HRV: What It Is, Why I Use It, and How You Should Too (But Not Like You Think)

Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is one of the most available and heavily used technologies in health and wellness and it doesn’t seem to just be a fad. I’ve been using it for over ten years, starting with Joel Jamieson’s BioForce, then Morpheus, and I’ve tested most of the big-name devices you’ve heard of. It’s one of the few metrics I’ve stayed consistent with over the years and plan to continue to do so.

That being said, not all data is equal. HRV isn’t a magic number. It won’t tell you everything about your training or recovery, and it shouldn’t dictate your day. Still, when used correctly—and consistently—it can help guide your decisions about how to adjust your programming over time. Not necessarily on a day-to-day basis, but medium and long term.

Let’s get into how it works, what it’s actually useful for, and why you should use it as a tool, not a game to win.

What Is HRV and Why Should You Care?

HRV is a measure of the variation in time between heartbeats. At first, the idea might sound like a bad thing, but more variability usually means better nervous system health. Higher HRV often reflects a stronger parasympathetic (“rest and digest”) state, while lower HRV indicates higher sympathetic (“fight or flight”) activation.

Ever risen in the morning with a pounding heart rate after a night of drinking or anxious about a test? That’s your sympathetic nervous system in overdrive. Ideally, you’d see the opposite most mornings.

HRV is one of the best objective markers we have for tracking recovery and systemic stress. It tells us if your body is bouncing back from stress or if it’s stuck in a stressed state. Again, you should see fluctuations, that means you are applying the right amount of stress for adaptation. But HRV can help us take note when we are going too far in one direction or another.

Here’s a little more nuance for you: HRV doesn’t predict performance. You can PR on a low-HRV day and feel like garbage on a high one. Think of it more like your car’s check engine light than a fuel gauge. It doesn’t say how far you can go today—it tells you what kind of state your engine is in. This is why it’s still important to learn to feel how your body is recovering from day to day and not just rely on gamifying your HRV.

So What Does HRV Actually Tell Us (and What Doesn’t It)?

Let’s be clear: HRV is not perfect. It’s influenced by a ton of variables even with the equipment being imperfect—sleep, alcohol, hydration, stress, training load, and even how you breathe when you take the reading.

What it does tell you:

• General readiness and resilience
  
• How well you’re recovering from stress
  
• Whether your body is in sympathetic (stressed) or parasympathetic (recovered) mode
  
• Long-term trends in fitness and stress management
  

What it doesn’t tell you:

• How strong you are today
  
• Whether you’re going to crush or bomb your workout
  
• If your training plan is working (in isolation)
  
• Whether you should or shouldn’t train today—context is key
  

The most useful takeaway? HRV is a trend tool, not a daily grade. You’ll see ups and downs, especially when training hard (as you should). That’s normal. But those swings should be predictable. If HRV is consistently low and you feel drained, it’s time to pull back. If it’s rebounding after a deload or restful weekend, that’s a green light.

How to Apply HRV at Every Level of Training

Whether you’re an elite athlete or just trying to stay fit between Zoom calls, HRV can serve you. But how you use it should change depending on your context.

Elite & Competitive Athletes

HRV can help fine-tune your training blocks. Use it to monitor recovery between hard sessions and deloads. If HRV tanks after a peak phase and stays tanked, it’s a cue that you’ve pushed hard—maybe too hard—and some rest is overdue. You should see ebbs and flows following workouts that reflect the effort you put in.

For higher level athletes, you may find you disagree with your readings occasionally. This is why you don’t want to gamify or try to “win” HRV. It’s also why you shouldn’t panic if you get a poor reading and plan on doing a tough workout that day.

Use it as a tool to learn how you feel when you are recovering, pushing harder, and see if you can start to predict when it will suggest you should scale back. HRV is an effective tool to know when you should “test the fences” and when you should ease up.

Aspiring Athletes & “Hardcore Hobbyists”

This is where HRV shines. You’re training seriously but juggling life. No offense, but I’ve been coaching for over a decade and I often find people in this category don’t really know how they feel or if they’re recovering at all. 

HRV can help you learn to regulate intensity: green days are go-days, yellow might be technique or zone 2 work, and red days = recovery. It doesn’t have to be this black and white, but on a broader scale your workouts could adhere to this strategy.

Don’t use HRV to avoid training—use it to shift the focus of your session. Remember, stress is a good thing until it isn’t. You still need to be able to push hard, but if you’re limited because you’re always worn down, the data will reflect that and you may not get the results you want from your training.

Active General Population

HRV is a way to check in with your nervous system, especially if you’re dealing with work stress, poor sleep, or overtraining without realizing it. Use it to reinforce healthy habits. If your HRV drops every time you sleep poorly or drink too much, that’s valuable feedback. And, frankly, it will. HRV often dips quite a bit after just one or two drinks. This is objective data, not just some annoying influencer lecturing you about your life. 

If you feel like you’re in this population, the biggest thing would be to use HRV as a baseline data collection tool to help you fine tune your environment to help set you up for success. You will see very positive results in your HRV if you start sleeping better, fueling more healthily, and managing daily stress.

Best Practices for Tracking HRV (and Keeping Your Sanity)

Here’s what I recommend to all my clients:

• Take it at the same time each morning
  Right after waking up, before caffeine or training.
  
• Use the same device and method
  You’re tracking patterns, not comparing brands.
  
• Look at the trend, not the daily number
  One low reading? No big deal. Five in a row? Pay attention.
  
• Cross-check with how you feel
  HRV is a tool, not the boss. Some of your best days might come on “low HRV” mornings.
  
• Don’t gamify it
  You’re not trying to “beat” HRV. Training hard will lower it temporarily. That’s fine. Recovery is part of the plan.
  

Final Thoughts: Know Yourself, Use the Tools

HRV isn’t a crystal ball—it’s a mirror. Albeit, maybe one of those weird mirrors you see at the fair with some distortion. 

It helps you see patterns you might miss or be ignoring. But like any mirror, it only reflects what’s in front of it. If you’re inconsistent, distracted, or too focused on the number, the reflection gets distorted (And a clown might chase you. Probably not, but maybe).

Used correctly, HRV can help you recover better, train smarter, and feel more connected to your body’s rhythms. That’s the win—not chasing a higher score.

Train hard. Recover smart. And remember: you are not your HRV reading.