Heart Rate Variability

Heart rate variability assessments are used to monitor fatigue, recovery, performance trends and training requirements. A daily assessment is conducted each morning, with the corresponding analysis looking at the variation between consecutive beats as a means of monitoring sympathetic and para-sympathetic tone.

Traditionally, resting heart rate (RHR) has been used to give a guide to recovery. However, with so many external factors easily affecting RHR, more effective and reliable methods are required.

For endurance athletes, a morning orthostatic HR test can be used to monitor RHR, heart rate variability (HRV) and HR response to posture change. Over the last ten or more years many methods have been used to analyse orthostatic HR recordings, with mixed success. Only recently has a method of analysis been used effectively to track recovery and fatigue in elite athletes.

This method focuses on HRV to establish the athlete's state of fatigue/recovery.

Articles on Heart Rate Variability

Monitoring Fatigue with HRV

The Orthostatic Test

Heart Rate Variability: Standards of Measurement, Physiological Interpretation and Clinical Use (European Heart Journal, 1996)

Endurance Sports Training offers heart rate variability monitoring services as part of it's Deluxe coaching package. Details of this package can be found on the coaching page.