Heart Rate Variability Study - Can You Help?

Hi

I have been reading a great deal recently about the use of Heart Rate Variability (HRV) measures and their potential for being used to both guide training and monitor fatigue/recovery.

Looking around it is very difficult to really get your head around all this because there is a lack or readily available reference information concerning what constitutes "normal" and this makes things difficult for several reasons, notably:

1) HRV data varies a great deal depending on how it is collected.
2) HRV information varies a great deal for the same individual and is influenced by many factors.
3) HRV information varies between individuals and is a bit like a fingerprint.

Some advanced heart rate monitors are capable of recording HRV data as well as the more commonly viewed and recorded Heart Rate (HR) information. 2 models which will record this data are made by Polar, they are a running model (RS800) and a cycling model (CS600).

I am trying to get in touch with a few individuals who have access to HR monitors capable of recording this information who would be willing to send me HR files from a simple to do home test on a daily basis. The test has to be done first thing in the morning and takes 10 minutes. I would like to collect data for a 2-4 week period, this depending on how long anyone interested would be willing to keep collecting data for!

The purpose of me doing this work is to try to find out what constitutes a "normal range" of HRV appearances and values. I can then share this information with others (initially those involved in the data gathering) in the hope that this will help my and their interpretation of this information.

If you would like to and would be willing to help with this work please drop me an email.

Best regards to all.

PB

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Great stuff, but I don't think the recording rate of any HRM (or PM) allows for determining HRV from a download.

Keep in mind too "heart rate variablity" is a bit of a misnomer. R-R wave variablity is more correct. As such, you are not looking for a change in resting HR from say 40 to 45, you are looking for the slight variation in among between R-wave peaks. The more variable, the more fit the individual.