Congratulations for you website really interesting can I share some of your articles? I’ll probably work with HRV in elite athletes is a really interesting topic that needs more research.
Thank you for your dedication and your job done so far.
Hey Andrew, just a quick “thank you” for your blog and your work — extremely informative and helpful, and I especially appreciate your methodical, evidence-based approach. Your interview at The Quantified Body pointed me in your direction, fwiw. Looking forward to your future work & posts.
Hi Andrew,
Thanks for providing so much quality information regarding Hrv, it’s much appreciated. I have been tracking my Hrv for the last 3 years using ithlete and have a question for you regarding taking a reading.
Just a little background to give you some context. I train 6 days a week, often 2-a-days, and monitor every day, first thing in the morning on an empty stomach after walking around for a few minutes to wake up. My resting heart rate is low 40’s so I take my reading standing up to allow ithlete to get a good reading. However, I frequently find my heart rate fluctuates so much first thing that the ithlete regularly has to re set as it says it can’t obtain a regular beat. Sometimes its impossible to get a reading unless I have some breakfast and a coffee which seems to steady and even lower my resting heart rate. I’ve always thought it best to take the reading on an empty stomach at the same time every day.
Do you have any ideas as to why my heart rate is so erratic first thing and also would you say it’s ok to eat/drink before a reading as long as I’m being consistent?
Adam Scott
Your heart rate may be so low or variable that it exceeds the irregular heartbeat detection threshold several times (RR interval greater than 1800 ms or less than 500 ms). This can make it difficult to begin and complete a recording. I’d contact Simon from ithlete for his opinion on how to handle this.
I would not recommend eating or drinking before doing a measure as this will obscure your resting condition.
Hi Andrew,
Your blog is always very interesting to read and is now a natural “Go To” source for all things HRV! As a researcher in the field with close relations to e.g. ithlete and Marco Altini, do you have any opinions on the patent issues that seem to hit some people over the head? (See http://lepo-app.net/ for an example. I personally find it a bit sad that the Lepo team decided to give up, since they had a really nice user experience although there were issues with how they computed their metrics.)
My conclusion, not verified with a patent attorney, is that the claims made in patent applications by for example the ithlete team cannot be said to be proper inventions since basically everything described in these applications regarding the base technology are really known in advance (prior art).
Ex: Gathering R-R data from HR sensors, computing the RMSSD from a series of data, removing ectopic beats, logging metrics over time etc.
What’s more, there is a bunch of other claims that are a bit more fishy, like providing guidance based on the metrics, since very similar methods have been published by other researchers.
I do not want to pinpoint ithlete specifically, but they came out on top when googling for hrv and patents, so they can well serve as an example.
HRVtraining 
Love the blog man. The info and explanations you give have helped me to take my training and my clients to the next level
Thanks, Nicholas. I really appreciate the feedback. Happy to hear it!
Congratulations for you website really interesting can I share some of your articles? I’ll probably work with HRV in elite athletes is a really interesting topic that needs more research.
Thank you for your dedication and your job done so far.
Thanks, Pol. I appreciate it. Feel free to share any of the posts. Keep me posted on yout data when you start using HRV with your athletes.
Hey Andrew, just a quick “thank you” for your blog and your work — extremely informative and helpful, and I especially appreciate your methodical, evidence-based approach. Your interview at The Quantified Body pointed me in your direction, fwiw. Looking forward to your future work & posts.
I appreciate the kind words, Tom. Glad you enjoy the articles.
Hi Andrew,
Thanks for providing so much quality information regarding Hrv, it’s much appreciated. I have been tracking my Hrv for the last 3 years using ithlete and have a question for you regarding taking a reading.
Just a little background to give you some context. I train 6 days a week, often 2-a-days, and monitor every day, first thing in the morning on an empty stomach after walking around for a few minutes to wake up. My resting heart rate is low 40’s so I take my reading standing up to allow ithlete to get a good reading. However, I frequently find my heart rate fluctuates so much first thing that the ithlete regularly has to re set as it says it can’t obtain a regular beat. Sometimes its impossible to get a reading unless I have some breakfast and a coffee which seems to steady and even lower my resting heart rate. I’ve always thought it best to take the reading on an empty stomach at the same time every day.
Do you have any ideas as to why my heart rate is so erratic first thing and also would you say it’s ok to eat/drink before a reading as long as I’m being consistent?
Adam Scott
Thanks Adam,
Your heart rate may be so low or variable that it exceeds the irregular heartbeat detection threshold several times (RR interval greater than 1800 ms or less than 500 ms). This can make it difficult to begin and complete a recording. I’d contact Simon from ithlete for his opinion on how to handle this.
I would not recommend eating or drinking before doing a measure as this will obscure your resting condition.
Hi Andrew,
Your blog is always very interesting to read and is now a natural “Go To” source for all things HRV! As a researcher in the field with close relations to e.g. ithlete and Marco Altini, do you have any opinions on the patent issues that seem to hit some people over the head? (See http://lepo-app.net/ for an example. I personally find it a bit sad that the Lepo team decided to give up, since they had a really nice user experience although there were issues with how they computed their metrics.)
My conclusion, not verified with a patent attorney, is that the claims made in patent applications by for example the ithlete team cannot be said to be proper inventions since basically everything described in these applications regarding the base technology are really known in advance (prior art).
Ex: Gathering R-R data from HR sensors, computing the RMSSD from a series of data, removing ectopic beats, logging metrics over time etc.
What’s more, there is a bunch of other claims that are a bit more fishy, like providing guidance based on the metrics, since very similar methods have been published by other researchers.
I do not want to pinpoint ithlete specifically, but they came out on top when googling for hrv and patents, so they can well serve as an example.
I am a resesrcher in hrv and i would like collaborate in more research
Dr. Biala, feel free to email me to discuss potential collaborations. My work email is aflatt@georgiasouthern.edu