I have read that heart rate variability (HRV) is a good indicator of well-being, health, and energy levels.
With the arrival of the New Year, I want to get my energy, health, and well-being in check. A couple of questions for others, if anyone has any experience of monitoring and tracking this data?
1) Is HRV a good proxy for general well-being, or are there other metrics that should be considered / integrated?
2) How have you tracked and monitored HRV, and any other metrics that you think are important to energy / well-being?
Garmin devices measure stress based on HRV. When I look at the numbers in real time I think they are often accurate but I see my lowest stress levels when I am having a lazy weekend where I feel really low energy (certainly not 'great'.)
If I look at my charts of stress over the day the notable thing is that there are gaps: yesterday 7 hours of of 24 were gaps, all during the waking hours.
I don't find the stress readings averaged over a long period of time (weeks, months) to be meaningful.
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Having tried a few I have a preference for the Vivosmart bands and the Vicoactive watch. I am wearing a Vivosport right now and like it the least of the bunch mostly because despite a nice color screen the U.I. is not so good. (Sometimes it's hard to navigate away from whatever screen it is on to see the time.)
HRV is best measured by qualified medical people with professional equipment.
Here’s a better/cheaper/simpler way to do roughly the same thing:
- Get yourself a paper calendar and a red Sharpie.
- Run or walk x miles every day.
- After your run or walk, draw a big red X on that day. Also draw an emoji covering your general mood, if you’d like.
- Strive for 7 X’s every week. Settle for 5 or more. Never skip more than one day at a time.