If you have a fitness tracker and have trained with me in the last year, we’ve probably chatted about HRV – heart rate variability, or a measure of how stressed your body thinks you are (and how ready you are to handle more stress, like a workout). High HRV values (which are desirable – we want to see nice juicy numbers here, probably over 45-50 for most of us) come from a pretty holistic picture of well-being, so you might be surprised by some of the things I’ve done to improve my HRV over the last 12 months:
(and, real quick, some background in HRV and more here and here if you’re new to this idea).
My HRV was pretty unimpressive when I first got my apple watch – and monitoring it daily has taught me a lot about what stresses me out and how to know when I’m getting sick. This combo of tips has doubled my HRV, and I’m still working to improve it!
- I improved my hydration.
Dehydration makes your heart work harder overall, so this was an easy win. I drink water when I wake up, between clients, and before I teach cardio classes. (Increase – about 5 points) - I improved my electrolyte balance.
I have a job that requires a lot of physical output and a lot of sweat – YMMV on this, and your doctor can probably help more than this blog post. A mix of gatorade (helpful but too high in sugar), coconut water, salted water, and increased magnesium have made a measurable impact on my HRV. (Increase – about 10 points, plus overnight spikes over 100) - I resumed morning meditations.
I use the meditations in the Apple Fitness app ($10/mo or free through the Target app for 4 months) to sit and breathe for 5-10 minutes in the morning, even if I just fall back asleep or my mind wanders away. They’re easy, there are a lot of them, and 5 minutes is very approachable. (Increase – about 5 points) - I increased my wind down time and quality at bedtime.
Ideally, bedtime will take me about an hour: a nice shower, a face mask, 5 minutes to do a brain dump on paper, time to watch something funny or gentle and slide into sleep. This is a big change from realizing I needed to be asleep an hour ago and careening into the blankets at 90 mph. (Increase – about 15 points, sometimes more!) - I breathe deeply for about 1 min before I start work.
I didn’t think work stressed me out, but my watch showed otherwise. Breathing deeply fixed it! (Increase – about 10 points) - I cut down on caffeine.
This one is sad, and it’s really just biology, so once I saw the change I just slowly reintroduce my beloved coffee. Caffeine lowers your HRV, but that might not be a bad thing – it depends on your personal variables. (Increase – 20+ points, very sadly) - I got (a lot) more sleep.
I locked myself out of most of the apps on my phone from 9pm-5:30am and set sleep reminders so that I (should) get at least 7 hours of sleep every night – not easy when I work until 9pm and I have to be back at 5am! Beyond sleep, that means I have to have my laundry done and clothes ready to go, food ready, etc – so it required some changes to my routine. (Increase – at least 20 points) - I did more cardio.
My HRV is at its best when I do morning cardio, but just adding 2 more hours of cardio to my week made a measurable increase (about a 30% increase to what I had been doing). Again, more changes to routine to fit in the extra time, but it has been worth it. (About a 10 point increase)
My HRV definitely still dips if I’m getting sick or feeling stressed, but now that I know I can do simple things like breathe or drink water to bump it up, and as silly as it sounds, it’s helpful to have a quantified view of my stress management. It’s so easy to let the nice parts of our self care go, but they really make a difference to our health! Even if you don’t have a fitness tracker that shows HRV, try some of these tips when you’re ready and I bet you’ll feel better and see results faster.
If you need more cardio, come see me…
- Sunday 9am Zumba (free, meets at Levy Park – 3801 Eastside)
- Monday 6:30pm Zumba (free, meets at Levy Park – 3801 Eastside)
- Wednesday 7pm Zumba at Jerabeck Athletic Center (free / $5 suggested donation)
- Saturday 9:30am Zumba at Montrose Collective (free, 888 Westheimer, street/garage parking, stay for brunch if you want!) – we have moved upstairs to where it is covered!
