If you’ve read my book then you already know I’m a big advocate of heart rate variability and it’s a technology I’ve used in the training of all of my athletes for about ten years now. To be honest, I’m so used to the information that it provides me that I don’t know how I’d train anyone without it. Knowing exactly where an individual is on the fatigue-recovery-supercompensation curve is absolutely invaluable. Although most aren’t aware of the research done using HRV, there is actually a wide variety of research out there that confirms exactly what I’ve found over the years.
In the research I’m attaching to this post, HRV was used on a group of Powerlifters. The results, as you can read in the study itself, spoke to the accuracy of HRV, specifically the measure of parasympathetic power, in gauging recovery from exercise. What was specifically interesting about this study was that they also measured markers of performance, pain, and hormones following the training sessions at various intervals.
What they found was a high correlation between the measure parasympathetic power and fatigue/recovery/performance. This doesn’t really come as a surprise me, as I’ve seen this over and over again over the years, but it does serve to provide further support to the undeniable face that HRV is an effective technology for program management.
My prediction is that in the next 3-5 years, there will be a proliferation of HRV technology in the training world. Quite honestly, I’m surprised it’s taken this long. I’ve been using it for ten years and it still amazes me there haven’t been more commercial products aimed at consumers and coaches. In any event, this is something I’m currently working on and everyone can expect an announcement in this regard in the coming weeks.
Check out the research…
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