Using Heart Rate Variability to Train Smarter, Recover Better, and Perform at Your Best
By Daniel L. Higdon, MS, CSCS, LMT
When most people think about recovery, they picture what happens after a workout—a protein shake, stretching routine, foam rolling session, or perhaps an ice bath. While these strategies may have value, one of the biggest lessons I've learned throughout my career is that recovery often begins long before you leave the gym.
In fact, recovery frequently starts the night before.
Ironically, I learned this lesson through my own experience with Heart Rate Variability (HRV). Like many athletes, I became excited about using wearable technology to optimize my training. If I woke up and my HRV score happened to be lower than usual, I'd immediately question whether I should train at all. Instead of looking at the bigger picture, I allowed one number to dictate my entire day.
Eventually, I realized I was asking the wrong question.
Instead of asking,
"Should I train today?"
I began asking,
"How should I train today?"
That subtle shift completely changed how I approached recovery.
Maybe I reduced my training volume.
If Olympic lifts were programmed, perhaps I'd perform clean pulls or medicine ball throws instead of multiple full cleans. I could still challenge myself. I could still, as I like to say, "let the tiger out of the cage." I simply adjusted the stress I placed on my body based on the information available.
That's when I stopped viewing HRV as a pass-or-fail readiness score and started treating it for what it really is.
HRV is your compass, not your boss.
It doesn't exist to police your workouts.
It exists to help you make better decisions.
As a strength and conditioning coach, licensed massage therapist, health coach, and former Army Holistic Health and Fitness (H2F) Strength & Conditioning Coach, I've learned that the greatest adaptations rarely happen during the workout itself.
They happen afterward.
Exercise provides the stimulus.
Recovery is where your body repairs damaged tissue, replenishes energy stores, restores nervous system balance, and ultimately adapts to the stress you've placed upon it (Kellmann et al., 2018).
That's why I often remind clients:
Recovery happens during the other 23 hours.
The workout may only last an hour.
The remaining twenty-three hours largely determine how well your body responds to that training session.
Your sleep.
Your nutrition.
Your hydration.
Your stress levels.
Your overall training load.
Those factors often have a much greater influence on long-term performance than the newest recovery gadget.
Recovery has become a booming industry. Every year there's another wearable, supplement, compression device, or recovery technology promising faster results. While many of these tools may have a place, I encourage clients to resist the temptation to skip over the fundamentals.
If someone is sleeping five hours per night, consistently under-eating protein, chronically dehydrated, and carrying excessive life stress, buying an expensive recovery device probably isn't going to solve the underlying problem.
Instead, I encourage people to focus on what I call the low-hanging fruit.
Prioritize quality sleep.
Eat enough protein and total calories to support your training.
Stay hydrated.
Manage your training load.
Develop consistent daily habits.
These foundational habits consistently provide the greatest return on investment for recovery and performance (Fullagar et al., 2015).
Master the basics before chasing the biohacks.
Heart Rate Variability has become one of my favorite recovery tools—not because it's perfect, but because it encourages curiosity.
HRV reflects the variation in time between consecutive heartbeats and provides insight into how your autonomic nervous system is responding to accumulated physical and psychological stress (Shaffer & Ginsberg, 2017). When interpreted over time rather than from isolated daily scores, HRV can help athletes and coaches better understand recovery trends and training readiness (Plews et al., 2013).
The important phrase is "over time."
One HRV score tells you very little.
A trend tells you much more.
That's why one of the first recommendations I make to someone beginning HRV tracking is surprisingly simple:
Don't change anything.
Spend the first one to two weeks simply observing.
Track your HRV.
Monitor your resting heart rate.
Pay attention to your sleep.
Notice your energy levels.
Observe your training performance.
Allow your body to establish its own baseline before trying to optimize anything.
Only then does the information begin telling a meaningful story.
Most importantly, don't become emotionally attached to your numbers.
A low HRV score doesn't automatically mean you should skip training.
Likewise, a high score doesn't guarantee you'll have a great workout.
The best training decisions combine objective information—such as HRV—with subjective information like sleep quality, soreness, motivation, stress, and how you actually feel (Plews et al., 2013).
Your wearable should support your decision-making.
It shouldn't replace it.
As I often remind my clients:
HRV is your compass, not your boss.
Use it to guide your decisions—not make them for you.
One of the greatest lessons I've learned throughout my education and coaching career is that no single recovery philosophy has all the answers.
I've been fortunate to study a variety of movement and recovery systems. I'm certified through Functional Movement Systems (FMS) and the Selective Functional Movement Assessment (SFMA), have completed multiple continuing education courses through the Postural Restoration Institute (PRI), earned the ISSA Recovery Specialist certification, and I'm also a Licensed Massage Therapist (LMT).
Each of these experiences has influenced how I think about recovery.
None of them has become my religion.
One quote by statistician George Box has stayed with me throughout my career:
"All models are wrong, but some are useful."
I believe that's one of the healthiest mindsets a coach—or anyone pursuing better health—can have.
Every framework offers another lens through which we can understand the human body. Some clients respond well to breathing and repositioning exercises influenced by the Postural Restoration Institute (PRI). Others improve dramatically by simply sleeping another hour each night, eating enough protein, improving hydration, or reducing their weekly training load.
Rather than becoming overly attached to one philosophy, I encourage people to remain curious.
Recovery isn't about proving one method is superior.
It's about discovering what consistently works for your body.
One of the biggest mistakes I see is people trying to improve everything at once.
They start tracking HRV.
Buy supplements.
Begin cold plunges.
Completely overhaul their nutrition.
Start a new stretching routine.
Meditate every evening.
Then they wonder which intervention actually improved their recovery.
The answer is simple:
They'll never know.
Instead, begin by establishing your baseline.
Spend one or two weeks simply observing your HRV, resting heart rate, sleep quality, energy levels, soreness, and training performance. Resist the urge to immediately change everything.
Allow your body to tell its story.
Only after you've established that baseline should you begin experimenting.
Choose one meaningful intervention.
Maybe it's improving your bedtime routine.
Increasing your daily protein intake.
Adding a short breathing routine before bed.
Walking after dinner.
Whatever you choose, stay consistent long enough to observe a meaningful trend before introducing another variable.
Recovery isn't about throwing spaghetti at the wall.
It's about making thoughtful decisions supported by both science and your own biology.
One athlete who stands out in my coaching career was a former NCAA Division I baseball player at Indiana University who later played semi-professional baseball in Mexico.
He wasn't battling one significant injury. Instead, he consistently described feeling sore, fatigued, and under-recovered.
Rather than searching for another recovery gadget or chasing the latest trend, we focused on the fundamentals.
Better sleep.
Improved nutrition.
Managing his training load.
Reducing unnecessary stress.
Building consistent recovery habits.
Alongside those interventions, we introduced HRV—not as the treatment itself, but as one tool to monitor how his body responded over time.
Over the following weeks and months, his HRV gradually improved, his resting heart rate trended downward, and perhaps most importantly, he consistently reported feeling more prepared for training and competition.
HRV didn't create those improvements.
The habits did.
HRV simply helped us evaluate whether our recovery plan appeared to be moving in the right direction.
That experience reinforced something I continue to believe today:
Data doesn't replace coaching. It improves coaching.
My graduate education at Lionel University played an important role in shaping how I think about recovery and performance. Exercise physiology can feel like an incredibly broad subject, but the program helped me connect concepts that I had previously viewed in isolation and apply them more effectively to the athletes and clients I work with.
One aspect I especially appreciated was learning from faculty members who continue to work in their respective fields. They didn't just teach theory—they shared practical examples of what they've seen succeed, what hasn't, and how they apply evidence in real-world settings. That encouraged me to develop my own coaching philosophy rather than simply adopting someone else's.
Perhaps the biggest lesson I took away was to remain curious. Science gives us valuable guidance, but every client is different. The goal isn't to become dogmatic about one system or one recovery strategy. It's to use evidence, experience, and thoughtful observation to help each individual discover what works best for them.
The fitness industry will continue introducing new recovery technologies, supplements, and gadgets. Some will prove valuable. Others will eventually fade away.
The fundamentals, however, rarely change.
Prioritize quality sleep.
Eat enough to support your training.
Stay hydrated.
Manage your training load.
Use wearable technology to support your decisions—not replace your judgment.
Recovery isn't about finding the perfect protocol.
It's about becoming a better observer of your own biology.
Master the fundamentals first.
Stay curious.
Make one thoughtful change at a time.
Then let the trends—not your emotions—guide your decisions.
As I often remind my clients:
HRV is your compass, not your boss.
Your body always gets the final vote.
And remember...
The greatest adaptations don't happen during your workout.
They happen during the other 23 hours.
Daniel L. Higdon, MS, CSCS, LMT holds a Master of Science in Strength & Conditioning and a Master of Science in Clinical, Corporate, and Community Wellness. He is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS), Licensed Massage Therapist (LMT), health coach, and former Army Holistic Health and Fitness (H2F) Strength & Conditioning Coach. His work focuses on helping athletes, tactical professionals, and everyday individuals improve performance, recovery, and long-term health through evidence-informed, individualized coaching.
Fullagar, H. H. K., Skorski, S., Duffield, R., Hammes, D., Coutts, A. J., & Meyer, T. (2015). Sleep and athletic performance: The effects of sleep loss on exercise performance and physiological and cognitive responses to exercise. Sports Medicine, 45(2), 161–186.
Kellmann, M., Bertollo, M., Bosquet, L., Brink, M., Coutts, A. J., Duffield, R., Halson, S. L., ... Beckmann, J. (2018). Recovery and performance in sport: Consensus statement. International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, 13(2), 240–245.
Plews, D. J., Laursen, P. B., Stanley, J., Kilding, A. E., & Buchheit, M. (2013). Training adaptation and heart rate variability in elite endurance athletes. European Journal of Applied Physiology, 113(4), 1025–1035.
Shaffer, F., & Ginsberg, J. P. (2017). An overview of heart rate variability metrics and norms. Frontiers in Public Health, 5, 258.
Watson, A. M. (2017). Sleep and athletic performance. Current Sports Medicine Reports, 16(6), 413–418.
Wiewelhove, T., Döweling, A., Schneider, C., Hottenrott, L., Meyer, T., Kellmann, M., & Ferrauti, A. (2019). A meta-analysis of the effects of foam rolling on performance and recovery. Frontiers in Physiology, 10, 376.