This discussion has been locked.
You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion

HRV baseline calculation?

How is the HRV average for the gray box calculated? Seems like it goes up pretty fast, but going down it's pretty slow?
This doesn't much make sense to me. And after reading https://www.garmin.com/en-US/garmin-technology/health-science/hrv-status/ I'm not smarter either.

Ref.

Top Replies

  • as activity should raise it! 

    It really depends. Long very easy rides or runs should increase HRV, while more intense  workouts (let's say tempo and above) will create acuter stress on the body…

All Replies

  • I think there's bottom limit on 35ms on the low side, that it doesn't go under that and HRV under 35ms is considered not good. So probably need then to do more sports even the watch is suggesting rest day as activity should raise it! 

  • as activity should raise it! 

    It really depends. Long very easy rides or runs should increase HRV, while more intense  workouts (let's say tempo and above) will create acuter stress on the body and lower the HRV.

    Remember that HRV reacts to stress beyond training: illness, alcohol, stress at work, etc.

    HRV lower than baselied might just reflect a higher-than-usual level of training or a lack of recovery time. It is possible that cardio-vascular recovery time calculated through the EPOC model and Training Effect is not enough or incomplete:

    - not enough because undue stress of ligaments and micro-injuries in muscles might decrease your HRV even if EPOC has been resolved,

    - incomplete because some activities like strength training, or hill running are not adequately analyzed by the watch as anaerobic.

    Lower than baseline HRV is not necessarily bad and is not a predictor of (lack of) performance. Continued depression of HRV is a sign of chronic stress that indeed will end up lowering your baseline until it gets in abnormal territory.

    Higher than baseline HRV is not necessarily always good either, and might just be a rebound after low periods, or reflect extreme cases where HRV becomes temporarily uncorrelated to the level of stress.

  • Yeah, it seems very complex, million reasons for high/low and either is good and so on. But when it was over the baseline I had the most load as it was summer holiday and a lot of activities also harder ones. Then back to normal mostly sitting in front of computer and it got back down and I think the baseline has that hard limit of 35ms that it won't go under it (unless someone can proof that their baseline is under it). 

    But like looking it, it has been pretty consistent, latest 7d averages: 36, 35, 34, 35, 35, 35, 37, 35. So let's see what happens with this November streak thing that I don't have rest days, just 30min easy runs, will it start raising or what.