Heart Rate Variability Baseline Measurements

As I indicated in my recent post, Do You Have a Healthy Heart?, I am interested in determining if exercise can improve heart rate variability (HRV).  Over the past month, I have made daily measurements in order to establish a baseline for future comparisons.  Below are the details of what I am measuring.

Methods

Each morning after I wake up, I measure my resting heart rate using a Suunto t6d heart rate monitor.  I first measure my resting heart rate in a seated position for three minutes followed by a three minute measurement in a standing position.  From each three minute window, I isolate a one minute segment to analyze and record.

Do You Have a Healthy Heart?

photo credit: ekgtrainingonline.com

Most everyone knows that a low resting heart rate is a positive indicator of a healthy heart, one that is capable of moving blood around the body in an efficient manner [1].  In fact, some world-class athletes, Lance Armstrong for example, have resting heart rates as low as 32-34 beats per minute where the average person is more likely in the 60s or 70s.

However, resting heart rate is only a small part of the story (as I have recently discovered).

“When you lose flexibility and responsiveness, you die.  Perhaps the most spectacular example of this is heart-rate variability, i.e. the amount by which the heart rate alters from beat to beat.  This is, possibly, the single most sensitive indicator of a healthy heart, and a loss of beat-to-beat variability is one of the most powerful single indicators of the risk of dying of heart disease.”  From The Great Cholesterol Con by Dr. Malcolm Kendrick