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One of the most common problems in amateur and professional sports is the inability to determine the optimal physical activity for the body. The result of an incorrectly selected load can be a diagnosis of "overtraining", a breakdown in health and a forced suspension from sports for weeks or even months. Engy Health analyzes your body's stress using the heart rate variability (HRV) methodology used by sports physicians around the world, and gives clear recommendations for correcting the load.

What indicators in Engy Health to track to correct sports load?

For a comprehensive analysis of body tension during the training process, we recommend that you track 3 indicators based on heart rate variability data - Pulse, RMSSD and CV.

Step 1. Tracking your heart rate

Heart rate is one of the main indicators that athletes are guided by. It's simple:

The lower your resting heart rate, the better your body can handle your current level of exercise.
The higher your resting heart rate, the worse your body copes with your current level of exercise.

Engy Health demonstrates not only one-time heart rate readings, but also its average over the last 7 days (blue line on the chart): using this trend, you can record a decrease or increase in heart rate. In addition, the service shows the average of the lows and highs for the last 30 days: this is your individual normal heart rate channel (blue lines on the chart).

If your heart rate is low, you can increase your exercise load without sacrificing your health. If you see that the average heart rate has begun to rise, or for several days in a row, the heart rate goes beyond the normal range to the top, we recommend adjusting the load towards decreasing.

Step 2. Controlling RMSSD

RMSSD is a measure of the tension in the parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible in your body for recovery and sleep. By tracking your resting heart rate RMSSD, you can see if your nervous system has time to recover and, thus, is it ready for the selected load. The principle of RMSSD chart analysis is quite simple:

Growth RMSSD - you handle the load. You can increase the load
Reduced RMSSD - You are not keeping up with the load. You need to reduce the load

If you see a decrease in the 7-day average RMSSD and the normal channel, or within a few days the RMSSD indicator (gray bars) is below the normal channel - you need to reduce the load or cancel the training. An increase in the 7-day average RMSSD and values above normal indicates that your body is ready for additional stress.

Numerous experiments by sports physicians indicate that adjusting the load as part of the training process directly affects sports results. For example, within the experiment of the Finnish physiologist Anti Kiviniemi, with the participation of 26 young men, the following difference was achieved between 2 control groups:

Step 3. CV. The stability of your success

CV (coefficient of variation) is a measure associated with RMSSD. It shows how stable your RMSSD is. This is important because the more trained your body is, the more stable you are, and your nervous system is better at coping with stress.

The lower the CV, the more stable your recovery system works.
The higher your CV, the less stable you recover.

Putting Pulse, RMSSD and CV together: how to interpret the data?

You have successfully adapted to the current level of load and can increase its level if:

The pulse is decreasing or stable. The more trained the body, the lower the pulse at rest
Average RMSSD is growing or stable. An increase in the average RMSSD level indicates an increase in the readiness of the parasympathetic system for stress
CV is decreasing or stable. The lower the CV, the more balanced the parasympathetic nervous system.

You are not adapting to the current level of load, you need to reduce or eliminate it if:

The pulse is growing. This indicates possible failures in the circulatory system, heart overload
Average RMSSD is declining. This indicates an overload of the parasympathetic nervous system. The body is not ready to give an adequate response to physical activity and begins to overstrain
and / or gray RMSSD bars significantly below normal for several days of measurement
CV is growing. This indicates an imbalance in the parasympathetic nervous system.

How to use this data?

Thanks to the methodology described above, you can adjust your load. You can also adjust the workload of your sports team or students if you are a coach. This technique provides answers to the following questions:

Are you (your team or students) ready for the current workload
At what point can you increase the load
At what point do you need to reduce the load
At what point have you recovered from the competition and can start a new training cycle

Why can you trust Engy Health stress analysis?

To obtain stress data, we analyze your pulse using the heart rate variability (HRV) methodology developed by the Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Data interpretation also complies with International Standards for Measurement, Physiological Interpretation and Clinical Use of Heart Rate Variability (HRV). This methodology has been successfully applied since the 1960s in space cardiology and sports medicine around the world to monitor the nervous system of astronauts, athletes and professionals whose professional activities are directly related to increased responsibility and stress.

How to take HRV measurements with Engy Health?

Take measurements daily in the morning, 5-10 minutes after waking up, but before taking a shower, any physical activity and breakfast.
Take measurements always in the same comfortable position for you in accordance with the recommendations of the heart rate monitor you are using
Do not move or talk during the measurement, try not to cough or sneeze.
Your eyes must be open

How long to take measurements?

One HRV stress measurement is not very informative. The first week of daily measurements with Engy Health will show a 7-day average line. Measured daily over 30 days by Engy Health, you will see a channel of your individual rate along the 30-day average of the lows and highs. By fluctuating trends, you can objectively monitor the level of stress, identify stress factors and adjust work-life balance.

How many times a day should you measure your stress level?

The main thing is the morning measurement, since it shows your standing after sleep, that is, after the time when the body is working to restore its resources and when your stress from interacting with the environment is minimal. However, you can also take measurements throughout the day to see your stress state and understand whether, for example, go to fitness in the evening or go to an unplanned party with friends? Or stay at home to calm down and recover in a hot bath.

This is interesting. Where to start?

Take your first heart rate variability measurement. To do this, you need heart rate monitor and app Engy Health .

I still have questions. What to do?

If you have any questions, you can always ask them in our Support Service feedback@engy.app or contact the Engy Health consultant physiologist in the "Chat" Applications.