What is Heart Rate Variability and Will it Really Help my Running?

Finlay wears his sports scientist hat in this episode while Chris grills him about heart rate variability (HRV) - the long-celebrated metric in sports science that measures the time variance between heartbeats to give an indication of stress and how prepared the body is to perform. 

The new Garmin Forerunners 255 and 955 both come with long-term HRV tracking functionality, meaning Garmin watches are now providing something recreational athletes previously needed a Whoop band and subscription to monitor. Fortunately, Finlay's been using a Whoop band for sometime, and recently upgraded his watch to the Forerunner 255, and has been using both pieces of kit to compare them.

So...

Is HRV the game changer prominent athletes make it out to be? Yes, undoubtedly. Does it apply to someone who isn't a professional athlete or an aspiring king of the hill club runner? Well actually, yes, and the more recreational your running, and the busier, more time-crunched your life is between work and family commitments, the more applicable monitoring your HRV could be, not only to your athletic performance, but to your general health and wellbeing. 

Listen to find out more.

To get in touch, email: thepod@run4it.com.