February 26, 2025 • 17 mins
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--
Confused about what those HRV numbers mean on your wearable device? Or if they even matter?
Learn how Resonance Theory, the same science behind musical instruments and bridge collapses, reveals why focusing only on heart rate variability (HRV) numbers misses the bigger picture of what's happening in your body.
Main Takeaways:
- Your absolute HRV number matters less than changes from your baseline
- 3 key factors affect your baseline HRV
- Daily factors like sleep, alcohol, and stress can push you away from baseline
- Looking for patterns over 2-3 weeks is more valuable than daily numbers
- Understanding your body's natural frequencies helps optimize training and recovery
Episode Mentioned:
Timestamps:
2:01 - What is resonance theory?
4:08 - Interpreting HRV numbers and using data effectively
10:43 - Tips to improve HRV
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Philip Pape (00:01):
you've seen those HRV numbers pop up on your
fitness tracker or aura ring 25one day, 65 the next.
Maybe you've heard higher isbetter, but you're wondering
what the numbers really mean foryour health and performance.
Today I am getting into why HRVmetrics only tell half the
story.
Using a principle calledresonance theory the same
(00:22):
science that explains whybridges collapse and musical
instruments sing You'll discoverhow your body's natural rhythms
affect everything from stressto recovery.
By the end of this episode,you'll understand not just what
your HRV numbers mean, but howto actually use them to optimize
your training, sleep andoverall well-being.
(00:52):
Welcome to Wits and Weights, theshow that helps you build a
strong, healthy physique usingevidence, engineering and
efficiency.
I'm your host, Philip Pape, andtoday we're uncovering what
heart rate variability, or HRV,really tells us about our bodies
by looking at the science ofresonance.
I want to give a special shoutout to Aubrey in our Wits and
Weights Physique University, whoasked a question related to HRV
(01:16):
and she said quote I am notclear on what good, normal, bad
numbers might be for HRV.
So not only will we answer thatquestion today, but you'll
learn why focusing solely onthose numbers might be for HRV.
So not only will we answer thatquestion today, but you'll
learn why focusing solely onthose numbers might be missing
the bigger picture of what'shappening in your body.
Before we dig into HRV andresonance theory, I want to let
you know that if you havequestions like Aubrey did, and
(01:36):
you're not already in one of ourcommunities and you want to
have a topic covered on the show, you can head over to
witsandweightscom slash questionwitsandweightscom slash
question link in the show notesas well, where you can submit
your question to me.
You'll get a personal reply.
I will answer your question,usually within a couple days max
, and then you'll get featuredon a future episode and I'll
(01:59):
even give you a shout out if youprefer.
All right, so I want to startwith a concept of resonance as
the background and in the worldof engineering, resonance occurs
when a system vibrates at itsnatural frequency.
Now, every physical object hasa natural frequency.
That's the rate at which itwants to oscillate when it's
(02:19):
disturbed.
So if you strike a tuning forkand then it vibrates at its
specific frequency, it's goingto create a pure musical note,
right?
People can use that to tuneinstruments, for example, If
you're pushing a child on aswing at just the right timing
and then they go higher andhigher.
This harmonious timing createswhat we call resonance.
The opposite happens whenfrequencies clash right, A
(02:43):
marching army is going to breakstep when they cross a bridge
because their synchronizedfootsteps could match the
bridge's natural frequency andcause it to collapse.
I don't know if you knew thatthis isn't just theoretical.
It actually happened to theBroughton Suspension Bridge.
I think I'd say it pronouncedBroughton Broughton in 1831,
when 74 soldiers marched acrossit.
(03:04):
Broughton Broughton in 1831,when 74 soldiers marched across
it.
And you may know the famousTacoma Bridge that tore apart as
well.
Kind of an example offrequencies gone wrong.
And this is where it getsinteresting when it comes to
health and fitness.
Your body operates on naturalfrequencies as well.
Your heart beats around 60times a minute at rest.
These are averages, okay.
You breathe about 12 to 20times a minute.
(03:27):
These are not random numbers.
They are your body's naturaloscillations, and when these
systems are synchronized, theycreate what engineers would call
constructive interference,which means it amplifies their
effects.
When they're fighting eachother, you get destructive
interference, and so this is whyHRV numbers alone like let's be
(03:48):
honest just about any metric byitself isn't going to tell the
full story.
If you have an HRV of 50, itmight be fantastic for you but
very concerning for someone else, and so it's not about hitting
a magic number right.
In this case at least, it'sabout how well your body systems
are resonating together.
So I want to address Aubrey'squestion directly about
(04:11):
interpreting HRV numbers.
I don't want to remaintheoretical here.
For you guys, your HRV canrange anywhere from below 20 to
over 200 milliseconds.
The crucial thing here thatI've already alluded to is that
these numbers are highlyindividual.
I have clients with averageHRVs in the 30s who are
incredibly fit, and others withnumbers in the hundreds who
(04:33):
might struggle with recovery.
So think of HRV kind of likeyour body's check engine light
as opposed to your speedometerright, the absolute number
matters less than how it changesfrom your baseline.
So when you understandsomething like resonance theory,
this makes sense.
Just like the tuning fork hasits specific frequency, your
(04:54):
body has its natural rhythm.
So three key things affect thisnatural rhythm your baseline
HRV.
The first one is age.
Hrv generally decreases as youget older.
Okay, and like many things whenit comes to age, my big caveat
here is a lot of things thathappen as we age are actually
tied to other variables like aloss of muscle mass, a loss of
(05:18):
fitness, lower activity, higherstress, and we need to make sure
to separate the two.
But generally, if you live theaverage typical american's
lifestyle, which is fairlysedentary not at all what we are
going for here a lot of thesethings will just simply get
worse with age.
But we're trying to defy age,aren't we anyway?
That's age.
The second of the three is yourfitness level, so it usually
(05:39):
increases with cardiovascularfitness.
Okay, and remember,cardiovascular fitness isn't
just from cardio.
In fact, it's predominantlybecause you are generally active
, you walk a lot, you move andyou lift weights.
It's not just because you are arunner or endurance athlete.
In fact, for many people likethat, they actually have issues
with stress.
(06:00):
Keeping that in mind, Numberthree is your genetics, and
that's kind of your startingpoint, and that's why the
absolute number isn't asimportant as you seeing your
trend over time and then makingthe changes to nudge it in the
direction you want.
Now, daily factors can thenpush you away from your baseline
and this is where it's kind ofa chicken and egg.
It's like do you want to reactto the HRV or do you simply want
(06:23):
to recognize that what you dois going to affect your HRV and
change your behaviors?
I mean, I would argue they allwork together, but just keeping
that in mind, poor sleep is thefirst one, and big one, that is
going to knock your systems outof sync and going to cause your
HIV to drop.
Alcohol huge disruptor to yournatural frequency, Anybody who
(06:44):
has an aura ring.
If you eat too late or you havetoo much alcohol, you're going
to see your HRV be worse thenext day or overnight.
High stress that createsdissonance in your autonomic
nervous system and then eventhings like room temperature can
affect how well these resonatetogether.
It's why we talk about having areally calm, dark, cool
environment for sleep.
(07:04):
So if you want to actually usethe information because I know a
lot of you you see it andyou're like okay, that's great,
what do I do?
Instead of chasing just ahigher number, which was the
chicken and egg thing Imentioned I want you to look for
patterns.
Okay, Patterns First.
You're going to establish yourbaseline.
So you've got to.
You've got to be tracking yourHIV somehow with some sort of
wearable over about two to threeweeks and you notice that many
(07:26):
things that we track when itcomes to human body.
It's like you've got to do itfor at least two to three weeks.
It just takes time tounderstand these things.
Um, so, two to three weeks ofyour normal routine, your normal
living.
You're going to track your HRVduring sleep, because that's
when external factors are addingnoise to the system, adding
extra variables.
Hrv during sleep is a reallyreliable indicator from a
(07:47):
day-to-day trend, and thenyou're going to look for
significant deviations, Forexample, a sudden drop of 20% or
more below your baseline.
That usually says that you haveexcessive stress or poor
recovery.
That's a sudden drop.
And do we always have to beworried about that?
Eh, I mean, if you know why, ifyou, if you, if you, you know,
(08:08):
got drunk last night, then thatcould explain it.
Or if you had like an extra2000 calories late at night,
right, and you know what causesit again, chicken and egg it's
like, okay, I know that happened, move on, Um, but it's good
information to know why that theHRV dropped is because your
stress level just went upbecause of what you just did.
So it's a good way to correlatethose things.
(08:28):
That's a sudden drop.
Now a consistent downward trendover several weeks.
That could indicate, forexample, that your training load
is too high.
Maybe you're overtraining andyou're getting fatigued,
assuming nothing else is pushingit up like some new source of
chronic stress or some anomaloussituation like travel.
(08:49):
But again, that's why it's goodto understand, it's good to
take these measurements whenyou're in your normal routine so
that you can isolate variables.
Multiple days of elevated HRVactually could be a good thing.
It could indicate that you'readapting really well to training
.
It could also be that you justimproved your sleep, Like I just
started using a new pillowsleeping on my back.
(09:10):
And I'm monitoring my HRV.
It's only been a week.
I've seen it go up, I've seenit go down.
I don't know if the trend hasis is has moved in one direction
or not yet, Cause you can'ttell just from a few data points
, just like can't with scaleweight or anything else.
And then if, however, if,however, you have large
day-to-day swings, so we'retalking about huge ups and downs
(09:30):
.
Okay, and this is differentthan scale weight, because the
scale weight, that's actuallypretty normal With HRV it could
mean that your body's naturalrhythms are being disrupted
somehow and that itself, eventhough it may not deviate to a
certain value.
The fact that it's fluctuatingso much could be a red flag.
So, going back to resonancetheory, where this becomes
practical, and remember theanalogy of pushing the kid on
(09:54):
the swing just at the right time, well, you can kind of work
with your body's naturalfrequency to optimize your HRV
and if, for those of you whocaught my episode with Dr Peter
Martoni, he actually talkedabout the fact that if your HRV
is higher and you're adaptingwell and handling stress well,
it also could represent a moredistinct gap between your
(10:15):
parasympathetic and sympatheticnervous systems.
There's a healthy separationand distinction between the two.
They're not overlapping andconflicting with each other.
So it kind of goes with thiswhole frequency resonance thing
where we don't want them toclash, we want them to actually
be more in sync and notinterfering with each other.
So if you want to optimize yourHRV, a lot of this has to do
(10:37):
with stress, but it's alsorecovery and training.
It's the things that you'redoing in between the recovery.
So, breathing practices you knowwe'll get talked about a lot,
but they're they're actuallykind of underrated.
I think even just taking 30 or60 seconds to stop and breathe
it could be very helpful.
Um, people with anxiety,whether it's chronic or acute
(10:57):
bouts of anxiety, find thatbreathing practices are
extremely helpful because itforces you to become mindful and
it also makes your body feelsafe.
It feels like, hey, there's nota threat here, because I'm able
to focus on breathing like this.
How would that even happen if Iwas under threat?
Therefore, activate theparasympathetic nervous system
and relax.
And it's like six breaths perminute tends to match your
(11:23):
cardiovascular resonantfrequency.
So there is this theory thatbreathing in sync with your
heart rate can be helpful.
Now, don't overthink it.
This could stress you out.
Just using a typical like boxbreathing technique, chances are
your heart itself will alsomatch your breathing, so it kind
of works that way.
There's also your training.
So some people are actuallyusing the aura ring data to
(11:46):
schedule their workouts whenthey know the HRV is at or above
baseline.
Now the problem, the onlyproblem I have with this one is
like, if you wait till the dayof and you wake up and you're
like, oh, my HRV is good today,Now I'm going to train, I'm not,
as I'm not a big fan of that,because I'd rather you have a
training schedule that ispreplanned and sometimes, when
your HRV isn't great.
You can still train really welland actually you might need the
(12:07):
training to kind of get you outof the funk, so to speak, and
help you out.
Um, it's just more of theintense training where you might
be dealing with things that areexacerbating your existing
fatigue.
I think it's good to payattention.
And if your HRV is like totallyshot because you just like
whatever you did last night wasnot pretty normal routine, I
mean yes, then you've got toconsider seriously whether it's
(12:29):
going to be most effective totrain.
But for a lot of people I'lltell you what just going by feel
is not always the bestindicator of how effectively
you're going to train or whetherit's good for you.
I'm sorry to say so.
I usually recommend people justget in the gym, warm up, see
how you feel and, you know,modify the lifts if you need to
(12:49):
like, if low back fatigue is anissue or whatnot, but don't
necessarily let your HRV tellyou what to do.
And then recovery protocols aswell.
Hrv is a good indicator of howyou're recovering and so if you
are pushing or backing off, oryou're in fat loss or you're in
a gaining phase, it's kind ofnice to see the patterns and
correlate them with how hardyou're pushing and how much
(13:12):
you're recovering, you mightfind that like an extra training
day in between your trainingweeks, like two days off instead
of one day off, for example, isexactly what you need to get
your HRV to have a much bettertrend over time.
But it's gonna take a while tokind of figure that out.
So I guess my point with thiswhole episode is to not really
(13:33):
overthink HRV and use it as moreof a lagging indicator of the
stuff you're doing.
Maybe it'll give you somesurprise insights.
A lot of times it's not reallysurprising why it's lower.
But if you're trying to tweaksomething to improve recovery or
your training, adaptation orstress, it's great to have a
baseline and then see like threeweeks later oh yes, it actually
(13:54):
improved.
So it is likely that what I didhelped me.
Again, the only caveat there isif it didn't improve markedly,
that doesn't mean it's notbeneficial.
Whatever you're doing, it couldtake longer to reveal itself
through your HRV, or it may notreally reveal itself through
your HRV, and that's why I don'twant you to put too much stock
(14:14):
in this one number.
All right, so tying this alltogether, this principle of
resonance.
It doesn't just explain HRV.
It actually it reveals whycertain practices feel almost
magical.
All right, so I mentioned boxbreathing.
That is a technique used byNavy SEALs and most people think
it works because you're youknow, quote unquote calming down
(14:36):
.
Right, You're calming down, butthere's actually a lot more to
it.
There's science behind it,because when you breathe in for
four seconds, you hold for four,out for four and hold for four.
You are creating a 12-secondcycle and that is five breaths
per minute.
That is actually remarkablyclose to the resonant frequency
of six breaths per minute Imentioned earlier.
(14:57):
So I kind of buried the leadback then.
And then I recall that I had anote on this and wanted to share
why that, um, that system, whythere could be some uh magic
behind this, behind themathematics of our bodies and
our heart rate and our breathing.
I mean it's pretty cool, I meanit almost sounds woo, woo,
right, but it really ismathematical if you think about
(15:19):
it, Um, and then you'reliterally like tuning your body,
like an instrument, bringingyour whole system into harmony.
And that's why some people doget really great results from
breathing work, Um, but othersdon't, because you, your
resonant frequency might notmatch up with that breathing,
and so that is something tothink about.
In other words, try boxbreathing and if you can
(15:40):
experiment with differentnumbers of seconds, you may find
something that's closer to yourresonant frequency.
Cool stuff, Whether you buyinto it or not, it doesn't hurt
to breathe and to relax, guys.
Okay, as we wrap up, I want torecap the key points so you
don't forget all this.
Okay, HRV, resonance theory.
Your absolute HRV numbermatters far less than how it
(16:03):
changes from your baseline.
Remember that, Like a tuningfork, your body has natural
frequencies that work best whenin harmony.
If you can understand thepatterns through both HRV,
through your breathing, throughyour training, recovery, all of
your health practices, it's justone more thing in the toolbox
to help you improve and optimizethe way you live your life.
And then simple practices likethe controlled breathing can
(16:24):
sometimes help you even findyour resonant frequency.
Isn't that cool?
All right, the beauty ofviewing HRV through the lens of
this theory, through resonancetheory, is it transforms
something that just seems likethis random, complex number into
potentially an intuitive tool.
You know, you don't have toobsess over the number, Just
learn to work with your body'snatural rhythms and then the
numbers will follow.
(16:45):
All right, If you havequestions about today's episode
or any other health or fitnessor nutrition topic you want me
to cover on the show, head overto witsandweightscom slash
question.
Witsandweightscom slash question.
I'll throw a link in the shownotes and then your question
might and I'll say might, butalmost most certainly will be
featured in a future episode.
(17:05):
I mean, I need a lot of topics,folks.
I never run out of episodes toput topics into.
So today we answered Aubrey'squestion.
Yours can be in a futureepisode.
Go to witsandweightscom slashquestion.
All right, until next time,keep using your wits lifting
those weights and remember, justlike a well-tuned instrument,
your body performs best when allsystems are in harmony.
(17:26):
I'll talk to you next time hereon the Wits and Weights Podcast
.
you've seen those HRV numbers pop up on your
fitness tracker or aura ring 25one day, 65 the next.
Maybe you've heard higher isbetter, but you're wondering
what the numbers really mean foryour health and performance.
Today I am getting into why HRVmetrics only tell half the
story.
Using a principle calledresonance theory the same
(00:22):
science that explains whybridges collapse and musical
instruments sing You'll discoverhow your body's natural rhythms
affect everything from stressto recovery.
By the end of this episode,you'll understand not just what
your HRV numbers mean, but howto actually use them to optimize
your training, sleep andoverall well-being.
(00:52):
Welcome to Wits and Weights, theshow that helps you build a
strong, healthy physique usingevidence, engineering and
efficiency.
I'm your host, Philip Pape, andtoday we're uncovering what
heart rate variability, or HRV,really tells us about our bodies
by looking at the science ofresonance.
I want to give a special shoutout to Aubrey in our Wits and
Weights Physique University, whoasked a question related to HRV
(01:16):
and she said quote I am notclear on what good, normal, bad
numbers might be for HRV.
So not only will we answer thatquestion today, but you'll
learn why focusing solely onthose numbers might be for HRV.
So not only will we answer thatquestion today, but you'll
learn why focusing solely onthose numbers might be missing
the bigger picture of what'shappening in your body.
Before we dig into HRV andresonance theory, I want to let
you know that if you havequestions like Aubrey did, and
(01:36):
you're not already in one of ourcommunities and you want to
have a topic covered on the show, you can head over to
witsandweightscom slash questionwitsandweightscom slash
question link in the show notesas well, where you can submit
your question to me.
You'll get a personal reply.
I will answer your question,usually within a couple days max
, and then you'll get featuredon a future episode and I'll
(01:59):
even give you a shout out if youprefer.
All right, so I want to startwith a concept of resonance as
the background and in the worldof engineering, resonance occurs
when a system vibrates at itsnatural frequency.
Now, every physical object hasa natural frequency.
That's the rate at which itwants to oscillate when it's
(02:19):
disturbed.
So if you strike a tuning forkand then it vibrates at its
specific frequency, it's goingto create a pure musical note,
right?
People can use that to tuneinstruments, for example, If
you're pushing a child on aswing at just the right timing
and then they go higher andhigher.
This harmonious timing createswhat we call resonance.
The opposite happens whenfrequencies clash right, A
(02:43):
marching army is going to breakstep when they cross a bridge
because their synchronizedfootsteps could match the
bridge's natural frequency andcause it to collapse.
I don't know if you knew thatthis isn't just theoretical.
It actually happened to theBroughton Suspension Bridge.
I think I'd say it pronouncedBroughton Broughton in 1831,
when 74 soldiers marched acrossit.
(03:04):
Broughton Broughton in 1831,when 74 soldiers marched across
it.
And you may know the famousTacoma Bridge that tore apart as
well.
Kind of an example offrequencies gone wrong.
And this is where it getsinteresting when it comes to
health and fitness.
Your body operates on naturalfrequencies as well.
Your heart beats around 60times a minute at rest.
These are averages, okay.
You breathe about 12 to 20times a minute.
(03:27):
These are not random numbers.
They are your body's naturaloscillations, and when these
systems are synchronized, theycreate what engineers would call
constructive interference,which means it amplifies their
effects.
When they're fighting eachother, you get destructive
interference, and so this is whyHRV numbers alone like let's be
(03:48):
honest just about any metric byitself isn't going to tell the
full story.
If you have an HRV of 50, itmight be fantastic for you but
very concerning for someone else, and so it's not about hitting
a magic number right.
In this case at least, it'sabout how well your body systems
are resonating together.
So I want to address Aubrey'squestion directly about
(04:11):
interpreting HRV numbers.
I don't want to remaintheoretical here.
For you guys, your HRV canrange anywhere from below 20 to
over 200 milliseconds.
The crucial thing here thatI've already alluded to is that
these numbers are highlyindividual.
I have clients with averageHRVs in the 30s who are
incredibly fit, and others withnumbers in the hundreds who
(04:33):
might struggle with recovery.
So think of HRV kind of likeyour body's check engine light
as opposed to your speedometerright, the absolute number
matters less than how it changesfrom your baseline.
So when you understandsomething like resonance theory,
this makes sense.
Just like the tuning fork hasits specific frequency, your
(04:54):
body has its natural rhythm.
So three key things affect thisnatural rhythm your baseline
HRV.
The first one is age.
Hrv generally decreases as youget older.
Okay, and like many things whenit comes to age, my big caveat
here is a lot of things thathappen as we age are actually
tied to other variables like aloss of muscle mass, a loss of
(05:18):
fitness, lower activity, higherstress, and we need to make sure
to separate the two.
But generally, if you live theaverage typical american's
lifestyle, which is fairlysedentary not at all what we are
going for here a lot of thesethings will just simply get
worse with age.
But we're trying to defy age,aren't we anyway?
That's age.
The second of the three is yourfitness level, so it usually
(05:39):
increases with cardiovascularfitness.
Okay, and remember,cardiovascular fitness isn't
just from cardio.
In fact, it's predominantlybecause you are generally active
, you walk a lot, you move andyou lift weights.
It's not just because you are arunner or endurance athlete.
In fact, for many people likethat, they actually have issues
with stress.
(06:00):
Keeping that in mind, Numberthree is your genetics, and
that's kind of your startingpoint, and that's why the
absolute number isn't asimportant as you seeing your
trend over time and then makingthe changes to nudge it in the
direction you want.
Now, daily factors can thenpush you away from your baseline
and this is where it's kind ofa chicken and egg.
It's like do you want to reactto the HRV or do you simply want
(06:23):
to recognize that what you dois going to affect your HRV and
change your behaviors?
I mean, I would argue they allwork together, but just keeping
that in mind, poor sleep is thefirst one, and big one, that is
going to knock your systems outof sync and going to cause your
HIV to drop.
Alcohol huge disruptor to yournatural frequency, Anybody who
(06:44):
has an aura ring.
If you eat too late or you havetoo much alcohol, you're going
to see your HRV be worse thenext day or overnight.
High stress that createsdissonance in your autonomic
nervous system and then eventhings like room temperature can
affect how well these resonatetogether.
It's why we talk about having areally calm, dark, cool
environment for sleep.
(07:04):
So if you want to actually usethe information because I know a
lot of you you see it andyou're like okay, that's great,
what do I do?
Instead of chasing just ahigher number, which was the
chicken and egg thing Imentioned I want you to look for
patterns.
Okay, Patterns First.
You're going to establish yourbaseline.
So you've got to.
You've got to be tracking yourHIV somehow with some sort of
wearable over about two to threeweeks and you notice that many
(07:26):
things that we track when itcomes to human body.
It's like you've got to do itfor at least two to three weeks.
It just takes time tounderstand these things.
Um, so, two to three weeks ofyour normal routine, your normal
living.
You're going to track your HRVduring sleep, because that's
when external factors are addingnoise to the system, adding
extra variables.
Hrv during sleep is a reallyreliable indicator from a
(07:47):
day-to-day trend, and thenyou're going to look for
significant deviations, Forexample, a sudden drop of 20% or
more below your baseline.
That usually says that you haveexcessive stress or poor
recovery.
That's a sudden drop.
And do we always have to beworried about that?
Eh, I mean, if you know why, ifyou, if you, if you, you know,
(08:08):
got drunk last night, then thatcould explain it.
Or if you had like an extra2000 calories late at night,
right, and you know what causesit again, chicken and egg it's
like, okay, I know that happened, move on, Um, but it's good
information to know why that theHRV dropped is because your
stress level just went upbecause of what you just did.
So it's a good way to correlatethose things.
(08:28):
That's a sudden drop.
Now a consistent downward trendover several weeks.
That could indicate, forexample, that your training load
is too high.
Maybe you're overtraining andyou're getting fatigued,
assuming nothing else is pushingit up like some new source of
chronic stress or some anomaloussituation like travel.
(08:49):
But again, that's why it's goodto understand, it's good to
take these measurements whenyou're in your normal routine so
that you can isolate variables.
Multiple days of elevated HRVactually could be a good thing.
It could indicate that you'readapting really well to training
.
It could also be that you justimproved your sleep, Like I just
started using a new pillowsleeping on my back.
(09:10):
And I'm monitoring my HRV.
It's only been a week.
I've seen it go up, I've seenit go down.
I don't know if the trend hasis is has moved in one direction
or not yet, Cause you can'ttell just from a few data points
, just like can't with scaleweight or anything else.
And then if, however, if,however, you have large
day-to-day swings, so we'retalking about huge ups and downs
(09:30):
.
Okay, and this is differentthan scale weight, because the
scale weight, that's actuallypretty normal With HRV it could
mean that your body's naturalrhythms are being disrupted
somehow and that itself, eventhough it may not deviate to a
certain value.
The fact that it's fluctuatingso much could be a red flag.
So, going back to resonancetheory, where this becomes
practical, and remember theanalogy of pushing the kid on
(09:54):
the swing just at the right time, well, you can kind of work
with your body's naturalfrequency to optimize your HRV
and if, for those of you whocaught my episode with Dr Peter
Martoni, he actually talkedabout the fact that if your HRV
is higher and you're adaptingwell and handling stress well,
it also could represent a moredistinct gap between your
(10:15):
parasympathetic and sympatheticnervous systems.
There's a healthy separationand distinction between the two.
They're not overlapping andconflicting with each other.
So it kind of goes with thiswhole frequency resonance thing
where we don't want them toclash, we want them to actually
be more in sync and notinterfering with each other.
So if you want to optimize yourHRV, a lot of this has to do
(10:37):
with stress, but it's alsorecovery and training.
It's the things that you'redoing in between the recovery.
So, breathing practices you knowwe'll get talked about a lot,
but they're they're actuallykind of underrated.
I think even just taking 30 or60 seconds to stop and breathe
it could be very helpful.
Um, people with anxiety,whether it's chronic or acute
(10:57):
bouts of anxiety, find thatbreathing practices are
extremely helpful because itforces you to become mindful and
it also makes your body feelsafe.
It feels like, hey, there's nota threat here, because I'm able
to focus on breathing like this.
How would that even happen if Iwas under threat?
Therefore, activate theparasympathetic nervous system
and relax.
And it's like six breaths perminute tends to match your
(11:23):
cardiovascular resonantfrequency.
So there is this theory thatbreathing in sync with your
heart rate can be helpful.
Now, don't overthink it.
This could stress you out.
Just using a typical like boxbreathing technique, chances are
your heart itself will alsomatch your breathing, so it kind
of works that way.
There's also your training.
So some people are actuallyusing the aura ring data to
(11:46):
schedule their workouts whenthey know the HRV is at or above
baseline.
Now the problem, the onlyproblem I have with this one is
like, if you wait till the dayof and you wake up and you're
like, oh, my HRV is good today,Now I'm going to train, I'm not,
as I'm not a big fan of that,because I'd rather you have a
training schedule that ispreplanned and sometimes, when
your HRV isn't great.
You can still train really welland actually you might need the
(12:07):
training to kind of get you outof the funk, so to speak, and
help you out.
Um, it's just more of theintense training where you might
be dealing with things that areexacerbating your existing
fatigue.
I think it's good to payattention.
And if your HRV is like totallyshot because you just like
whatever you did last night wasnot pretty normal routine, I
mean yes, then you've got toconsider seriously whether it's
(12:29):
going to be most effective totrain.
But for a lot of people I'lltell you what just going by feel
is not always the bestindicator of how effectively
you're going to train or whetherit's good for you.
I'm sorry to say so.
I usually recommend people justget in the gym, warm up, see
how you feel and, you know,modify the lifts if you need to
(12:49):
like, if low back fatigue is anissue or whatnot, but don't
necessarily let your HRV tellyou what to do.
And then recovery protocols aswell.
Hrv is a good indicator of howyou're recovering and so if you
are pushing or backing off, oryou're in fat loss or you're in
a gaining phase, it's kind ofnice to see the patterns and
correlate them with how hardyou're pushing and how much
(13:12):
you're recovering, you mightfind that like an extra training
day in between your trainingweeks, like two days off instead
of one day off, for example, isexactly what you need to get
your HRV to have a much bettertrend over time.
But it's gonna take a while tokind of figure that out.
So I guess my point with thiswhole episode is to not really
(13:33):
overthink HRV and use it as moreof a lagging indicator of the
stuff you're doing.
Maybe it'll give you somesurprise insights.
A lot of times it's not reallysurprising why it's lower.
But if you're trying to tweaksomething to improve recovery or
your training, adaptation orstress, it's great to have a
baseline and then see like threeweeks later oh yes, it actually
(13:54):
improved.
So it is likely that what I didhelped me.
Again, the only caveat there isif it didn't improve markedly,
that doesn't mean it's notbeneficial.
Whatever you're doing, it couldtake longer to reveal itself
through your HRV, or it may notreally reveal itself through
your HRV, and that's why I don'twant you to put too much stock
(14:14):
in this one number.
All right, so tying this alltogether, this principle of
resonance.
It doesn't just explain HRV.
It actually it reveals whycertain practices feel almost
magical.
All right, so I mentioned boxbreathing.
That is a technique used byNavy SEALs and most people think
it works because you're youknow, quote unquote calming down
(14:36):
.
Right, You're calming down, butthere's actually a lot more to
it.
There's science behind it,because when you breathe in for
four seconds, you hold for four,out for four and hold for four.
You are creating a 12-secondcycle and that is five breaths
per minute.
That is actually remarkablyclose to the resonant frequency
of six breaths per minute Imentioned earlier.
(14:57):
So I kind of buried the leadback then.
And then I recall that I had anote on this and wanted to share
why that, um, that system, whythere could be some uh magic
behind this, behind themathematics of our bodies and
our heart rate and our breathing.
I mean it's pretty cool, I meanit almost sounds woo, woo,
right, but it really ismathematical if you think about
(15:19):
it, Um, and then you'reliterally like tuning your body,
like an instrument, bringingyour whole system into harmony.
And that's why some people doget really great results from
breathing work, Um, but othersdon't, because you, your
resonant frequency might notmatch up with that breathing,
and so that is something tothink about.
In other words, try boxbreathing and if you can
(15:40):
experiment with differentnumbers of seconds, you may find
something that's closer to yourresonant frequency.
Cool stuff, Whether you buyinto it or not, it doesn't hurt
to breathe and to relax, guys.
Okay, as we wrap up, I want torecap the key points so you
don't forget all this.
Okay, HRV, resonance theory.
Your absolute HRV numbermatters far less than how it
(16:03):
changes from your baseline.
Remember that, Like a tuningfork, your body has natural
frequencies that work best whenin harmony.
If you can understand thepatterns through both HRV,
through your breathing, throughyour training, recovery, all of
your health practices, it's justone more thing in the toolbox
to help you improve and optimizethe way you live your life.
And then simple practices likethe controlled breathing can
(16:24):
sometimes help you even findyour resonant frequency.
Isn't that cool?
All right, the beauty ofviewing HRV through the lens of
this theory, through resonancetheory, is it transforms
something that just seems likethis random, complex number into
potentially an intuitive tool.
You know, you don't have toobsess over the number, Just
learn to work with your body'snatural rhythms and then the
numbers will follow.
(16:45):
All right, If you havequestions about today's episode
or any other health or fitnessor nutrition topic you want me
to cover on the show, head overto witsandweightscom slash
question.
Witsandweightscom slash question.
I'll throw a link in the shownotes and then your question
might and I'll say might, butalmost most certainly will be
featured in a future episode.
(17:05):
I mean, I need a lot of topics,folks.
I never run out of episodes toput topics into.
So today we answered Aubrey'squestion.
Yours can be in a futureepisode.
Go to witsandweightscom slashquestion.
All right, until next time,keep using your wits lifting
those weights and remember, justlike a well-tuned instrument,
your body performs best when allsystems are in harmony.
(17:26):
I'll talk to you next time hereon the Wits and Weights Podcast
.
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