Originally Posted by
WhyFi
What's the skinny on HRV? I downloaded an app, paired with my HRM, did a few readings and got some figures (44bpm, 65hrv). Now what?
HRV is a great measure of sympathetic and, particularly, parasympathetic activity and is actually pretty good at predicting things like mortality in heart disease and maybe in the general population. It is also very useful for monitoring your training status and overall level of stress. I do it every morning. Problem is, no matter what anyone tells you, you can't get reliable data with an optical system.
In general, the higher your HRV, the healthier (and younger) you are. However, HRV is always greater the slower the HR, so there's a confound there. Unfortunately, no app I've seen controls for rate.