heart rate variability measure & recovery

pan280

Hi,

I was thinking of trying a heart rate variability app to check if i am rested enough.
I am wondering if anyone used this metric and whether they would recommend it?
It does require some investment in time every morning but it seems to be worth it.
In my case it looks like i will need to invest in a bluetooth HRM (currently have an ANT+)

tangled_metal

I think you can get an activity tracker that has an optical hrm that measures and records it through its app. I think it is one of the newer mio trackers but not sure. It was something I read in an interview with the boss of Mio in which she talked about variability being important for measuring recovery and other things. Sounded like she said the app would record it based on the HRM data during an update planned in the new year. That interview was October last year IIRC so might be part of the app now.

Even if not then the optical HRM in mio trackers might still be worth looking into as part of your use of variability.

pan280

Tangled Metal wrote:

I think you can get an activity tracker that has an optical hrm that measures and records it through its app. I think it is one of the newer mio trackers but not sure. It was something I read in an interview with the boss of Mio in which she talked about variability being important for measuring recovery and other things. Sounded like she said the app would record it based on the HRM data during an update planned in the new year. That interview was October last year IIRC so might be part of the app now.

Even if not then the optical HRM in mio trackers might still be worth looking into as part of your use of variability.

Thanks! I googled this a bit and the mio alpha appears to be measuring HRV, even though it has mixed reviews ...

cougie

Or you could just take your own resting pulse using your watch. I used to do it religiously and the RHR on a Monday morning after a hard Sunday ride was very noticeable. No need to spend money.

BeaconRuth

cougie wrote:

Or you could just take your own resting pulse using your watch. I used to do it religiously and the RHR on a Monday morning after a hard Sunday ride was very noticeable. No need to spend money.

Or you could use the knowledge that you did a hard ride on the Sunday to conclude that you were tired and needed recovery on the Monday... the two do generally go together.

After looking into HRV some years ago I concluded that it is a very great deal more hassle than it's worth for most amateur athletes and cyclists. I pay very close attention to the training completed and the rider's perception of tiredness. If it's not possible to judge the need for recovery well enough from training records and how someone feels, then I think the athlete needs to work harder on knowing themselves better. Not everything can or should be reduced to numbers.

Ruth

tangled_metal

But it is a gadget afterall and they are always nice to have surely?!!

My issue with RHR is I always have an elevated rate on waking. The alarm goes off or whatever causes it but if you do wear a HR recording tracker you can at least get a measure of the range of your HR and perhaps account for any spikes due to alarm or sudden waking or whatever. BTW i do not wake easy so a loud alarm is needed (or a crying baby/toddler works too). I also like the alarm functions on some trackers that wake you up some time in the half hour before the alarm time when you are in the best part of your cycle to wake, instead of a loud radio or buzzer when you are in deep sleep. Bound to affect your RHR that.

I also think that you can get software or apps that take HRM data and works a lot of extra data out of that. I think the use of HR data has a great potential to aid health, fitness and sport a lot. There is a lot of research out in Russia on HRV and other things like that by medical researchers. IIRC Mio is teaming up with some of those researchers to develop their monitors, apps and algorithms in their equipment. At the moment these optical HRM are at the edge of their usefulness for activties like sports but as they incorporate research from the medical side into their algorithms they will better manage motion and become more accurate. This will allow more data interpretation increasing usefulness. One day these sorts of devices will be used by medicine, sport and probably Google!!!!

Health information is the new gold rush for tech companies. Billions are being spent by Intel, Google, Microsoft and others. Smaller players are being bought up like Basis by Intel and Pebble by IIRC Microsoft. If the big players haven't already developed something they have bought it with another smaller company who has the tech they want. If you do not mind use of your data (and I assume since you are on here and use Google products already you are already being used that way) then the tech will become more commonplace and potentially useful.

pan280

Great thanks Ruth. I can usually tell by how easily irritable I become. But sometimes it is not just the cycling, I was hoping this may be a way to gauge training stress. I take your point I have enough data to know better. Also faffing around with a strap, and I am guessing it will need some water or gel since I will not be sweating will be a pain.

So what sort of things I should look for in my data? I have both an hrm and power.
Currently I if I can raise my hr high enough for an effort and then it goes down fairly quickly I assume I am fairly fresh. That and coupled how fatigued my legs feel are my criteria.
It is a bit subjective though, especially the legs, sometimes after the warm up they feel ok sometimes it's worse.

But as Tangled Metal says the optical ones or the ones that go on your finger are a bit less of a faff, I might have to spend the £ to find out!

tangled_metal

There's a good optical HRM tracker called Withings Pulse o2. It's a motion detection type of tracker but has a finger based optical HRM. It's got a wrist band to wear it in your sleep where IIRC it can detect the phases of sleep such as deep, light sleep, REM sleep and when you wake. The hrm part is there for your RHR on waking. It tracks your steps and detects activities too based on the 3 axis accelerometer. Connects to your phone via Bluetooth smart and an app that converts the data intelligently so you can see patterns. Think the app also highlights patterns too. Useful if you're the sort to be able to enter your food intake as well.

These are all lifestyle and wellbeing trackers rather than pure sport trackers I think but still good general use. Others are better for sportsmen and women. However if you're just looking for basic check on recovery then as said before you can just take your own pulse on waking. However heart rate and blood pressure monitors are actually becoming cheaper these days. Even the cheaper wrist pressure monitors are accurate. It only becomes useful if recorded over time to detect trends I think.

I'm interested in all this monitoring that's got all it's own tech now. If I could spare the cash I'd try quite a few out. A Mio and the withings pulse o2 interest me due to hardware and software (app) because they're supposed to be good eexamples.

tangled_metal

pan280 if you do get one I'd be interested to know how you get on with it. Thinking of getting one for awhile now but it is a bit of outlay without knowing how useful it really is. Not many have them so not much collective experience out there other than say reviewers like Dcrainmaker.
I wanted the basis peak last year but when it did land reviewers were underwhelmed. Thinking the Mio ones might be better.

bahzob

I'd very much like you to test it out and see if it's of any use. As the above replies indicate there is not really any good method to check your recovery state. It seems to be quite easy to know you are rested but not if you are too fatigued to usefully do further training.

tangled_metal

According to the sales blurb from one of those trackers and tracker apps they can tell you whether to take it easy or go for it. Can't remember which model but it had this intelligent app that does clever calculations based on past data and current data.