Why You Should Understand Your Heart Rate Variability

What is heart rate variability? Why do we care? Heart rate variability is maybe the biometric we should care most about. It reflects the state of our autonomic nervous system and our physiology. We have the autonomic nervous system divided in two parts, the parasympathetic part and the sympathetic part. And the good thing is that the heart rate will reveal whether we are in the parasympathetic state or in the sympathetic state. When we are in the parasympathetic state, when we breathe in and the lungs filled with oxygen, the heart speeds up a little bit. And when we breathe out and there's less oxygen, it slows down a little bit. Measured in milliseconds. If we are in the stressful state, for whatever reason, whether it's mental or physical or physiological, the heart will beat at this steady pace, like a metronome, like a clock, regardless of we are breathing in or out. And in this way, the wearables like the whoop band, the Garmin watches and Oura rings, and all of this new technology can tell us whether we are in this, in the stressful state or the restful state. And if our overall balance is compatible with health.