So if you watched my last video and measured your own HRV how did you stack up? Maybe your score was lower than what you wanted it to be, or maybe you are like me and just want the highest score possible. If so stay tuned because I am going to go through my top ways to improve your Heart Rate Variability!
Hi everyone I hope you are enjoying our segments all about Heart Rate Variability today we are going to detail exactly what you need to do in order to improve your HRV score!
Let’s jump in!
The most important thing you can do to improve your HRV score is through strengthing your cardiovascular system. And what’s the most efficient way of doing this? If you have been following me for a while you can probably guess. It’s through High-Intensity Interval Training!
HIIT workouts are designed to sequentially stress your heart and lungs through rounds of high-intensity exercise followed by a rest period. This method of exercise is extremely effective at improving your overall cardiovascular health.
The stronger your heart and lungs are, and the better you are at bringing down your heart rate after intense physical exertion the higher your HRV score will be.
Athletes have been shown to have significantly higher HRV scores even when compared generally active individuals.
But you can overdo it! Which brings us to strategy number 2 which is prioritizing your Recovery.
Your nervous system takes a beating especially if you are putting it through an intense exercise like HIIT training or other resistance or endurance training. With all this stress your body needs time to properly recover or you can end up in a position of being “overtrained” which if bad enough can lead to something called adrenal fatigue which is something you definitely want to avoid.
Prioritizing your recovery means consistently getting 7-9 hours of sleep each night, doing cross-training so you are not always putting the same stressors on your body, and making sure that you are eating sufficient calories so that your body can grow and repair.
When you start checking your HRV daily you will quickly see how much sleep affects your scores. Just one night of poor sleep will make my measurements plummet which correlates with that feeling of fatigue and “bla” that follow.
For more tips on how to improve your sleep definitely check out my previous videos or make sure to get a copy of my best-selling book Buff Enough where I go into way more detail on optimizing your sleep!
Strategy number 3 for improving your HRV score is decreasing inflammation. Inflammation is your body’s natural reaction to an infection, trauma, or illness. It’s that ache that you get when you get the flu. It’s the redness and swelling you get when you roll your ankle.
But when this inflammation process continues for days, weeks, years then it becomes chronic and causes serious problems in your body. Anything you can do to decrease your total levels of inflammation in your body will be a major win in terms of not just your HRV scores but your overall health.
Make sure to check out my previous videos on inflammation where I break down exactly how to reduce inflammation.
If you can increase your cardiovascular fitness levels using HIIT training, make sure you are prioritizing your recovery with the best sleep optimization strategies, and you are taking the necessary steps to decrease inflammation not only will you have more energy and be able to do more, but you will be able to see the hard data of your HRV scores going up!
Is there anything else you would add to this list to increase your HRV scores? Let me know in the comments below!
Also if you are interested in having me coach you through measuring and improving your HRV score make sure to message me though Instagram or through the coaching application on http://www.catalystimpacts.com/coaching I would love to help out!
Again this is Floyd Meyer reminding you to Live Better so you can Do More!
References
https://hrvcourse.com/hrv-demographics-age-gender/?afmc=go
https://hrvcourse.com/hrv-demographics-fitness-level/?afmc=go
https://hrvcourse.com/hrv-demographics-health-medication-guidelines/?afmc=go
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