How to tap into the latest in tech to promote mind-body wellbeing
If you haven’t read Part 1 of this blog already, click here to understand why Heart Rate Variability (HRV) matters to your mind-body wellbeing.
How do you check or start tracking HRV?
Since HRV focuses on the imperceptible changes between each heartbeat (and is reported in milliseconds), the measurement is more complex and requires higher degrees of accuracy than the more familiar heart rate biometric. Whilst the gold standard for HRV is the analysis a long strip of an electrocardiogram, thanks to the rapid evolution of health tech, there is now a growing market of fitness trackers, heart rate monitors and related apps which provide convenient HRV insights.
However, HRV can vary hugely by the second, minute and day as the body responds to different stimuli. So measuring it during the day or the night at random times will lead to random data that doesn’t tell you much about your chronic physiological state.
In order to really get to grips with your HRV and build a reliable big picture, you need to get into a consistent practice of taking a single measurement in a well-known context to your body – which ideally is first thing in the morning after you wake-up and before rising, five to seven times a week or as regularly as possible. And by doing so you can track for changes as your incorporate healthier interventions.
HRV experts say that any other individual HRV readings you take are probably best discarded, or must be contextualised if they are to be of any value at all in decision-making such as whether to rest or train.
Is more always better when it comes to HRV scores?
As a general rule, HRV naturally increases during relaxing activities such as sleep or meditation, and decreases during times of stress or when we don’t spend enough time recuperating. So, to have more heart rate variability is generally a good sign that your nervous system is balanced (i.e. it’s not being dominated by one branch of the ANS, usually the sympathetic branch), and that your body is capable of adapting to its environment and ‘ready to go’.
This doesn’t mean high HRV directly causes good health but it makes it a useful assessment, and variability measures have been found to correlate with a range of significant health parameters from fitness/performance to stress resilience to indicators to the risk of various diseases and even overall mortality.
However, we also know HRV is a really sensitive metric that, as I've mentioned previously, fluctuates greatly through-out the day in response to different stimuli and stressors (whether it be food, drink, interaction with people and activities), and what constitutes a healthy HRV actually differs fairly dramatically between individuals. Whilst some average data (by age and gender) is available, trying to compare your HRV to others can be a bit misleading.
What’s more important is your personal HRV trend over the course of weeks, months and even years. This will tell you if you’re achieving enough of a balance between stimulation and relaxation to keep HRV buoyant overall.
Also, keep in mind with this that the human body is well-primed to deal with short-term stressors, but it is chronic stress that can put too much strain on the mind and body. So, if your average HRV was to significantly drop and get stuck at lower point, this may reflect sympathetic overload and a decline in your body’s capacity to adapt to the demands upon it. Persistent mental or physical stress also wreaks havoc with hormones triggering inflammatory states in the body that can ultimately lead to illness.
Stress can creep up on us all, particularly during this past year! I’ve found through my tracking that a lower average HRV than normal serves as a warning sign I’ve got a bit frazzled and need to prioritise my self-care.
What are your tech options?
Popular wearable tech options include the Oura Ring, the Whoop band and the Apple Watch.
Other options are a chest strap heart monitor (Polar, Wahoo) or Schoshe arm band, which you hook up to free HRV app such as Elite HRV in order to analyse the data. Elite HRV have also produced an accurate finger sensor, and HRV4 provides HRV readings using the light on your phone.
For Apple Watch wearers
If you have an Apple Watch, the Breathe app that comes with the Watch consistently pushes HRV data to the Health app every time you use it.
So using the Breathe app for one minute first thing in the morning to trigger an HRV reading and using that as a reliable personal baseline is a super easy way to start working with HRV.
If you go to Health on your iphone, HRV can be found under ‘Heart’ and this will present your average HRV over days, weeks, months and the year. However, bear in mind some of the data will have been collected at random times by your watch so isn’t necessarily useful on a daily basis, but it may help to build-up an average picture of HRV over the course of weeks or months, for example.
You can also choose to share HRV data between your Health app other third-party apps – some of which can actually trigger HRV readings and then add HRV to Health.
Apps that I’ve personally found most interesting and insightful are:
HRVTracker - provides handy insights and displays average HRV for the day on your watch face if you choose
Welltory – is a pretty comprehensive health app which breaks down your HRV results into easily-relatable areas like Performance (which represents total HRV), Energy (how your parasympathetic nervous system is working - that’s the ‘rest and digest’ branch) and Stress (the sympathetic branch).
AutoSleep – if you like tracking your sleep quality and quantity, this app also gives you a daily ‘readiness’ rating that considers waking HRV and waking pulse.
The power of your breath to improve hrv & mind-body fitness
In Part 1 of this blog, I listed things you can take charge of in your own lifestyle to influence your ANS health and HRV. Whilst all of these are important, your breath is arguably the single most powerful tool you have at your finger-tips to signal to our nervous systems that everything is ‘ok’, and help the body make a quick transition to a parasympathetic state of calm.
When we are stressed we tend to breathe faster or hold our breath, and we rarely notice how we are breathing. But, by simply observing our breathing, we can slow it down, which makes us feel more relaxed.
This also means, that if we choose to, we can proactively use slow, deep and mindful breathing techniques to reduce stress levels within the body and build resilience within the ANS.
Many useful and specific breathing techniques have been identified and in fact used for centuries to help promote positive mind-body wellbeing outcomes both in the moment and overtime (the topic for a separate blog). And mastering the breathing is free – all it requires is practice!
However, if you need a helping hand, there are loads of apps now available to guide you. And, if you have an Apple Watch, a couple of apps that may help you create a habit out of mindful breathing at the same time as taking your HRV, are:
Breathe – I love Apple’s own app and particularly the short-cuts to Breathe in the Apple Watch interface and reminders to breathe through-out the day. I aim to do five one-minute breathing practices at intervals through-out my day.
Zendo – your Apple Watch calibrates with an app on your iPhone providing a platform to accompany longer mindful meditations/breathing sessions, whilst simultaneously providing real-time HRV biofeedback so you can see how your experience is altering your physiology.
Heart coherence and using biofeedback training to harness HRV
If you want to take your HRV-breathing practice to the next level still, then technology again is available to help you self-regulate the breath to positive effect for your HRV and beyond.
‘Heart coherence’ or ‘heart rate coherence’ is a particular pattern of heart rate variation where the heart rate synchronises with the breath and promotes a state of optimal function body-wide. The effect is maximal at a particular rate of breathing that is somewhere around six breaths per minute, which is thought to be a kind of physiological "resonance point”.
The more time we allow our bodies to spend in heart coherence, the more we are effectively ‘exercising’ the parasympathetic nervous system, and with regular ‘neural exercise’ (it’s suggested 20-minutes twice a day) the benefits to HRV are reported to be dramatic and last well beyond the practice sessions themselves.
Some of the new health tech available can let us know if and when we actually reach this scientifically-measurable state and train us to generate coherence through specific breathing techniques. An organisation called HeartMath has created a range of HRV-based tech devices to help with exactly this.
A growing body of research evidence suggests training Heart Rate Coherence with biofeedback can benefit:
physical health (e.g. IBS)
emotional well-being
stress resilience
cognitive performance (e.g. focus, concentration).
I’ve been on one of HeartMath's training days and am going to spend more time with my HeartMath sensor to explore what shifts are possible.
If you’re interested in any of the approaches and tools I’ve mentioned in this article and would like to have a chat with me about where to start please shout. I’m exploring this too and I love sharing health-promoting techniques and tips with my clients.
References:
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/heart-rate-variability-new-way-track-well-2017112212789
https://elitehrv.com/heart-rate-variability-vs-heart-rate
https://www.whoop.com/thelocker/heart-rate-variability-hrv/
https://www.whoop.com/thelocker/the-four-day-hangover-hrv-alcohol/
http://autosleep.tantsissa.com/readiness#TOC-About-Heart-Rate-Variability-HRV-
https://www.firstbeat.com/en/blog/what-is-heart-rate-variability-hrv/
