Do you know that heart rate (HR) can provide you with an incredible amount of performance data? How? Well, stay with us for another 90 seconds.
Welcome to the 100% evidence-based 90-second sports science lab, brought to you by the world’s top experts!
HR gives you the sum of total beats in one minute, which seems easy but it isn’t. With better information about HR variability, you can look forward.
HR variability represents variation between consecutive heartbeats. The cardiovascular system is controlled by autonomic regulation found in the sympathetic and parasympathetic pathway of the autonomic nervous system.
According to the evidence, analysis of HR variability can provide information about the athlete, from quality of life to physical fitness, as well as their performance status.
Sympathetic activity increases cardiac contractility, whereas parasympathetic activity reduces HR. Balance in the autonomic nervous system can be altered by several forms of stress, such as incomplete recovery, illness or psychological factors.
Every training stimulus produces a bodily reaction. With HR variability,…