The power of heart rate variability lies in its ability to reveal shortcomings or successes of personalized treatment plans, training programs, or lifestyle choices. As powerful as HRV can be, simply measuring it without taking action will NOT improve your health and fitness.
To help empower you, we created the below curated list of tools and websites to use alongside Elite HRV. Through our personal experience, research, and consulting with experts, we have narrowed it to tools we believe are most useful for your health and performance journey.
Courses – Level Up Your KnowledgeThe Foundations of Heart Rate Variability course covers the foundational science and practical application of Heart Rate Variability in a way that’s accessible to health and fitness enthusiasts, coaches, performance consultants, and healthcare and wellness practitioners.
This course will help you answer your HRV questions such as “What is the link between HRV, health, performance and disease?”, “What’s the difference between various HRV analysis methods like Time Domain, Frequency Domain, and Nonlinear?” and “How can I strategically use HRV to optimize training and performance while reducing stress?”.
With over three and a half hours of video content in easy-to-digest modules, cheat sheets, reference documents, Q&A webinars, and access to instructors through an easy to use portal, you’ll learn how to accurately measure and analyze HRV to recover faster, reduce stress, and objectively measure your health and fitness.
PodcastsUncommon methods for maximizing health and performance with an emphasis on real-world implementation of Heart Rate Variability and other insightful biomarkers. From biohacking to quantified self, world class doctors, coaches and athletes cover the latest research (from the lab and field), and the methods and “tricks” that get the best results.
Striving to bring a diverse look at the uses of HRV and other biomarkers, we are joined by the doctors, leading HRV researchers, elite and Olympic-level sport scientists, metabolism hackers, data scientists, rehabilitation specialists, and more.
Revolution Health Radio debunks mainstream myths on nutrition and health and delivers cutting-edge, yet practical information on how to prevent and reverse disease naturally.
We love how Chris Kresser addresses issues that are ailing many people that have been let down by modern medicine. He does thorough research and is always armed with research and clinical experience. We have found him to be a sound resource.
Hosts Autumn and Chas Smith of the Paleovalley Team discuss health, fitness, and longevity with a myriad of expert guests. Topics range from using diet to cure illness to using HRV to optimize your diet and life. Our CEO, Jason, is a two time guest on the podcast as well as an avid listener.
Check out this podcast to learn different ways you can start living a healthier life today.
Books to Teach and Inspire YouThis book compiles decades of Stephen Porges’ research in psychophysiology and neuroscience. The Polyvagal Theory is one of the most comprehensive examinations of the influence of the Vagus nerves on the physiological and psychological. The book is technical and academic and therefore not for everyone. But if you are wanting to understand more about the biology and physiology of the Autonomic Nervous System and in particular the Vagus Nerve (the mechanism behind Heart Rate Variability), then this book is an excellent resource.
This may be the most important single book you ever read on diet, nutrition and lifestyle change.
Wired To Eat explains how more willpower and better discipline are not the missing pieces to health and fat loss. Our genetics are working against us in the modern world of super tasty foods. In this new book you will learn about neuroregulation of appetite and how hyperpalatable foods can bypass our built in “off switch”, causing us to eat far more than we otherwise would. The genes that made our ancestors successful are setting us up for troubles today. You will learn how sleep, gut health, stress, exercise and community can work with or against our goals of health and leanness.
With Wired To Eat you’ll embark on a program to rewire your appetite and regain your health. We will start with a 30 Day Reset that will normalize the neuroregulation of appetite and help us not only to eat the right amount, but also begin to appreciate simple but delicious meals. After the 30 Day Reset we will use the 7 Day Carb Test to map what specific carbohydrate foods we do best (and worst) with. This will move us beyond one-size-fits-all dietary dogma and into the modern world of Personalized Nutrition.
Wired To Eat includes over 60 whole-food recipes and includes meal plans for the 30 Day Reset as well as for autoimmune and ketogenic diets.
Learn more on this interview with author Robb Wolf on the Elite HRV Podcast.
One of the first things people learn about HRV is how it is related to and can measure systemic stress, stress tolerance, and resiliency. So, it is no surprise that one of our recommended books is about coping with stress, or rather changing your perception of stress. Something that many people don’t know is that your perception of stress and mindset have a significant influence on your body’s physiological response to “stress”. There is evidence even showing that by changing your perception of stress and improving your mindset, you can increase your HRV – and overall health.
So what if your main goal is to just improve your performance? Well, stress is cumulative; if you are wanting to optimize your training and recovery, you have to address and minimize the other stressors in your life outside of training so your body can prioritize recovering and adapting from the positive stressor that counts for you – training.
Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff is a great book for helping you change your mindset and look at situations in a new light that is stress-reducing. What we like about this book is that the stress-reducing strategies are presented in very short, digestible chapters that make it easy to start applying them to real life. Outside of the HRV benefits that stress-reduction can have, practicing some of strategies in this book can just open your mind and lead to a happier, more fulfilled life.
Other Useful Tools to Get You to the Next LevelIn most grocery stores, it can be difficult to find the type of high-quality snacks and supplements for your family. There is a huge variety of “health food” as well as “natural supplements” to choose from, but we all know that labels can be deceiving or confusing.
Paleovalley creates products that live up to strict standards (only clean healthful ingredients and manufacturing processes) while prioritizing health and integrity over profit. They strive to inspire people to view every dietary choice for what it really is: a profound opportunity to love and care for oneself. Click on the links to the right to check out some of their products.
Paleovalley 100% Grass-fed beef sticks and pasture raised turkey sticks are a great on-the-go snack. Not only are they free from hidden trans-fats and preservatives, but grass-fed beef contains much higher levels of omega-3s and other nutrients than conventional beef. And more omega-3s means better brain health and less inflammation.
You may know that grass-fed organ meat is a great way to get the nutrients you need in their most bioavailable form, but you also may not enjoy preparing or consuming organ meat. Their Grass-fed Organ Complex is a great solution; it’s nothing but pure, freeze-dried, grass fed beef organs – nature’s most potent source of vitamin A and countless other nutrients!
If you’re trying to get more vitamin C (to fight off a cold, support your immune system, or simply become more healthy), Paleovalley has done the research to find the ideal supplement. Unlike most alternatives (like oranges), Paleovalley’s Vitamin C supplement is derived from acerola cherries, which contain far more Vitamin C and far less sugar than oranges while also being loaded with more than a dozen cancer-fighting antioxidants.
After addressing diet, sleep, and other lifestyle choices, it may be beneficial to boost your results through nutritional supplementation. Taylor MD Formulations is a great supplement line that supports proper Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) function, hormone production, and gut microbiome. The Vagus Nerve, a part of the ANS and the main physiological mechanism behind Heart Rate Variability, specifically needs the right mix of amino acids and micronutrients that are commonly depleted in people with low HRV. Read this post to learn more about nutritional deficiencies and their affects on ANS function, HRV, and disease manifestation and how sometimes supplementation is necessary to restore the body’s function and improve HRV and health.
What we love about the Taylor MD Formulations products is that they were designed with natural ingredients, are FDA registered (most supplements are not), and they were developed to restore the ANS balance and increase Heart Rate Variability by physicians with over 20 years of clinical experience using Heart Rate Variability. The package we recommend (you can see it by clicking the “Try the Supplements” button) is specifically designed to support ANS function and fill in common nutritional deficiencies for people with lower than average HRV.
Before digging into the awesome resources we know and trust, an important disclosure:
Some of these links are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, we will earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you. Please understand that we have experience with all of these companies, and we recommend them because they are helpful and useful, not because of the commissions we make if you decide to buy something. Please do not spend any money on these products unless you feel you need them or that they will help you achieve your goals.