Most wearables offer a daily recovery score – but using it to feel better and perform at your peak is a different story.
It’s understandable for that daily score to feel a little abstract, but studies have shown that improved recovery leads to measurably better outcomes.
Here’s how to get started.
Key takeaways
- If you are inside your baseline, then train as planned, but if below, consider swapping for a recovery session.
- Across studies, training this way leads to fewer hard sessions, to either no detriment or an improvement in performance.
- A low week of HRV during a heavy training week is worth acting on. A single low morning usually isn’t.
- Sleeping more has a larger measured effect on performance than any protocol here.
The power of recovery and HRV
Forty recreational runners followed one of two plans for eight weeks. Half followed a schedule written in advance, which consisted of two or three hard sessions a week.
The other half checked their heart rate variability every morning and did the hard session only if their HRV reading sat inside their personal baseline. If HRV was lower than baseline, they did an easy session instead.
The second group ended up doing 13 hard sessions across the block instead of 18 planned workouts. Their 3,000m time improved by about 2%. The first group showed no improvement whatsoever.
Running that routine requires an HRV baseline established by your wearable, which is where the Ulrrahuman Ring comes into its own.
Improved recovery = real gains
Researchers pooled eight trials covering 198 people who trained either by their daily HRV or by a plan set in advance. The HRV-guided groups mostly did fewer moderate and hard sessions. They came out ahead on submaximal measures, the markers of how comfortably your body handles a given workload.
Among the HRV-guided groups there were fewer people who got nothing at all out of the block, and more who clearly improved. A second pooled analysis found similar results.
Eleven players at Stanford spent five to seven weeks getting as much sleep as they could, aiming for ten hours in bed. They slept about 111 minutes more a night than at baseline. Their sprint time fell from 16.2 to 15.5 seconds, free throw accuracy rose 9% and three-point accuracy rose 9.2%.
Eleven young male athletes is a small and specific group, and nobody has repeated the result at that size in a general population. None of the HRV trials moved performance by anything close. Our guide to sleep hygiene covers the hour before bed.
How to use wearable HRV data to train smarter
Wait two or three weeks before you act on anything: There is no fixed threshold for HRV or resting heart rate. Your ring needs a few weeks of your normal nights before a reading can be called low.
Check it before you decide the session: Inside your usual range, train as planned. Below it, make that session an easy one.
Don’t rearrange your week around one bad morning: Act on a run of low days, or a week of depressed HRV scores when training more than usual.
Rule out the obvious before you blame training: Alcohol, a late meal, a warm bedroom, travel, and the first day of a cold all affect HRV.
Swap the sessions: Easy instead of hard beats skipping training altogether.
Trust how you feel: Heavy legs, broken sleep, irritability, and a flat mood are signs of overtraining whatever your score says.
Frequently asked questions
Should I skip training when my recovery score is low? One low morning is not a reason to change anything. Several days off baseline is worth acting on, and the usual change is to swap a hard session for an easy one.
How long before I can trust my numbers? Two to three weeks of normal nights. Your ring is comparing you with yourself, so it needs a picture of your ordinary first.
Does training by HRV make me faster? Not on the evidence so far. Across eight trials, performance came out much the same as training to a fixed plan. What changed was how often people trained hard, and how many of them responded to the block at all.
Why did my recovery score drop when I didn’t train? Illness, alcohol, a late meal, travel and a warm bedroom all move resting heart rate, HRV and skin temperature. The score reads your physiology, and training is only one of the things that moves it.
References
- Düking P, Zinner C, Trabelsi K, et al. Monitoring and adapting endurance training on the basis of heart rate variability monitored by wearable technologies: a systematic review with meta-analysis. J Sci Med Sport. 2021;24(11):1180-1192. PMID 34489178
- Granero-Gallegos A, González-Quílez A, Plews D, Carrasco-Poyatos M. Heart rate variability-guided training for enhancing cardiac-vagal modulation, aerobic fitness, and endurance performance: a systematic review with meta-analysis. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021;18(21):11509. PMID 34639599
- Nuuttila OP, Nikander A, Polomoshnov D, et al. Reliability and sensitivity of nocturnal heart rate and heart-rate variability in monitoring individual responses to training load. Int J Sports Physiol Perform. 2022;17(8):1296-1303. PMID 35894977
- Hoevenaars D, Holtzer Y, Gehrmann S, et al. Effects of sleep fragmentation and partial sleep restriction on heart rate variability during night. Sci Rep. 2023;13(1):6202. PMID 37069226
- Mah CD, Mah KE, Kezirian EJ, Dement WC. The effects of sleep extension on the athletic performance of collegiate basketball players. Sleep. 2011;34(7):943-950. PMID 21731144
- Vesterinen V, Nummela A, Heikura I, et al. Individual endurance training prescription with heart rate variability. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2016;48(7):1347-1354. PMID 26909534
- Williams S, Booton T, Watson M, Rowland D, Altini M. Heart rate variability is a moderating factor in the workload-injury relationship of competitive CrossFit athletes. J Sports Sci Med. 2017;16(4):443-449. PMID 29238242
- Pietila J, Helander E, Korhonen I, et al. Impact of evening alcohol consumption on nocturnal autonomic and cardiovascular function in adult men and women. Sleep. 2020;43(10):zsaa046. PMID 32663278
