The Measurable Tool To Unlock Healing?
Heart Rate Variability (HRV)
Heart rate variability (HRV) measures the time intervals between your heartbeats and can give insights into the state of your nervous system. It helps determine when to train, when to rest, and can guide you on your healing journey by revealing what’s working and what isn’t. Most wearable devices now include the ability to monitor and record HRV, so you can use this tool at home to track your nervous system’s state and guide your recovery.
What is HRV?
A normal, healthy heart doesn’t beat like a metronome. Rather than producing perfectly even intervals between beats, there’s a consistent variation in the milliseconds between heartbeats—hence the term ‘heart rate variability.’ A higher HRV indicates that your body is adaptable and able to self-regulate effectively under physical and mental stressors.
HRV vs HR vs RHR
It’s important to understand the differences between heart rate variability (HRV), heart rate (HR), and resting heart rate (RHR):
Heart Rate Variability (HRV): Measures the variation in time between consecutive heartbeats.
Heart Rate (HR): Measures the number of beats per minute. A lower HR indicates rest, while a higher HR can signal exercise, stress, or the effects of substances like caffeine or alcohol.
Resting Heart Rate (RHR): For adults, this should typically be between 60-100 beats per minute. A lower RHR can indicate good cardiac fitness, while a higher RHR may point to stress, anxiety, or other factors like substance use.
A low RHR often correlates with good health, a higher HRV indicates a higher level of health.
HRV ranges
HRV averages decrease with age. Here’s a graph to demonstrate typical HRV ranges by age group.
(Image source: Whoop.com)
What causes low HRV?
Stress:
Emotional, physical, or even imagined stress can cause a low HRV. Stress increases heart rate, reducing the time between heartbeats. Other stressors that lower HRV include structural stress, such as chronic tension or instability and illness.Shallow Breathing:
Stress can lead to shallow chest breathing, which further lowers HRV. The vagus nerve, which plays a central role in the autonomic nervous system, is influenced by deep, diaphragmatic breathing. By breathing deeply, we massage the internal organs and strengthen the vagus nerve, helping to increase HRV.
When we breathe deeply, diaphragmatically, we move all of our organs with the breath, massaging and strengthening the tone of the vagus nerve and therefore increasing its strength. When we consider that the ANS dictates the rate at which our heart beats, we can see why strengthening the VN and reducing shallow chest breathing is important to increase HRV.
How can we monitor our own HRV?
Most modern wearable devices come equipped with HRV monitors. Since HRV varies throughout the day and from one day to the next, it’s essential to track your average HRV and see how quickly it recovers after exercise or stressful moments to get a true picture of your health.
Using HRV as a Tool for Your Healing Journey
Understanding that stress (whether physical, emotional, real, or imagined) lowers HRV allows us to use HRV readings to gauge how much stress our bodies are under. HRV offers a direct reading of your nervous system and how well it responds to the challenges you face.
Diaphragmatic breath work in the Pomme Studio.
HRV is a direct reading of your nervous system-
how it responds to everything you put upon it
and whether it is strengthening over time.
We can use HRV readings to see how we respond to exercise, work, emotional stress and even foods. AND use this data to plan how and when we exercise, engage with people and projects and ultimately plan our lives to achieve our goals with the confidence that we are, in parallel, strengthening our overall health.
HRV and Exercise
If you are someone returning to exercise after some time off, then we can see how that particular exercise affects your HRV and determine whether you worked too hard or it is in fact the very thing you need to strengthen your HRV (nervous system, heart efficiency, cardiac health) over time.
Exercise is a stressor, but it should be a positive one. Depending on the type of exercise you undertake, you will likely see a drop in HRV during training, that will last for up to one week (the fitter we become the faster our recovery, if recovery is slow, perhaps you need to allow more true rest and look into your diet for recovery). But over time your average HRV should rise. If it falls over time, or stays low, then you know the type of exercise you are undertaking is too much for your system right now, perhaps your body is already dealing with another stressor and some time spent reducing that stressor will enable you to better enjoy the benefits of exercise.
HRV can be used daily to work out our readiness to exercise or take on challenges. This is particularly helpful for people on a healing journey who aren't sure if they are pushing themselves too much, concerned about potential burn out or looking for a more therapeutic style of exercise. As our bodies are all different, you can use your HRV reading to see how your body is responding to everything you put upon it.
HRV and Rest
If your HRV is lower than normal one day, then this is a strong indicator that your body needs today to be a rest and recovery day. If your HRV is high, this is a day where you can complete a more challenging workout. It would be a good day to complete that task you have hanging over you or to have that difficult conversation you haven’t yet faced. However, be mindful of your pace—spreading activities throughout the day will help prevent your HRV from plummeting the next day.
HRV and Relationships
If your HRV drops after spending time with someone, it could suggest that this person drains your energy. On the other hand, an increased HRV after social interactions indicates that person may positively contribute to your well-being. Pay attention to your HRV in the 24-hour period following social interactions, as the effects may take some time to appear
Lower than average HRV
A consistently low HRV for your age bracket may suggest chronic stress. This could be due to an underlying health issue or a chronic stress response from a past event. If your HRV is regularly below average, it’s worth investigating potential causes and addressing them with a healthcare professional.
Can HRV really be increased?
Yes. This is a real time HRV reading from a client of mine immediately before, during and after a 1 hour Movement Therapy session with me. Recorded on an Apple watch.
HRV can be increased instantaneously with things such as:
Therapeutic yoga
Meditation
Mindfulness
Movement Therapy
Hugs, connection, skin to skin contact, sex
Baths, especially epsom salt baths
Slow breathing techniques, rhythmic diaphragmatic breathwork
Laughter, play
Spending time doing anything you enjoy
HRV can be increased over time with things such as:
All of the above
Exercise
Removing stressors - foods, emotional stressors, swapping vigorous exercise for more gentle exercise until your system has recovered
Consistent, good quality sleep
Supporting the circadian rhythm
Sunlight exposure
Infrared light exposure
Lower alcohol intake
Reconnecting with nature
Intermittent fasting (for those without blood sugar issues. This can cause stress to the system so it isn't suitable for all).
Staying hydrated
Steady healthy diet
If you aren’t sure where to get started on your healing journey, book your free Health and Happiness Coaching session with Charlette to work out exactly how you would like to feel and what your body needs to get you there.