Rest and recovey

So today, I woke up and rolled over and grabbed my phone.  Got my hrv reading with my arm out kind of hanging off the bed.  I could see quite a up and down in my HR and it ended up averaging like 64 which is above average.  I answered the questions and it gave me an 8.3.  Then I took a second reading with my phone out in front of me so my arm was up, I noticed the heartrate stayed very steady and ended up at like 56 which is just below my average.  I resubmitted and it gave me a 7.1.  It was interesting to me that a lower and more stable HR gave a more fatigued reading 

On 5/9/2017 at 4:15 PM, Malcolm Watters said:

So today, I woke up and rolled over and grabbed my phone.  Got my hrv reading with my arm out kind of hanging off the bed.  I could see quite a up and down in my HR and it ended up averaging like 64 which is above average.  I answered the questions and it gave me an 8.3.  Then I took a second reading with my phone out in front of me so my arm was up, I noticed the heartrate stayed very steady and ended up at like 56 which is just below my average.  I resubmitted and it gave me a 7.1.  It was interesting to me that a lower and more stable HR gave a more fatigued reading 

HRV is the variability in heart rate. A well recovered nervous system will have a good variability in the heart rate ( 58bpm --> 64bpm and then back down to 59bpm and then back up to 66bpm) <-- for example. 

This sis because Parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems both play a roll in regulating the heart rate. Parasympathetic slows down hear rate while Sympathetic speeds it up. Striving for that yin and yang relationship between both, so there should be a high fluctuation in HR. 

I recommend doing your measurements laying down on your back with you hand by you side. Try to keep position consistent  

Yea, I felt like the first measurement wasn't accurate because my arm was hanging off the bed and possibly restricted blood flow.  My baseline has come down from 8 to 7.6 this week, the last 2 days having 7.1 and 7.2 measurements.  

I've started measuring now, too;) 

My first three results have been 7,4 / 7,3 / 6,6. Low results indicate a bad state of recovery, right? If so, those results look pretty intimidating as I've rested the last 3 days. Actually I feel pretty tired, but that's not really connected to my training I think. 

2 hours ago, Ferdinand Berr said:

I've started measuring now, too;) 

My first three results have been 7,4 / 7,3 / 6,6. Low results indicate a bad state of recovery, right? If so, those results look pretty intimidating as I've rested the last 3 days. Actually I feel pretty tired, but that's not really connected to my training I think. 

I read some interesting things on the app reguarding this

I've had some health issues over the last 1,5 years involving fatigue and floppiness, but I also had a bad, unhealthy diet and low activity. I've been eating Thrive for about 2 months now and doing GST in the same time. I'd like to get rid of that stupid fatigue, which is there pretty constantly unfortunately. I really don't think it's an overtraining thing as it's the same feeling as before starting GST. 

Today morning for example I woke up after 9 hours of sleep (student, no courses today=D) but felt really tired nevertheless. I got my blood work done and the results are actually better than in the past, only things too high were urea and eosinophils. Latter have been higher than normal basically all my life for at least the last 6 years or so, the main reasons have been tested negatively and right now the results while still too high have been lower than before, too. Right now the most noticeable "symptoms" of bad energy levels for me are the subjective feeling of fatigue and the daily need for naps, although I'm sleeping enough during the night and eating enough + healthy. I'm getting in my workouts consistently (a little less right now due to moving), but it's not always easy to motivate for training when I'm feeling tired.

It just sucks to feeling de-energized, but I guess if I go on eating healthy and getting in my training perhaps this will get better, too. I'm interested in how the HRV4 results will develop over the next weeks and if I can get some rough ideas about important factors. Especially if the results are bad whenever I subjectively feel tired, too! The very low value today is especially strange as I've rested the last 2 days, eaten healthy and enough plus I got my sleep in and have been less stressed today than the days before. But statistically I guess single values shouldn't be too meaningful either way.

3 minutes ago, Ferdinand Berr said:

I've had some health issues over the last 1,5 years involving fatigue and floppiness, but I also had a bad, unhealthy diet and low activity. I've been eating Thrive for about 2 months now and doing GST in the same time. I'd like to get rid of that stupid fatigue, which is there pretty constantly unfortunately. I really don't think it's an overtraining thing as it's the same feeling as before starting GST.

Today morning for example I woke up after 9 hours of sleep (student, no courses today=D) but felt really tired nevertheless. I got my blood work done and the results are actually better than in the past, only things too high were urea and eosinophils. Latter have been higher than normal basically all my life for at least the last 6 years or so, the main reasons have been tested negatively and right now the results while still too high have been lower than before, too.

It just sucks to feeling de-energized, but I guess if I go on eating healthy and getting in my training perhaps this will get better, too. I'm interested in how the HRV4 results will develop over the next weeks and if I can get some rough ideas about important factors. Especially if the results are bad whenever I subjectively feel tired, too! The very low value today is especially strange as I've rested the last 2 days, eaten healthy and enough plus I got my sleep in and have been less stressed today than the days before. But statistically I guess single values shouldn't be too meaningful either way.

Especially your first few single values shouldn't be looked at as important.  Also I would think your values might be better if you at least got in a 10 min jog on rest days.  

I don't think most of us can put a lot of stock in these readings as we are not professional athletes, it's interesting to see but most of us probably don't train to hard for our bodies to recover.  I obviously don't know how everyone else trains but I know for me, the hour or so a day that I do isn't the biggest cause of fatigue in my week.  

Now go for a run and get that energy back!!

58 minutes ago, Malcolm Watters said:

Especially your first few single values shouldn't be looked at as important.  Also I would think your values might be better if you at least got in a 10 min jog on rest days.  

I don't think most of us can put a lot of stock in these readings as we are not professional athletes, it's interesting to see but most of us probably don't train to hard for our bodies to recover.  I obviously don't know how everyone else trains but I know for me, the hour or so a day that I do isn't the biggest cause of fatigue in my week.  

Now go for a run and get that energy back!!

I agree with you that it could  be more then just training on our scores.   Even if my training takes an important place in my life, a lot of stress comes from my job right now since I'm an entrepreneur.

It got me having some low scores, but now I remember having a life outside of GST

4 minutes ago, Étienne Lajeunesse said:

I agree with you that it could  be more then just training on our scores.   Even if my training takes an important place in my life, a lot of stress comes from my job right now since I'm an entrepreneur.

It got me having some low scores, but now I remember having a life outside of GST

Yep and I'm sure it all works together and it's a cool tool to watch I just don't think it's necessarily a perfect measure, for a lot of us at least.  

That said , I've had 3 pretty good workouts this week and 3 pretty hot/full days of work and my values have gone down, today being the lowest at 6.8 so it probably is working, and telling me either I need to take it easy or relieve some stress or take some vitamins.  

4 hours ago, Malcolm Watters said:

Yep and I'm sure it all works together and it's a cool tool to watch I just don't think it's necessarily a perfect measure, for a lot of us at least.  

 

Exactly. It's a tool in the toolbox, right? Just one thing to help us with our GST. When we combine this other inputs and data, we can hopefully get a better overall picture of our response to training, recovery, etc. 

@Everett Carroll

Very well said 

1 hour ago, Everett Carroll said:

Exactly. It's a tool in the toolbox, right? Just one thing to help us with our GST. When we combine this other inputs and data, we can hopefully get a better overall picture of our response to training, recovery, etc. 

Well said. I love observing how my activities and the subjective feelings of energy correlate with the app data. I still have too few data points (8 days), but so far it is pretty precise.. even though it was my "day off" yesterday, with only Middle Stretch at night, I also walked 1.5 hour, rode bike 1 hour, did 30 minutes pole and some headstands, and also worked a little bit… my day off from training, but I guess pooped me out a little, and the measurements dropped 0.2 below the baseline. It matters what we do through the entire day (work, stress, travel, socialize, etc) and it all adds… 

Well, with all that said, I want to thank you @Ryan Segervall for showing us this really cool and useful app.  It sure will make this topic last a bit longer than expected!

For the 1st time in 7 days, I have a higher grade of 8.3 and, actually, feel really motivated today!  Also, I really had a good training and day yesterday.  My baseline is 7.8.

Mine went up to 7.9 this morning after no workout only 9 holes of golf.  Was 6.8 yesterday so probably needed the day off.  Baseline is 7.5 now

On 5/12/2017 at 5:05 AM, Étienne Lajeunesse said:

For the 1st time in 7 days, I have a higher grade of 8.3 and, actually, feel really motivated today!  Also, I really had a good training and day yesterday.  My baseline is 7.8.

Funny how on the days where you score higher you usually preform better both cognitively and physically. Glad you find it useful! 

47 minutes ago, Ryan Segervall said:

Funny how on the days where you score higher you usually preform better both cognitively and physically.

I'm noticing that for sure! When I land a 9.0-9.3 (baseline=9.2), I am AMPED! The only outlier is a 10.1 I got out of the blue; I was pretty fatigued that day and had to take it lighter than expected despite having a high recovery value.

Thanks again for sharing this Ryan! I'm having a blast with this app. 

Yesterday I woke up feeling un-rested for my upcoming workout and I said to myself - my score will be normal today but tomorrow it will be in the tank. I did Handstand, Movement, Front Split - it felt fun and good, challenging but not difficult & I took 1/2 a hike (2ish miles).

Today I woke up feelin' good, ready to train & take a big hike. My score is 7.5 (my lowest ever!), my baseline is 8.5, yesterday was 8.3. UM-HUM. I knew it. Now...what to do with this info? I like very much that I have this info and now I'll see what happens to performance, motivation, and recovery and then I can plan for the future.  

Similar two days for me, @Katherine Zodiaco…  I only had a (deloaded) Handstands yesterday, but a really full day with work/clients. And I did some little extra pole training, which seems very taxing to me (I am so not strong for the pole, grrrr). Anyway, my score was 9.0 yesterday and today it fell down to 7.5 (baseline 8.4)! Wow, what a drop… what to take from all these numbers? I still don't really know, I bet @Ryan Segervall will have more experience to share, but I think it is just observing how we feel, and perform, and correlate it to our lifestyle and what the app tries to suggest to us. We want to see the different links and correlations to different training stimuli. And eventually just be more careful when the numbers are getting low (for too long) and maybe take an extra nap, an extra light day, or something to help us to recover faster to get the numbers up… Personally, I am noticing that each time I add some extra pole practice, even though it is only 30 minutes, it really wears me down. (I still so struggle with that pole thing…) My HRV numbers go down immediately.  Maybe I need to go to bed earlier on those days to get more sleep to recover better, or do more myofascial rolling/massage to feel more relaxed, or take a hot bath… I will play with these things in the future and see how my body will respond. 

@Suzanna McGee, pole WRECKS me. Destroys. It always has. GST taxes my upper body like crazy so I'm only able to pole once a week right now & usually only for 15 minutes! I'm trying to take the long view and be patient with my rebuilding. I'm taking that lower score to mean I got a great workout & my body needs to rest to incorporate it. Thank so for sharing your experience - so cool to note they are similar. (I'm 47).

@Katherine Zodiaco, that's cool to hear, at least I know I am not imagining things about the pole (or having excuses  ). I do 1.5 hour class on Sundays, and then I promised myself, that in May, I will practice at home for 20-30 minutes every day. Just to develop the habit of practicing at home. It can be anything, light or heavy, just spend time on the pole. It's challenging, indeed. But I've done 17 days in a row and haven't skipped. Plus doing the whole Foundation twice a week, and handstands twice a week… This teaches me a lesson to really take good care of myself to be able to do it. I have added daily little naps in the sun to aid the recovery, etc. (I am 52 in a few months). A love experiments  :-) 

My baseline has been hanging out around 7.6.  Most I've my daily scores are coming in right there this week also.  I'm wondering what I could do to get my baseline up without just sleeping for a week.  I workout outside at lunch in Florida.  It's been super dry and hot the last couple weeks.  I'll be interested to see if things change when we get some rain.  The dry dusty weather not only sucks to run in but it's been very taxing mentally as it applies to work as I'm a farmer and need rain badly. Anyway just some thoughts 

I'm actually impressed by the app's "accuracy". My results this week have been: 7,7 / 6,1 / 8,2 / 7,2 / 8,2 / 6,6 / 6,2. I've actually been rather exhausted and stressed most of the time. The 6,1 was recorded waking up the morning after my move-in party and extensive drinking, which I normally don't do. The 6,6 yesterday really surprised me (trained the day before, but sleep and nutrition had been nice), but I actually seem to have caught a little cold and feel a little sick today also. I'm interested in how the values develop when hopefully getting back to healthy and a normal rhythm during the next weeks.

Do you do your measurements directly after waking up while lying in bed or do you wait like 10 minutes or something?

5 minutes ago, Ferdinand Berr said:

I'm actually impressed by the app's "accuracy". My results this week have been: 7,7 / 6,1 / 8,2 / 7,2 / 8,2 / 6,6 / 6,2. I've actually been rather exhausted and stressed most of the time. The 6,1 was recorded waking up the morning after my move-in party and extensive drinking, which I normally don't do. The 6,6 yesterday really surprised me (trained the day before, but sleep and nutrition had been nice), but I actually seem to have caught a little cold and feel a little sick today also. I'm interested in how the values develop when hopefully getting back to healthy and a normal rhythm during the next weeks.

Do you do your measurements directly after waking up while lying in bed or do you wait like 10 minutes or something?

I measure within a few minutes of waking up and while still in bed

So I have been playing a little with cold showers to aid recovery, wake up a little and help my sleep patterns which have been terrible recently.  I have steadily been increasing time and lowering temperature but haven't noticed any particular change yet.

 I read a blog post by GST about alternating between hot and cold exposure just before bed which I have done the past couple of nights and I have had a much improved sleep.

What is the theory behind this?