Subject kind of says it all… But I’ll ramble a bit anyway :-).
I’m about to start a dedicated training block after a (year-long) period of slack. I currently wear a watch (Garmin Forerunner 35) that gives me great resting heart rate and sleep data, but can’t do HRV. I have an almost 30 year record of knowing my resting pulse and trusting it as a good metric for recovery. IE “If my pulse when I wake up is elevated, I’m probably a bit overcooked and should ease up”.
A few years ago, when it became all the rage, I started putting on my HR strap and taking an HRV measurement (via EliteHRV app) every morning. But I didn’t find the results to be any more insightful than just looking at my waking pulse. Eventually I just stopped because I didn’t feel like the juice was worth the squeeze.
I’m curious if things are any different now (July 2026). The latest generation of smart watches seem to have HRV capabilities built-in, but… do they work and does it matter? The previous threads on HRV appear to have gone cold.
I think like you said, RHR and just your self reflective feel give the average athlete more than enough info to know if they’ve overdone it. Personally the one thing that HRV has been helpful for is giving me a bit of a heads up that I’m getting sick as mine seems to absolutely tank in the couple days before I start really feeling something and getting some zinc and rest going early has really knocked my last couple colds down to only being a couple of days and I’ve managed to avoid chest congestion all together which historically has been an issue. I’m sure at the very top end they’re able to gain a lot of additional insights from HRV data but for me when it comes to week in week out training HRV and RHR closely reflect the previous days training strain.
personally I don’t see any benefit to tracking HRV. Contrary to joshhartjs experiences I feel something is up before my HRV reacts. My HRV seems to be inversely correlated to my RHR. So when RHR is up, HRV is down and vice versa.
Since you have, what I assume, is an extensive background in endurance sports and tracking your RHR, I personally wouldn’t stress about not tracking HRV. Listen to your body and double check with RHR and you should be fine.
I don’t know about a big deal but I’ve only had it on a new watch for around a year. N=1, it does seem to track load better than RHR. i.e. my resting heart rate may not shift, but HRV is unbalanced after a very high load. For example, I did a long run saturday, gravel event sunday, RHR normal monday morning, but that mornings HRV was unbalanced. But that wasn’t really telling me anything I didn’t know, as I was pretty f*cked to be honest!
Day to day though, generally RHR and HRV track. I wouldn’t be going out of my way to record it if it wasn’t automatic.
For me, it’s helpful to see a trend of my HRV particularly if it’s low for a few nights straight indicating maybe I’m carrying a bit more fatigue. Then I might think a little more about how my body feels and maybe take a day off or just do an easier workout.
I agree with this. I need to see HRV off for multiple days before it means anything to me, and by then I can feel it and my RHR has already been consistently elevated.
I have tracked HRV and trends for a number of years both as an athlete and now as a “retired” athlete. I still say what I’ve always said about it: it doesn’t tell us anything we don’t already feel. If you’re in tune with your body, it ends up as a checksum. “I feel tired/sick/stressed today.” HRV says, “yep”. So it CAN be useful from that standpoint.
I think attempting to train by HRV is a waste of time, personally, but YMMV.