“We like to say heart rate variability is the range of motion of your nervous system,” Lindsey Mathews, DC, (@birthfit), says.
Put another way, heart rate variability (HRV), or the variance in time between the beats of your heart, can provide insight into how your body is responding to the many different stressors in life.
This is a valuable tool to help guide women’s training through pregnancy and postpartum. When HRV is low, it opens up a conversation on what other life stressors are going on and indicates a need to reduce training load.
When HRV is stable or trending upwards, pregnant and postpartum women can use it as an opportunity to push training a little bit harder within the parameters of what is safe for their pregnancy.
HRV values are individually unique, but by establishing a personal baseline, women can bring awareness to how different lifestyle factors impact their physical readiness. They can then use this knowledge to inform training throughout their pregnancy and postpartum.
Health Tip: Using HRV to Guide Training During Pregnancy