In our previous article, we talked about What’s HRV and why it’s expected? As hear rate (HR) is the most required basic feature on consumer wearables. Today, we’re going to talk it through with the difference between HRV and HR, and what can HRV do?
Without diving too deep into the science of HRV and HR, this article will discuss HRV and HR from a practical perspective, mostly in consumer wearables. Wearables uch as all our smartwatches and fitness trackers that include HR monitoring. And some of our fitness trackers include HR HRV monitoring. To check out our full article about HRV here, or we can just highlight the main point here to save your time:
"Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is the beat to beat alternations in heart rate, and it’s best used during a rested state. Then what exactly is HR? Heart Rate (HR) is the speed of the heartbeat measured by the number of heartbeats per unit of time. It is usually measured in beats per minute (BPM), and it’s best used during exercise."
To simplify that, HR is the total beats per minute, HRV is the time between each beat.
What can HRV do?
Unlike basic heart rate that counts the number of heartbeats per minute, HRV looks much closer at the exact changes in time between successive heartbeats. And people today, using HRV to do a lot for their health:
Measure systemic inflammation
Track progress and guide treatment plans
Optimize training and recovery
Improve mental health: mood, depression and anxiety
And more...
What do HRV Scores Mean?
There’re different ways to analyze HRV means, such as time domain analysis and frequency domain analysis.
The higher frequency HRV score should be between: 0.15~0.4Hz, while lower frequency HRV score is between: 0.04~0.15Hz. Higher HRV scores signify the ability of the body to activate the Parasympathetic “rest-and-digest” response. Lower HRV scores signify an activated Sympathetic "fight-or-flight" response or suppressed Parasympathetic activity. There are several shown data when analyzing HRV that can help us know more about HRV condition, such as SDNN, SDSD, and RMSSD, which we mentioned on our article:
What's HRV and Why it's Expected?.
Higher frequency HRV is correlated with:
Increased fitness level
Better health
Better resilience
Calm, positive emotions
...
While lower frequency HRV ties to:
Reduced fitness level
Poor health
Increased anxiety and depression
Negative emotions
...
which can be a temporary response to a previous day’s hard workout or poor night of sleep.
The above info about HRV and even all our articles related to HRV and HR are only a little part of HRV knowledge. (Not diving too deep as we mention at the begging of the article, not in a professional medical way).
The earlier to get to know your heart health, the healthier body you have. Check out DT NO.1’s smartwatch with HRV/HR measurement.
Let us know if the article help, or contact our team tell us what you expect more from our blog content.
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