Why your recovery scores may not be what they seem depending on your cycle.
Many women tell me that they use heart rate variability (HRV)—the variance in time between beats of your heart—for tracking recovery. HRV is the metric that Whoop Strap, Oura Ring, and other recovery tracking devices use to tell you how rested or ready you are. It’s a good indicator, but, like many physiological factors, female hormones affect it, so that number is not telling you the whole story—and sometimes it’s telling a false story.
Your HRV is the result of the interplay between the parasympathetic (rest-and-digest) and sympathetic (fight-or-flight) branches of your autonomic nervous system. It describes the variability in the time between your heartbeats. When your HRV increases, that means your body is resilient to stress. When it decreases, you have less stress resilience.
