Up Your HRV!: Improving the Northstar Metric of Your Health & Fitness

by Dave Maxfield

HRV is a direct indicator of how well our ANS is functioning, how much inflammation is in our bodies, how much stress we're under, and how fit we are.

what exercise is really doing is putting us through "cycles" of threat and recovery, sympathetic and parasympathetic activity.

this works only if there is an opportunity for actual recovery. As we'll see in the following chapter, it's the reason we have to "train" recovery as much as we train "threat."

Without compensation and recovery, adaptation no longer occurs and, instead of getting better at whatever sport the athlete is training for, they start to get worse.

If doing resistance training, spend 10 or 15 minutes on the stationary bike or treadmill afterwards. You'll feel a lot better sooner and be more ready when it's time to go hard again.