fitness

Resting heart rate (rhr) & Heart Rate Variability (HRV)

Whether it’s a dedicated tracker or a smart watch, wearables are becoming big parts of fitness journeys whether you’re a dedicated gym rat or just want to stay generally fit. Today, we’re going to take a quick look at some of information being tracked by your wearables and touch on how to interpret what these numbers are trying to tell you.

Resting Heart Rate (RHR)

• Resting heart rate refers to the number of times your heart beats in a minute while your body is at rest. Typically, adults should expect to see a number between 50 to 100, with a range of 40 to 60 being seen in conditioned athletes. Over time, a good balance of cardio and strength training will help your circulatory system adapt to become more efficient, leading to a lower resting heart rate.

Workout Heart Rate

• Some trackers can track heart rate during exercise, giving their user an idea of how strenuous a session was by categorising them into different heart rate zones. Zone 1 sessions would resemble a brisk walk, while Zone 5 sessions would be as punishing a workout as you could manage, think trying to lift a car, or running away from zombies. So, maximising this number is good, right? Should we target having as a high a workout heart rate as possible each time we go for a run or head to the gym? Doing so would be a fast track to overtraining, and even possibly long-term health detriments. A good balance between different heart rate zone activities would be most beneficial for most people.

Heart Rate Variability (HRV)

• HRV refers to the difference in amount of time between your heartbeats. A higher trending HRV means that your body is more ready to adapt to different stresses, either physical or mental. A lower trending HRV can be seen as a sign that it’s time to take a timeout from the gym or other stressors that may be affecting your life. A lower trending HRV and higher trending RHR together may signal that you are about to fall sick. The reason that we should be focusing more on HRV trends rather than try to interpret each reading is that HRV is notoriously difficult to interpret, with a number that’s high for one person being low for another. You can improve HRV trends by taking better care of your body, but also taking better care of your mind. Stressors affect our bodies in myriad ways, so don’t feel guilty about replacing a gym session with a meditation session, or a little bit of rest and relaxation.

This being said, the accuracy of wearables on the market right now are usually worse than advertised, so take individual numbers with a grain of salt. And don’t stress out too much just because these numbers look worse than what you think they should be! If you have any concerns, it is always best to speak to a healthcare professional.

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by Bryant Wong Image | Unsplash