HRV Monitoring

How are you handling your training loads these days? Besides subjective feedback, which is of paramount importance, monitoring your cardiac autonomic balance via heart rate variability (HRV) has tremendous value. HRV reflects SA node modulation of both the sympathetic & parasympathetic branches of the autonomic nervous system and describes the oscillations between consecutive R-R intervals on an electrocardiograph. HRV monitoring is a practical & non-invasive method for gauging your functional adaptation to the high systemic demands of intense training. HRV is influenced by numerous factors, eg, physical fitness, age, gender, medication, etc. A reduction in vagal related indices of HRV is generally associated with negative adaptation and conversely an increase is related to improved fitness and performance, i.e., positive adaptation. This oversimplification may in fact prove erroneous in select training conditions, e.g., tapering and/or HRV saturation at low heart rates in elite athletes. We advocate a longitudinal approach (daily measurements with weekly & training block averages) in evaluating and potentially modifying exercise protocols. Temporal & methodological consistency of measurement is critical for reliability. Tracking physiological measures, such as HRV, in combination with psychological indices can provide you & your coach with a potent armamentarium to confidently, easily & successfully tackle your athletic goals.