Heart rate is the number of times our heart pumps blood, in other words, the beats our heart makes per minute. But well, did you know that not all heartbeats happen within the same time interval? Well yes, our heart does not beat precisely, but the time between pulsation and pulsation varies. This is what we call heart rate variability.
These pulsations are controlled, on the one hand, by our brain that we call the autonomous system, which is not only in charge of controlling the pulsations, but also all those actions that we carry out without being conscious, such as now breathing, blinking, digesting food... This The autonomic nervous system is made up of two branches: the sympathetic and the parasympathetic. The sympathetic part, which is the most activating or stress-generating, and on the other hand, we have the parasympathetic branch, which is relaxing or appeasing.
When we have to carry out some type of physical activity or action that generates stress, both physiologically and mentally, the sympathetic branch is activated, generating an optimal ecosystem within our body to be able to deal with said stress. In this case, the variability of the heart rate decreases, making the heartbeat more stable and precise, since the body considers that it must be at 100% to be able to combat the stimulus.
Instead, the parasympathetic system is activated when we enter a state of relaxation or calm. This causes said variability to increase, making the heartbeats have a more "random" rhythm, thus indicating that the body is in a very good state at a physiological level, since they do not have any external agent that causes a state of alert. .
But well, how can we control this heart rate variability and, above all, what is better, to have a high or low variability?
In order to control this variability, many factors must be taken into account, but in general we can highlight nutrition, rest, training and also the psychological stress that our body is dealing with on a daily basis. Everything has an influence, that is why we must keep track of our diet, training loads, the quality of our sleep and how work affects us.
If we manage to find a balance between all these aspects and reduce our daily stress, we will be able to increase our heart rate variability. At this point, our body will be much more comfortable and will be able to assimilate more workload.
Having low variability can lead to obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and many other metabolic problems. On the other hand, we found that a high value indicates that we are in good shape and that we are generally having a balance in our lives.
As a general rule, high values are always better than low values, but what really needs to be emphasized is the curvature of this line over time, how our body changes depending on the stimuli we give it and how we can adapt to them. That is where we find the true utility of these values.
Surely, after reading this article, you have become curious and want to start keeping track of your HRV. You can do it through an application like “HRV ELITE”. You will simply have to synchronize your heart rate monitor to your mobile and take your pulse reading every morning, the application will give you all the results and even provide you with information so that you can learn a little more about how your body works.
Finally, if you are interested in learning more about HRV or any other issue related to physical preparation and training, do not hesitate to contact us or leave us your comment so we can bring more content about it.
