I would like to get back to monitoring my resting HR every morning. I have been doing it the old fashioned-way with fingers to the carotid artery and a 30-sec or 1-min countdown timer. Is there an easier better, more accurate method?
@Kid
Not sure if it is necessarily more accurate… But, I use an app on my android called “heart rate” that uses your camera and flash to measure your heart rate. I have compared it to my garmin strap and it is within a beat or two once it locks in. Definitely easy to use and doesn’t require me to count or think upon waking.
Go to bed wearing your HRM and your watch recording.
Best method meaning least amount of hassle and good accuracy, probably use a pulse oximeter. Easier than fiddling with a HRM strap, starting a workout, etc.
While we’re on the subject Polar had a few watches (e.g. RS800x) that did an “orthostatic” test, whereby it measured your resting heart rate lying down and then had you stand up, and measured how much it spiked and then settled. It was kind of fun to play around with, but it’s wasn’t as iron clad of an indicator as one would hope. Of course, the polar app had its algorithm baked in and it didn’t learn about you overtime (the rolling window of the data set was 30 days). I suppose it remains to be seen if longer term tracking can more definitively determine if one is well-rested, overtrained, etc.
Do you skip a workout if you wake up with a heart beating 10 beats too fast? What are you going to use the metric for?
Todd
Easiest is to get yourself a Basis Peak. It’s an activity monitor that also continuously monitors heart rate. The good part is that it’s comfortable to wear (it’s an optical monitor) and that it saves the data online on a minute by minute basis. That means you can also track how long it took for your heart rate to stabilize (which you can also use as somewhat of an indicator of stress, fatigue etc).
Don’t try to sleep with your HR strap because it’s highly uncomfortable (been there, done that).
Do you skip a workout if you wake up with a heart beating 10 beats too fast? What are you going to use the metric for?
ToddIt can be a good indicator of sickness, residual fatigue, or if you’re ready to rock it. Say you haven’t been feeling well the day before. You check your morning HR and it’s 5 or more beats higher than normal, that would confirm something’s not right and you may choose to simply take a rest day especially if you’re still not feeling 100%. If you still do your workout there’s a good chance of not doing well, or feeling worse afterwards. On the other hand, say your HR was normal but you weren’t feeling well, then chances are it’s nothing too serious and you should try to do your training as planned. Good chance you will feel normal or better afterwards.
I find it very helpful as long as I try to connect it to other factors especially when the numbers are off from the normal values. Like when my resting HR is elevated, can I relate it to lack of sleep, or sickness or stress, or nothing at all?
Yeah, what Cobble said so eloquently.
I don’t believe I have ever skipped a workout because of high morning HR but I have modified my workouts: if it was an interval, I may switch to tempo or easy.
@Kid
I have a Withings scale. Step on it every morning, get my weight, BF% and HR.
I downloaded, installed and tested the Android app… seems to be quite accurate. I also tested it on my wife and in-laws… didn’t work on the dog!
@Kid
Glad you found it useful. It is so easy to use I test a few times a day. 1 upon waking… After work sitting on the couch at rest after 15 minutes… and before bed. Gives me a good idea of where I am at during the day without much effort.
Have you found finger pressure makes any difference on the HR readings?
@Kid
No I haven’t. Watch your finger as you do it, you can see it pulse light and dark. Hold your carotid as you do it, its cool and a bit trippy.
I would just put it on after I got up to take a pee for the third time
.
You can use the self loops HRV app for iphone and a blue tooth HR strap like a tickr. I did that for a while trying to use HRV data for fatigue tracking. The HR measurements are good, HRV was too variable to be useful. I could get very different numbers on the same morning taken within 5 minutes of each other.
Wake up, put on your HRM, turn it on, then go back to sleep for ten minutes. Breathe calmly if you can’t fall asleep. This is what I’ve done and it works well. You can get a 10 minute HR file from this. Works great if you can sleep for a full “snooze” cycle or two.