HRV or Heart Rate Variability

[Anonymous]

I got an Oura ring a month ago and my HRV trends appeared recently and my average is like 35. The internet seems to say this is, well, awful? I am a 38 YO female and I am overweight but very in shape. I exercise probably 5 hours a week in addition to being a fairly active mom of three with a full time job/volunteer stuff. Just to say I am healthy. My bloodwork is healthy, I lost about 50 pounds 3 years ago. I ran a 10k in 64 minutes in August. I am not like a star athlete but I am healthy. Only to say this metric is an outlier. Does anyone know much about HRV and what this could mean?

[Anonymous]

You sound healthy! I ignore this on my Apple watch. Too stressful.

[Anonymous]

Fitbit says mine is 35 too. It’s not one of the measures I pay attention to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fitbit says mine is 35 too. It’s not one of the measures I pay attention to.

Me, too. I do notice if it goes way down, but I've stopped giving it any thought otherwise.

[Anonymous]

What is considered good?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is considered good?

Apparently like 60/70 for my age

[Anonymous]

I am 44. Mine averages 50.

[Anonymous]

I have a Fitbit and it says my HRV is 11 ms which is supposed to be terrible. I'm reasonably healthy. I only look at the variability, not the number.

[Anonymous]

Idk but I have similar stats as you and my hrv always seems low too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a Fitbit and it says my HRV is 11 ms which is supposed to be terrible. I'm reasonably healthy. I only look at the variability, not the number.

Thank for posting that! Mine ranges from 9-13 and I can’t figure out why. Blood pressure and pulse are fine so not sure what is going on. Glad I’m not the only one!

[Anonymous]

I ignore that feature of my Garmin watch and I can't seem to be able to wear it while I sleep anyways.

The wearable technology is good and bad. This is an example of the bad. I cannot imagine the number of excess consultations cardiologists are getting because of these fuzzy HRV numbers from wearables.

[Anonymous]

Mine says 27 on apple watch! I ignore.

[Anonymous]

Look into HeartMath. It is an important component of overall health and doesn't have much to do with physical fitness. It's the mind/body connection. Mediation, a breathing practice, HeartMath, Wim Hoff, Yoga Nidra will all help.

[Anonymous]

I study HRV. The gold standard to measure HRV is a 5 minute duration EKG. Longer would be even better.

Most of these wearable devices are not approved by the FDA for measurement of HRV - so check that.

Also HRV is dependent on position - sitting, standing, lying and also to stress, similar to how blood pressure is affected by these factors. Caffeine intake, sleep etc etc also affect HRV.

Bottom line is most of these devices are not valid devices to measure HRV and there is a high probability that HRV is not measured under ideal circumstances.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I study HRV. The gold standard to measure HRV is a 5 minute duration EKG. Longer would be even better.

Most of these wearable devices are not approved by the FDA for measurement of HRV - so check that.

Also HRV is dependent on position - sitting, standing, lying and also to stress, similar to how blood pressure is affected by these factors. Caffeine intake, sleep etc etc also affect HRV.

Bottom line is most of these devices are not valid devices to measure HRV and there is a high probability that HRV is not measured under ideal circumstances.

What are you thoughts on the cardio fitness measure on the Apple Watch?