Recovery2 min read
What Is a Good HRV? The Answer Is Personal
Your friend’s HRV is 90 and yours is 45. That tells you almost nothing. Here is what does.
By the inbeat team
RecoveryHeart rate variability, or HRV, has become one of the most talked-about numbers in fitness. It is also one of the most misunderstood.
Search for “what is a good HRV” and you will find charts by age and sex. They are interesting, but they won’t tell you much about your own body. Here is why, and what to look at instead.
What HRV actually is
Your heart doesn’t beat like a metronome. Even at a steady 60 beats a minute, the gap between one beat and the next keeps changing by a few milliseconds.
That variation is HRV. It comes from the push and pull between the two sides of your nervous system: the one that gets you going and the one that calms you down. When you are rested, the calming side has more say, and the variation is larger.
Why comparing yours with someone else’s doesn’t work
HRV differs enormously between people. Age plays a big part, and so do genetics, fitness and the way it is measured. Two healthy people of the same age can sit at 35 and 110 and both be perfectly fine.
That is why a single number, on its own, says very little. A “low” HRV might simply be your normal.
Your normal range is what matters
The useful question is not “is my HRV good?” but “is my HRV normal for me?”. Once you know your usual range, a night well below it stands out, and so does a stretch of nights that keeps drifting down.
That is how inbeat reads it: every night against your own recent weeks, never against a population chart.
What moves HRV down
Most dips have an everyday cause:
- Alcohol, even a drink or two in the evening
- Hard training, especially sessions close together
- Short or broken sleep
- Late, heavy meals
- Stress from work or life
- Getting ill, often a day or two before you notice symptoms
What helps it recover
Consistent sleep at similar times, easy days between hard ones, less alcohol and time outdoors all tend to help. None of them works overnight: HRV follows the trend of how you live, not one good day.
How to read your trend
Look at a week or a month, not a single morning. One low night after a late dinner is noise. Five low nights in a row while your training gets harder is a message.
If your HRV holds or rises over weeks while your training grows, you are adapting well. If it keeps sliding, it may be time for a lighter week.
How inbeat tracks HRVThere is no universal good HRV. There is your HRV, your normal range and your trend. Learn those, and the number becomes one of the most useful things your watch can tell you.
