How To Improve Your HRV

If you decide your HRV is not quite where you want it to be, there are plenty of ways to improve your HRV score.

Some common methods include:

1. Exercise

Exercise is essential for overall health. Pay attention to your body and focus on balancing regular training and recovery to increase your HRV. Don’t push too hard or ignore it when you’re tired or in pain. Have active recovery days with activities like walking or yoga to incorporate movement with minimal stress.

2. Eat Well

A review of the impact of diet on HRV found that HRV can determine the positive or negative impact of diet on overall health. Processed food and sugar can wreak havoc on your body and boost stress hormones, both of which will negatively affect your HRV. Aim to eat whole, fresh, anti-inflammatory foods that nourish your body. Consider adjusting your micronutrients or taking supplements to boost your HRV. Nutrition isn’t just about what you eat — pay attention to when you eat, too. Eating at predictable times is a great way to establish a healthy HRV.

3. Drink More Water

Dehydration is a sure-fire way to put unnecessary physical and mental stress on the body. Your heart rate and blood pressure both increase when your body is dehydrated. Keep a water bottle handy to decrease your risk.

4. Limit Your Alcohol Intake

Just a single night of drinking can negatively impact your HRV by decreasing Parasympathetic Nervous System (PSNS) activation. When PSNS activation is limited, your body does not recover properly.

5. Prioritise Sleep

A night of tossing and turning can trigger your sympathetic nervous system. Appropriate quality and quantity of rest, on the other hand, encourage your parasympathetic nervous system to kick into gear. HRV scores can be used to screen people with sleep disorders. If you consistently have trouble sleeping and have low HRV scores, consult a doctor to determine whether you have a condition that disrupts your sleep.

6. Prioritise Mental Health

Stress isn’t just emotional — it creates physical changes in your body by activating the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS).

If you live a high-stress lifestyle or you’re struggling with anxiety or depression, it will impact your body and overall health. Reach out to a therapist to address your mental health. The connection and encouragement signal a sense of safety to your body, which helps you better recover from stress.

7. Build emotional resilience

Learning how to control your emotions can also help improve HRV scores. Positive and negative feelings can directly impact HRV. When you feel negative emotions coming on, take a few deep breaths and work to control those feelings. Various breathing exercises can help you relax and may help when dealing with difficult emotions.

8. Breathe

HRV biofeedback breathing (HRV-BF), also called HRV training, is one of the most important and effective tools for boosting health. You can increase your HRV by using a feedback or breath-pacing device to slow your breathing, which helps increase the variability of your heart rate. One technique requires you to slow down your breathing to six breaths per minute.

9. Meditate

Meditation is another powerful technique to reduce stress and improve HRV scores. Some meditation methods teach you to focus on your breathing or the sensations throughout your body. Find one you like so you’ll be better able to commit to it.

Updated on: 03/11/2022