How To Take a Morning Readiness Reading
To get an accurate HRV reading, you need:
- The Elite HRV mobile app (free download), link: https://elitehrv.com/app
- Accurate and compatible hardware: https://elitehrv.com/compatible-devices
Once you have the app and accurate hardware, here is how to get the most out of your HRV reading:
- Make sure there are no big distractions. A mostly quiet room is best, but small things don’t matter too much in most cases.
- Sit or lie down in the same position each time
Sitting on a chair, bench, or bed is fine as well. Standing still is OK if you can stand comfortably.
(In rare cases with very high aerobic fitness and/or very low resting heart rates, it may be difficult to get accurate readings while lying down - this event is called "parasympathetic saturation". We recommend sitting or standing in these cases)
Next, connect your heart rate monitor to the Elite HRV app:
- If you are using the CorSense (link), then place the pad of your finger on the sensor window
- If you are using a chest strap heart rate monitor, then apply tap water, mineral water, or strap gel onto your chest strap, and adjust the chest strap to a tight but not uncomfortable setting
Next, start your Morning Readiness reading.
- The app has a "Live Preview" feature that can be toggled off or on. This allows you to give your heart rate a chance to level out if you just sat down or stood up. You can let the Live Preview run for as long as you like before you tap "Start Reading." The data shown in the Live Preview will not be used in the reading calculation.
- Make sure to breathe normally and do not purposely breathe deeply or follow a specific pattern.
- For more information on common mistakes made when measuring HRV, see the 8 biggest mistakes made when measuring HRV here: The 8 Biggest Mistakes Made When Measuring Heart Rate Variability
Finally, when the reading ends, tag any relevant sleep, exercise, or other data, and tap Save to view your results.
After taking several Morning Readiness readings, you will start to see an automatically generated gauge of relative Autonomic Balance based on your individual patterns of stress and recovery and changes in HRV over time.
