It takes courage to say yes to rest and play in a culture where exhaustion is seen as a status symbol ~ Brene Brown
The Foundations of HRV course offered by Elite HRV came as a bit of a shock for me. I thought I knew what stress was but realised there is so much more to it than meets the eye.
Let me explain...
At the heart of our HRV score is the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS).
There are 2 branches of the ANS:
The Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) activates Fight, Flight, Freeze mode.
The Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS) activates Rest, Digest, Breed mode.
However, our natural state is actually PNS dominance activated by the Vagal Nerve. Who'd have thought? Most of us think that stress is our natural state.
If you watch an animal like a lion, you will observe that he will spend most of his time resting and when hungry or threatened activates the SNS to kill some food or get out of harm's way and then reverts to rest. Rest is our optimum state, our state of balance or homeostasis.
This activation of our SNS comes from some sort of stressor, in the same way as for the lion.
Stress to most of us is an amorphous blob of stuff, mostly mental - a job, a business to run, commuting, decisions to make, finances to keep under control, family issues. As if that wasn't enough, COVID has beaten us to a pulp in so many ways.
I learned that Stress is anything that pulls us out of our natural and ideal state of rest or homeostasis. However, it is not just mental pressure. There's digestive stress from what we eat or drink, environmental stress from pollution, stress from media we consume.
So encompassing sometimes, we can't find a way to deconstruct it or are too exhausted to make a start.
What helped me pull it apart, is the distinction between the two types of stress:
Di-Stress, which we often think is the only type and always bad. Often Distress is outside our control or perceived control. But is it?
Eu-Stress is actually good stress. The term was coined in the 1970s by researcher Hans Selye from eu- (meaning 'good') plus stress. It means 'good stress'. Never heard of Eustress? Planned, quality exercise is Eustress. Learning a new skill is Eustress. Eustress builds adaptability and resilience making us stronger to capably handle more. More about that later.
Whichever stress we are considering, it is a disruption to our ideal state of rest and it wrecks our HRV score or builds our HRV score depending on what kind it is and how it's managed.
HRV (rMSSD) is a measure of the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS) branch of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)
The raw rMSSD score or the log rMSSD score directly measures PNS activity. Because rMSSD is a raw score, you can compare it across different companys' apps and demographic charts by various researchers. However, each company uses a proprietary algorithm to calculate their HRV score based on the rMSSD score so the actual HRV score may not be comparable.
Higher rMSSD is a medically verified sign of good heart health and shows good adaptability of the ANS. Low rMSSD indicates a weakened ability to remain in or return to homeostasis against life challenges; lowered coping ability, general weakness of health. It is an indicator of risk factors for Heart Disease, Diabetes, and many other lifestyle illnesses.
I also monitor:
Resting Heart Rate (RHR). The lower my RHR is the better my HRV will be.
'Readiness' score so I can look back to see what may have moved it towards SNS or PNS and adjust my activity accordingly.
Other stats generated by Elite HRV and other similar apps reflect the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) branch of the ANS but I ignore most of them and focus on the rMSSD or log rMSSD.
I take a 5 minute Morning Readiness every morning before getting out of bed. I then enter all details onto a spreadsheet so I can see trends more easily, adding notes for future reference. Key numbers are graphed and 10-day and 60-day moving averages of rMSSD are calculated and graphed.
I don't micromanage by tracking my numbers all day. I just use the morning readiness reading and the trends charted from those readings.
The aim of the HRV game is to optimise/maximise the rMSSD score. Taking control of your ANS is the process and there are many ways to influence the ANS within our power.
Improving HRV is an art rather than a science. While we can take advice from experts, we should get to know our bodies and minds and our numbers to enable us to make better decisions about our fitness, health, and wellbeing. HRV gives us the data for our n=1 research project.
Consistent daily tracking is just the beginning. Then compare yourself with your demographic averages. Is your rMSSD under or over the average?
From there it is you vs you. It is a game of improvement unique to you.
The game is to become acutely aware of and reduce Distressors while at the same time adding quality Eustressors. You will also need to learn how to activate the Vagus nerve to quickly settle back into rest or homeostasis in the heat of stress situation in addition to strategies to add vagal tone over a longer period of time.
1. Document your stressors. Are they of the Distress or Eustress type?
Are you doing life or is life doing you?
Remember, some Distressors are outside our control. Aging is one of those stressors. You want to be on the top side of your HRV age demographic as you age to give yourself the best odds for longevity.
2. Take steps to reduce Distress.
Look for the biggest outpoint in your lifestyle and act there first. If that's too big to confront, look for some quick wins to get some traction. Create some space. Breathe.
Getting rid of some under-your-control stress will enable you to handle the outside-your-control ones more easily.
Look at your food or alcohol consumption. What small changes can you make immediately?
Stop watching the news.
Organise to create space in your life. Sometimes starting with organising a room, cleaning the kitchen or making the bed. Maybe it is spending less time with a person who isn't uplifting.
Apply Minimalism. Look for what isn't serving you and get rid of it.
3. Build some Eustress activities.
Build exercise into your life. Make sure it is on a gradient. The Eustress of quality exercise can quickly turn to distress if you overdo it and don't take quality rest. Exercise will also improve mood to be able to work on removing Distressors.
Learn a new skill, build on existing strengths, celebrate every win.
4. Learn how to activate Vagal tone to quickly return to calm and homeostasis.
Breathe
Move your body, stretch.
Do vagal activation exercises. I'll elaborate next week.
Splash cold water on your face.
Re-activate the vagus nerve after a Eustress workout.
Athletes know the following are not negotiable after workouts.
Cooldown
Stretch
Ice bath
5. Build long-term vagal tone. Regularly treat yourself to:
Calming restorative yoga
Your favourite music
Meditation
Sleep readiness, sleep or naps
Time in nature
Cold Water swimming
Social connection
The key is to understand the components of HRV and stress.
Reduce the under-your-control Distress and increase Eustress giving you more bandwidth to handle outside-your-control stressors.
Activate your Vagus Nerve to produce rest, digest or breed chemicals (Seratonin) that prolong life and make us feel good.
An improvement in HRV is a mighty fine goal. It adds years to your life and life to your years, setting you up for the Centenarian Olympics!
Next week I will let you in on some projects I have used to build HRV and what worked and didn't for me.