Forum posts to 'Getting the most from ithlete'

Re: Shifts

glucid — Fri, 14 May 2010 14:34:03 +0000

Well I went out for an aerobic run which went really well.
Faster the average.

Looking back on former readings, whenever I did a measurement later in the day,
I always got a lower HR then in the morning.

Conclusion: no overtraining or fatigue, but a really good reading

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Re: Shifts

moderator — Fri, 14 May 2010 13:39:24 +0000

In that case, I would suggest heading out slowly on your run, and if after 10-15 mins your heart rate is still lower than usual or you feel unusually tired, I would head back home.
If your system starts to wake up properly, and your heart rate rises OK then it should be OK to pick up the pace.

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Re: Shifts

glucid — Fri, 14 May 2010 12:39:44 +0000

OK so I did another measurement
HRV = 85 HR = 60

walked down and up the stairs took a few deep breaths
and did another one
HRV = 83 HR= 60

So now I'm confused because you expected the HR to have increased

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Re: Shifts

moderator — Fri, 14 May 2010 12:22:11 +0000

That's really good input on HRV patterns and shift work - thanks. It does sound like the sudden drop in HR due to your unusually good rest is causing ithlete to indicate an abnormal value, sometimes indicative of parasympathetic overtraining. I think a way to tell for sure would be to walk around for a few minutes to get your system going out of its deep rest state and then repeat the measurement.
If you are fine, as we suspect, then your resting HR will have increased a bit into the normal range due to some adrenaline production. You can then safely delete the earlier reading on the Edit screen.
If on the other hand you were really in a state of overtraining (parasympathetic is the worst kind!) then your hormones would be exhausted and your resting HR would stay really low. Then the red indication would continue.
Have a great run!

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Re: Shifts

glucid — Fri, 14 May 2010 12:05:07 +0000

Hi,

I've been using ithlete for only 3 weeks now.
I take the measurements when I wake up which is around 5.30 am when I'm on early shifts
and around 10.00 am when I'm on the late shift.
3 days ago I changed to late shifts, but this morning I woke up early around 8 and I took a measurement
HRV = 77 HR = 73
Not feeling very rested I went back to bed and slept another 2 hours
and around 10 the measurements were
HRV = 83 HR = 65

The daily change is in red though, because of the sudden drop in HR (the days before it was mostly between 80 and 85)
but that was because I've just finished my early shift week, which obviously tires me very much
During my early shift week my HRV drops gradually and my HR increases gradually
then when I have a really good rest it suddenly changes to high HRV and low HR, which is interpreted bij ithlete as sympathetic overtraining.

But I guess keeping in mind the shift changes and my irregular sleeping pattern
that I can ignore today's red signal and have a great run, can't I ?

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Re: Shifts

moderator — Fri, 14 May 2010 10:47:58 +0000

Hi Dan

It seems artificial to wake up at 7am just to take the reading, rather than when you wake up naturally, hopefully feeling refreshed.

So I would tend to say do the reading when you wake up. Also, take a look at the post I put up yesterday about my hangover experience last weekend. That reinforces the idea that the ithlete reading will tell you when you are sufficiently recovered, so you might also consider doing a reading when you first wake up during your shift pattern, then also using that reading to help decide whether to try & sleep a little longer.

Does that make sense? Sorry I can't be fully clear on this one as there's not any research on HRV and shift patterns that I've come across.

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Re: Shifts

Danny — Fri, 14 May 2010 04:44:37 +0000

Hi,

Re shift work, can you clarify whether the reading should be taken at the same time every day (i.e 7am), or whenever you wake up regardless of the time of day?

Thanks,

Dan.

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Re: Shifts

moderator — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 19:09:17 +0000

Good question!

The research science identifies two forms of overtraining :
1. Sympathetic overtraining - this is when your morning HR can be higher than normal, and for which reduced HRV gives an early warning
2. Parasympathetic overtraining - this is when your morning HR is significantly lower than normal, and can be an indicator of real fatigue, often as a progression from the first form

ithlete identifies both kinds and gives you amber and red warnings to tell you to take it easy when appropriate, so that the first form does not become the second.
My personal experience is that I can get the second form if I either ignore the amber ithlete warning and continue to train hard without sufficient recovery, or the day after a very hard endurance event.

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Re: Shifts

glucid — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 09:56:32 +0000

Great !
My birthday is coming up so I've put Ipod and ithlete on top of my wishlist.

I wonder if it could also help me out with the following:
sometimes I have a low HR in the morning, but when I start my run
my breathing is to fast and my HR shoots up for a relatively slow run (very frustrating).
I guess that my body is often more fatigued then I realise.

So fatigue doesn't allways give a higher rest HR ?

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Re: Shifts

moderator — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 21:18:24 +0000

Hi
For sure there are natural variations in HRV during the day, but at least some of these are related to the time relative to when you were asleep. So in general the measurement you make will relate to how well you have recovered during that sleep, even if the hours are not regular every day. The shift patterns (I used to work 12hr shifts years ago) do represent a potential additional source of stress, from which you need to recover.
So if you do the ithlete test just after you wake up, and before eating or drinking (especially coffee / tea) then ithlete measurements should still be valuable to you.
If you do decide to go ahead & try it, feel free to share your findings on the Forum for all to see.

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Shifts

glucid — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 12:48:13 +0000

Hi,

I don't have ithlete YET.
But I was wondering as I work in shifts my sleep cycle really suffers from this,
so I guess I could really benefit from this tool.
But I will not be able to have my measurements on the same time, it will differ from shift to shift.

How reliable will the info from ithlete be in my case ?

Cheers

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