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HRV

9685456
4 months ago

Has anyone else experienced an  unexplained disconcerting drop in HRV.  My HRV is low anyway on account of being 63 years old. A drop is quite unsettling for me. I'm doubting the watch but..

  • 0 4 months ago

    Has your resting HR stayed the same or gone up? Usually with lower HRV I see a rise in RHR.

  • 0 4 months ago

    There are so many factors impacting that value - genetics, sugar/alcohol/nicotine intake and so on.. It's only one indicator of body stress. I'm 61 yo, my HRV margins are 42-53 and a daily score fully correlates with daily training load. 

  • 0 3 months ago

    Yes!!! (I'm older than you.)    My HRV began dropping about 4-5 days in a row.  My resting heart rate began increasing.  My breathing rate began increasing.  My running performance was reduced.  After about 2 weeks I went to the doc.   I was diagnosed with pneumonia. 

    My FR 265s knew I was sick before I did.

  • 0 3 months ago in reply to JeffG

    Blimey - well done 265!  Your comment has strengthened my resolve to not ignore my HRV dip.  It might be stress related in my case

  • 0 3 months ago in reply to 9685456

    A glass of wine also pulls my HRV down.   I have reduced my alcohol consumption to near zero since I started wearing, and looking at, my FR265.   

  • 0 3 months ago in reply to 9685456

    HRV is not static.  A drop may be down to stress, lack of sleep/ poor sleep, JeffG's glass of wine or illness.  By illness it may be just the common cold with no need for alarm.  But it generally does not lie.  If it drops into the Low zone for more than a few days you may need to rest for a few days or reduce training load to let the body recover.

  • 0 3 months ago in reply to ronand

    There are even cases where a spike in HRV is bad.

  • 0 3 months ago

    My opinion. You can not take the FR265 HR reading at face value. My HR reading at rest seems OK, that is as compared to my FR 245 and a manual count (feel my pulse and use time). BUT for exercise, the FR265 will typically be low for the first (about) 10 minutes then jump to what I believe is a correct or near correct value (if you use Garmin connect, check the HR chart on your phone, you can see the jump). I wore both watches for one exercise to try confirm exercise values.

    Worse, if the software on your watch has done an automatic update, what it might read now may not be the same as what it read before the update. For exercise It would be more reliable to compare readings using the values obtained while wearing a chest strap. For resting, a manual count is easy to do.

    Since I have about 8-10 minutes of bunk low values for exercise I look at the chart on my phone from Gramin connect (to get a feel for the average after the jump), or I compare exercise values for the same duration. 5k to 5k, 10k to 10k, the average is wrong but it still gives me a relative value to compare.

    All that aside, my HR reading (and peak reading), on the same software version does drop as I get fitter. I am also older than you and even if I lay off for a couple of weeks my average and peak HR readings will rise. Off the cuff, less fit to notably fitter for me is about 13-14 BPM. 

  • 0 3 months ago in reply to gxgene1

    Thank you to everyone for joining the conversation.  After my first half marathon on 11th May I might take a break from wearing my Garmin except for runs.  I'm ambivalent about this new feedback on my body, perhaps it will be back on my wrist within a few days!

  • 0 3 months ago in reply to 9685456

    Wait!? What!? You mean we can take it off???  That's crazy talk!!!  :-)   

    I wear mine 24/7 except for showering, when I charge it.    I shave a 3 inch wide strip on my left wrist and across my chest for the chest strap. I only wear the chest strap during activities when I want better data.    I have learned so much about my body and habits - for the better.    I now know how much energy (body battery) certain activities take out of me. I made custom activities so I can track it, e.g..  snow blowing, lawn mowing, doing the NY Times puzzles.  I use the watch as an excuse to either do something  - or avoid it.    "Nope,  I can't go can't go shopping with you.  I'm only at 35%."    Or as soon as someone starts talking politics, "Nope,  my stress level just jumped to 75%.  Talk among yourselves if you must, but I'm out."    

    I love this thing!