Practices and Applications of Heart Rate Variability Monitoring in Endurance Athletes

Area of Science:

• Physiology
• Sports Science

Background:

• Heart rate variability (HRV) reflects cardiac autonomic function.
• Endurance athletes exhibit enhanced cardiac autonomic function compared to non-athletes.
• HRV metrics are increasingly utilized in the general population and hold significant potential for athletes.

Approach:

• This review synthesits current practices and applications of HRV analysis in endurance athletes.
• It discusses critical considerations for accurate HRV analysis, including data stationarity, recording parameters, and demographic factors.
• The review explores factors influencing resting HRV, such as exercise characteristics and lifestyle.

Key Points:

• HRV-guided training enables personalized exercise prescription.
• HRV monitoring aids in identifying and managing maladaptive states like overtraining.
• Factors like exercise intensity, duration, modality, training load, and lifestyle significantly impact resting HRV.

Conclusions:

• HRV analysis provides a non-invasive method to assess physiological status in endurance athletes.
• Understanding HRV metrics and influencing factors allows for optimized training and performance.
• Future applications include real-time exercise monitoring, post-exercise recovery assessment, and physiological forecasting.