Thanks Marco. I'm not on Twitter, so hope you don't mind the question here. I've been using HRV for 6 months daily now and think it's an incredible bit of software that does what I want a ridiculously low cost, when compare to Whoop etc. I have read and re-read all the articles and my dumb brain just can't compute what rMSSD actually is, and why that number matters and then how you compute HRV and what relation your HRV number has to rMSSD? If I have a HR daily of 40 which doesn't change, my one day my rMSSD is 80 or 120, what does that actually mean, actually? In simple terms there between each heart beat, there is a pause of 80 or 120 milliseconds, is it an average over the minute and why is it generally a lower value might mean something is wrong? Maybe a page is needed as if a 10 year old needs to read it? I might get it then!
a lower value when measured at rest, typically means that there is reduced parasympathetic activity, which is typically associated with higher stress. Basically when heart rate gets more constant (the difference between consecutive beats is more similar), we have higher stress. This is due to the fact that the parasympathetic system is mostly active during the exhale, and therefore reduced influence would not slow down as much the heart at that point, and as a result, it would be more constant (less variability).
Our HRV number is just a logarithmic transformation of rMSSD, which makes it a bit easier to read as it is in a decimal scale. Both (HRV and rMSSD) give you the same information, hence you can just look at one of the two, and see if on any given day it is within your normal range or not. When suppressed with respect to your normal range, it means that there is more stress on the body.
Thanks Marco. I'm not on Twitter, so hope you don't mind the question here. I've been using HRV for 6 months daily now and think it's an incredible bit of software that does what I want a ridiculously low cost, when compare to Whoop etc. I have read and re-read all the articles and my dumb brain just can't compute what rMSSD actually is, and why that number matters and then how you compute HRV and what relation your HRV number has to rMSSD? If I have a HR daily of 40 which doesn't change, my one day my rMSSD is 80 or 120, what does that actually mean, actually? In simple terms there between each heart beat, there is a pause of 80 or 120 milliseconds, is it an average over the minute and why is it generally a lower value might mean something is wrong? Maybe a page is needed as if a 10 year old needs to read it? I might get it then!
hi Martin! rMSSD is computed as the root mean square of the successive differences between RR intervals. Here you can see the formula: https://www.biopac.com/application/ecg-cardiology/advanced-feature/rmssd-for-hrv-analysis/
a lower value when measured at rest, typically means that there is reduced parasympathetic activity, which is typically associated with higher stress. Basically when heart rate gets more constant (the difference between consecutive beats is more similar), we have higher stress. This is due to the fact that the parasympathetic system is mostly active during the exhale, and therefore reduced influence would not slow down as much the heart at that point, and as a result, it would be more constant (less variability).
Our HRV number is just a logarithmic transformation of rMSSD, which makes it a bit easier to read as it is in a decimal scale. Both (HRV and rMSSD) give you the same information, hence you can just look at one of the two, and see if on any given day it is within your normal range or not. When suppressed with respect to your normal range, it means that there is more stress on the body.
I hope this helps a bit!
Yes it does, thank you!!