Originally Posted by
burnthesheep
I know Gaimon isn't anybody to necessarily give a word on this, but I didn't care for his words about his HRV device.
Despite being sponsored to do his stuff by one of these things, when he talks about it he makes it sound like no more useful than how sometimes your TSB might tell you nothing.
Sometimes you're positive on TSB and can't do jack. Then sometimes your TSB is in the floor and you can nail it. He seemed to say same for his whoop thing. Gave him good numbers to go for something and he felt crap.
Go figure. The body can be confusing sometimes.
Ditto. I was enthusiastic about Elite HRV and Wattson Blue at first. But over several months I realized my "feels like" performance didn't necessarily correspond with the HRV data.
But my experience shouldn't be a factor for anyone else -- other than folks with similar health challenges. At 63 with an auto-immune disorder that ended up with thyroid cancer and wildly varying metabolism, my sampling group for active folks with similar health challenges is probably very tiny. Even if everyone with similar challenges formed a valid study group, the data would still be of very limited use.
And I've noticed the HRV data varies wildly depending on things like caffeine intake and meds that can affect heart rate -- Sudafed and others.
I still check my HRV almost every morning, but I never base my training goals on it. Some days when my HRV data looks good and I feel like crap, I just head out for a ride or run with no goals and wait 30-60 minutes through a gradual warmup to see how I feel. If I feel better after a warmup, then I'll do intervals, threshold workouts or fartlek sessions. If not, I just take it easy, move the feet and don't worry about goals. Some days I feel miserable during an early workout, then suddenly have a burst of energy a few hours later and go for a second, harder workout. Those often result in my fastest times riding and running.
So while it's kinda sorta interesting, I'm not gonna spend much money on any HRV app or device. Certainly not on Whoop or the Elite HRV fingertip sensor. But if Elite HRV proposed charging a reasonably annual fee for the app, maybe $3-$5, sure, I'd pay for a subscription and just continue using my Tickr.