your autonomic nervous system is flexible, shifting easily between “go” mode and “rest and digest” mode. Less variability — a heart ticking along too metronomically — tends to show up when you’re fatigued, stressed, sick, or under-recovered.
Mostly mine is balanced which means that my recent average is within my normal range — and my body’s handling its mix of training stress and recovery well. Occasionally, it comes out as unbalanced. Garmin says that means my average has drifted just outside my usual range, which can mean anything from a hard training block to poor sleep, a stressful week, or the start of getting sick. It could also read “low,” but mine hasn’t done that yet. And that’s supposed to be worse than unbalanced.
Balanced is the boring-but-good outcome: it means my body is absorbing whatever training and life stress I’m putting on it and bouncing back. Yay! What factors send it into the unbalanced range? Not enough sleep, working out too hard without enough recovery, too much stress, and for others, but not me, too much alcohol.
I guess it’s useful as a tool for managing sleep, stress, and workout recovery. I’m also guessing I will largely ignore it! You?
Sources:
- Understanding the HRV Status on Your Garmin Smartwatch
- How to use Garmin’s HRV Status to master your readiness
Discover more from FIT IS A FEMINIST ISSUE
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
I think mostly ignore it is the thing to do. I was once told my HR is variable, and that was good. I didn’t ever follow up. All these devices that purport to push us in the right direction? Maybe a lot of them just send us on unneeded visits to the doctor. I can’t deny having used them, but it rarely takes much time before they are buried in a drawer. All I have used over time: watts on my bikes and heart rate at high effort levels (mostly, that just makes me feel like I am getting something for the effort).
I care about resting heart rate and like you, high heart rate during hard efforts. I find the sleep and stress data interesting. Things like blood oxygen I’ll leave to medical professionals–except during covid when I briefly cared about it. I suspect it’s the same with HRV. On my bike I think I like all the data! Watts, speed (avg and max, distance, and heart rate, cadence….