Originally Posted by
Nathan Stewart 2
Since we cannot know when an acute stressor might arrive, one way of preventing a heart attack besides diet and strength training is monitoring and modulating HRV. HRV is a direct view into the central nervous system and incompases all the stressors that affect it including, mental and emotional stress, metabolic stress, alcohol, and physical training stress. So I decided that as part of my training I am going to monitor my HRV with an app called HRV4Training that is highly accurate, as accurate as the test a cardiologist would give you. So all that to say I completly agree with the first three questions as reguards to recovery, and I am closely monitoring all three. Do between 5 and 10 min between work sets depending on the exercise sometimes more when it feels tough and bar speed is slow, I am eating as much I can bare and actively seeking ways to I increase that part as it’s probably the hardest of the 3 for me with some digestion issues I have. And I am closely guarding my 8 hours of sleep sometimes more. However, when my HRV app says my HRV is very low and I should “limit intensity” in reference to my training I want to modulate my training accordingly to allow for some more recovery, and then hit it hard again when HRV is good, and really it’s good more often then not and I’m not using it as an excuse. I can tell you from experience that it is very objective, sometimes I feel like shit but if HRV is good I train hard anyway. If that makes me a pussy, frankly I don’t give a damn what anyone thinks anyway, I’m just trying to figure out what training variable is best to manipulate to speed up the recovery of my HRV which I suspect is realated to what we call recovery in training. Then I’ll give it hell when I’m adapting well to the overall stress in my central nervous system. Now before I get barraged with a scatter of sycophantry and narrow robot thinking I suggest anyone wanting to have this discussion educate themselves on HRV because the science in it is legit, it’s a powerful tool and it’s not going away anytime soon.
I also forgot to mention that I have a job that requires that I do a lot of hard labor often out in the elements and that this also affects my recovery and HRV and again I am closely monitoring my answers to the “first 3 questions” but I am going to modulate trying to accommodate my HRV when it’s low in one way or another. Even if that means as mentioned moving into more intermediate type programming. However the only lift that I have failed reps on is the press. So I’m not sure if intermediate programming is appropriate yet… but I have also tried holding weight constant and also adding 5 lbs but reducing sets, mainly on the squat and deadlift when my HRV is low. But I can’t say that I could tell subjectively or objectively with the HRV score which would have helped more. It just slows progress when I hold weight constant and when I reduce sets, I didn’t notice much difficulty adding 5 lbs the next workout but I could see it potentially slowing progress too. But I don’t care about that, I am not trying to win a race, I’m trying to get healthy and I’m willing to slow progress when my HRV is low and for no other reason and I’ll get there soon enough. But maybe they’re are some things I’m not considering and my understanding of training is admititly limited. Any wise and well informed advice is welcomed.