My name is V. Sokolov. I'm an entrepreneur, I'm 33. I started my fight against stress and complete burnout a year ago. The main tool that helped me track my recovery was the Engy Health method for measuring heart rate variability (HRV). In this article, I share my experience.
What prompted me to use Engy Health?
Until the moment when I realized that I needed to take some action, I believed that I had an active and healthy lifestyle. I work hard, but I don't smoke, I don't drink, and I travel a lot. At the end of January 2019, I realized that the stress in my work life was going through the roof. Even the approaching expedition to the Arctic for a month and a half from a diving dive in the Arctic Ocean is not happy, because I feel tired, I have problems sleeping. I understand that such a state will create difficulties for myself and the team. My goal is to reduce stress levels without reducing the amount of work I do.
At the start of the experiment: we determine the state and plan of action
When I was being examined before the expedition, the physiologist recommended using HRV methodology and Engy Health service to find a balance between stress and recovery. At the beginning of the experiment with Engy Health, for 7-10 days, I carried out a series of HRV measurements with Engy Health in the morning in order to objectively reveal my state "at the start". Measurements have confirmed that my stress level is off scale:
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Energy (Total Power) (norm 1000-3500) - I have 300-600.
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Stress (norm 20-120) is many times higher than the norm of 400-600 units.
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Pulse (norm 60-80) in the morning 65-70 beats / min.
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Load (PARS) at a rate of 1-5 - my indicator is 6-8.
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Blood circulation index 2.1.
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Balance (LF / HF) up to 14 points. This is the collapse of the parasympathetic system and the lack of reserves for recovery.
I started measuring 2 times a day - in the morning after getting up and in the evening before going to bed. This makes it possible to see the dynamics and analyze the difference in your state in the morning and in the evening.
First step. First small changes
I took the Engy Health indicator Energy (TotalPower) as a target indicator, because its values were the most critical. As part of my concept of the "three pillars of health" - Sports, Food, Recovery - I began to regulate my regimen outside of working hours, since I could not touch working hours. With my "Energy" indicators, playing sports meant only the consumption of the remnants of meager reserves. Power regulation on business trips came down to light restrictions. So my work with Engy Health on health boiled down to Big Small changes:
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I began to monitor the amount and quality of sleep. Increased sleep from 6 to 7 hours. Sometimes I started sleeping during the day.
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I excluded night walks in the cities on business trips.
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Moved the evening business on the laptop to the daytime. He did not reduce the amount of work, he simply redistributed the time of its execution.
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Eliminated mindless surfing on social networks from life.
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Added massage and sauna.
These minor changes gave the first response. Within a week, Energia rose by 200-250 points, and I began to feel much better.
Second phase. You can go to physical activity
With such parameters it was possible to start the first light physical training. At that time, it was walking:
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During the day, I got an hour and a half walk
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I started going out a couple of stops earlier when using public transport
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I began to miss the taxi to hotels
Engy Health parameters and well-being went up. Energy (TP) increased to 900, or even above 1000, but the “Stress” indicator began to decrease and I began to regularly find myself in the “green zone”.
Stage three. Balancing stress and recovery
The next parameter that I added to monitoring with Engy Health became Balance. My indicators of autonomic balance (note: that is, the balance of the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems, responsible for stress and recovery, respectively) were critical. With a norm of 1-2 points, my indicators reached 14. That is, according to Engy Health, the activity of my parasympathetic system was 14 times lower than the sympathetic!
First of all, I eliminated stimulating foods from my diet - green tea. And already on the 3-4th day of refusal according to Engy Health indicators, I saw a decrease in the proportion of sympathetic system activity.
Result
By the beginning of the summer of 2019, I reached the indicators that allowed me to switch to active sports. At this time, the wakeboard season began and my training became regular. What immediately got a response in the parameters. Evening values showed tension, but morning values after sleep returned to normal. The energy was consistently above 1000, and the Balance in the morning began to go beyond 2 less often.
My findings:
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Stress has physiological reasons. Without understanding health, it is useless to control stress
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There are no quick results. Need a strategy
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Everyone can develop their own personal strategy based on heart rate analysis with Engy Health.
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To recover, you need to clearly monitor your health indicators.
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It is necessary to constantly experiment with lifestyle to identify stressors that improve and worsen health.
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Sports can be harmful if you are not recovered.
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Engy Health - analyzes health indicators comprehensively. To restore health, you need to start from the most critical indicator - "Energy", "Stress" and "Balance of reserves and tension".