Everything You Need to Know About Heart Rate Variability (and 3 Ways to Improve It)

Heart rate variability, or HRV for short, is a measure of how much your time between heartbeats fluctuates

Higher HRV is generally better than lower HRV.

This is counterintuitive because it seems like you wouldn’t want your intervals between heartbeats to be all over the place.

A higher HRV means that your heart is more responsive and adaptive to changes in your body and the environment, which is a good thing.

From an Oura article:

In the scientific literature, higher HRV is typically associated with better health and improved performance.

HRV varies from person to person, so it’s better to focus on improving your baseline HRV than comparing your HRV against others.

Two of the most popular wearables on the market that measure HRV are the Oura ring and the Whoop strap.

I personally use an Oura ring and it’s one of the best health tracking devices I’ve ever purchased (get one for $40 off).

1. Stay active

2. Sleep better

3. Prioritize recovery

4. Eat better (and don’t eat late at night)

5. Practice mindfulness and breathing exercises

In my experience, these 3 behaviors have the most profound impact:

1. Consistent training

Higher HRV is generally correlated with lower resting heart rate, so anything to improve your overall fitness and faster recovery (like consistent training) helps.

2. Sleep hygiene

The other side of the coin is focusing on behaviors that promote more restful sleep like avoiding alcohol and late night meals. A consistent early bedtime to facilitate a higher percentage of deep sleep also makes a difference.

3. Parasympathetic dominance

Finally, anything to put you in a more parasympathetic dominant state throughout the day (breathwork, meditation, etc.) is crucial. When you’re under chronic stress (fight or flight mode), HRV suffers.

I’m experimenting with a wearable called @Apollo_Neuro right now to help with #3.

What else are you doing to improve your HRV?

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