Train to Recover
This week, I want to get a little deeper into why I think recovery should be a priority in your training. That is if your goal is improving your fitness rather than displaying it. There’s a difference! I’ll also share some tips on what you can do to improve your recovery efforts, thereby improving your fitness. Hint: no ice baths, saunas or Tibetan unicorn milk is required.
An Instrument for recovery - Heart Rate Variability
By now I’m sure you heard of HRV (Heart Rate Variability). If you haven’t, I’ll fill you in.
HRV is a representation of the variance in time between heart beats over ‘X’ amount of time. The time from one beat to the next is called an R-R interval which is measured in milliseconds.
Again, HRV is the measure of the difference between R-R intervals over a period of time.
Your HRV is an indicator of which branch of your Autonomic Nervous System is currently running.