Reading WHOOP HRV, why only your own trend matters
Heart rate variability is personal, so compare yourself to yourself.
- Answers
- Is a low HRV on WHOOP something to worry about?
- Topics
- bike · data · heart · lifestyle · sensors · sport
- Full article on willem.com
- https://willem.com/en/2023-05-31_impact-of-training/
Summary
Not by itself. Heart rate variability is highly personal: mine sits at the low end while other people measure in the hundreds of milliseconds. Only your own relative trend over time tells you anything useful.
Full text
WHOOP tracks HRV, the variance between individual heartbeats, as a proxy for how fit and relaxed you are; higher is better. Absolute numbers are useless for comparing people, so look at the direction of your own line. In my data the trend was clearly visible: after I moved from the city to the countryside and lost my daily bike commute, my HRV drifted down under the stress of the move and the drop in training. Making time to ride again, late at night or during lunch, turned the line around. WHOOP also derives a daily recovery score from your own normal biometric values. The morning after a 235 km ride mine was 7 percent, a clear signal that my body was still recovering from the effort.