"From my own experience, my HRV is low when I'm not doing anything - and why wouldn't it be? I'm not _doing_ anything. I have no need for sudden changes when I'm typing on a keyboard."
It's not about whether you "have a need for sudden changes" or not, but whether the sympathetic or the parasympathetic nervous system has the upper hand. There are many reasons for why it could be one or the other, but they are usually roughly summarized as "physical or mental stress".
For instance, when you sit at your keyboard and respond to someone who is wrong on the Internet, that is likely to cause negative emotions and mental stress. This would increase sympathetic nervous system activity and as a result lower your HRV.
"Further, you can be as healthy as a marathon runner and have very low HRVs."
Marathon runners are not always equally healthy. They also get sick or stressed sometimes, and quite often they are under physical stress due to training a lot. That's why some of them observe HRV to get an indication of their readiness for high intensity training or competitions (e.g. Whoop, Garmin Recovery Advisor).
That means, just sitting at their keyboard their HRV could be high or low, depending e.g. on how well they recovered from a hard training run.
It's not about whether you "have a need for sudden changes" or not, but whether the sympathetic or the parasympathetic nervous system has the upper hand. There are many reasons for why it could be one or the other, but they are usually roughly summarized as "physical or mental stress".
For instance, when you sit at your keyboard and respond to someone who is wrong on the Internet, that is likely to cause negative emotions and mental stress. This would increase sympathetic nervous system activity and as a result lower your HRV.
"Further, you can be as healthy as a marathon runner and have very low HRVs."
Marathon runners are not always equally healthy. They also get sick or stressed sometimes, and quite often they are under physical stress due to training a lot. That's why some of them observe HRV to get an indication of their readiness for high intensity training or competitions (e.g. Whoop, Garmin Recovery Advisor).
That means, just sitting at their keyboard their HRV could be high or low, depending e.g. on how well they recovered from a hard training run.
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