At this point, most people have been exposed to some sort of wearable technology. Tracking HR continuously, getting body temperature, getting oxygen levels, or getting HRV are common features of wearable technology. How should that influence our training decisions? 

We have all been there, we invested into a wearable and wondered if this will actually change anything? The issue with tracking HRV, or anything, is you may actually have to adjust your training. We know that using tracking positively influences training outcomes (Kiviniemi, 2010). We know that higher HRV is positively correlated with training age and fitness levels (Flat, 2021). We know that when we prescribe intensity or volume based on daily HRV tracking we perform at a higher level in that session (Davletyarova, 2020). 

So why dont we use it to determine daily training prescriptions? 

It is clear that knowing is better than not knowing. It is clear that having an organic plan that reacts to the recovery rates from training stress is better than not doing that. But how many of us do or say this, ‘that cannot be right’ or ‘I already programmed it, so I have to do that’. We hang on to training prescriptions regardless of what our body is saying with ourselves and our athletes. Which makes the point of tracking through wearables silly to begin with. 

HRV should be high for elite athletes. They are better at recovering than us mere mortals. What we will see is a greater small scale fluctuation, hour to hour opposed to week to week. Higher distributions of fast twitch fibers will display a larger systemic response to training stress. You will see a faster recovery, but that can be a misleading indicator due to the residual unseen stress. The training stress is immense, but their overall HRV will remain high on a more scaled out, weekly view. 

This is the same for us mere mortals with a high training age. We may not see a week of fluctuation, but the smaller scale impact is high from familiarity with exercises and training intensity. More experience means you understand what upper limits are and therefore can push them faster. We employ certain methods that will require a greater amount of recovery from having greater experience all the time. We do this but do not employ a system to react to that stress. 

I personally find this hard to do. I believe in the concept of cybernetic training, but also you should be willing to push past your personal limitations. Coaching yourself or others blocks out that inner voice saying you cannot. But HRV is not an inner voice, it is your ANS’s response to training and rate of recovery. A violent change of HRV on a small scale will have a huge systemic impact. We may see a small drop in HRV the next day and say I am fine. I can do more. Or we might see HRV spike on a scheduled recovery day and again decide to not listen to that feedback. 

Part of the issue with training is the logistics. It’s hard to get to the gym and get a workout in daily or three-four times a week. So to say that HRV will dictate something that is more than just simply listening to what metrics are saying, it might upheave all your momentum you have created. That is my suggestion, you evaluate how much you rely on HRV based on how much you need it. 

If you are an elite level athlete preparing for a competition, then HRV should have an influence on your training. If you are a recreational lifter that is trying to get a consistent training week for more than two weeks in a row, you should prioritize working out. HRV is not as important as getting a consistent schedule. The biggest limiting factor is not recovery, but a certain amount of frequency in a set period of time to garner a positive response. 

HRV fluctuations will be all over the place in novice trainees. That’s to be expected when you are exposing yourself to something new along with not having baseline adaptation to training. It is better to simply get a cadence of training that forces you to align your days, weeks, and months. If you are consistent, for lets say 12 weeks, then yeah maybe HRV will be the next step. But you are in a fragile state working to solidify your routine. 

If you transition into training for something, like an event, then HRV tracking may be necessary. But, it should never get in the way of establishing a good routine. If you were going to tell me a general population person should guide their training based on their HRV, I would say that is a mistake. Plus it is not a good measurement for a while anyway. 

Davletyarova K, et al. (2020) Associations Between Heart Rate Variability–Derived Indexes and Training Load: Repeated Measures Correlation Approach Contribution. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 36(7): 2005–2010. 

Flatt AA, et al. (2021) Effect of Competitive Status and Experience on Heart Rate Variability Profiles in Collegiate Sprint- Swimmers. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 36(10): 2898–2904. 

Kiviniemi AM, 4t al. (2010) Daily exercise prescription on the basis of HR variability among men and women. Medicine & Science in Sport & Exercise, 42(7): 1355-1363.