The ithlete blog
Welcome to the ithlete blog, the central place to get the latest company news, read real user stories, get our take on heart rate variability news and research, get top tips on using ithlete and share your thoughts.
Featured post
What makes ithlete special?
ithlete has been copied by many imitators since 2009, but as we continue to develop and innovate no one competitor has achieved the combination of easy to access ithlete’s features and benefits.
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Are you Inflamm-Aging well?
What is inflamm-aging? And what can you do to ensure you’re inflamm-aging well? A reseaarch summary of the origional paper and how tracking HRV relates.
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5 ways to improve your Heart Rate Variability (HRV)
Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is an excellent measure of overall health and fitness. Upward trends have consistently been shown to correlate with increases in health, fitness and sporting performance. So how do you get your baseline rising?
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What can HRV tell us about pre-competitive anxiety and performance?
There has also been a large amount of research into the relationship between HRV and stress. The most common and important source of stress to athletes is pre-competitive anxiety and it is not known to what extent this impairs their performance.
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Detecting Chronic vs Acute fatigue in Mountain Athletes
We recently came across an article highlighting difficulties when trying to identify chronic fatigue using HRV. The authors graciously gave us the opportunity to reply, which is now is part of the revised article, and here are our final thoughts.
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Why ithlete? Know when to train and when to rest
There are many great reasons to choose ithlete, so many that we’ve written a blog series looking at why we do things the way we do. Follow the series to learn more about the type and length of measurement, how breathing influences your HRV and much more. In an earlier...
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Why ithlete? – Recording Training Load
Recording Training Load alongside your heart rate variability measurements adds context and better feeds the Simon Says AI training guidance. Read about how best to do so here.
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Why ithlete? Adding context to HRV with Wellness metrics
Many people enjoy watching their HRV number fall after hard training, followed by a rebound a day or two later can be very satisfying. They also notice the impact of a late night for example, or a short illness. But it’s not always that simple to interpret the cause of changes.
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Why ithlete? Colour coded guidance
Understand how the ithlete baseline is calculated, what the daily training recommendations are and how you get to these.
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Why ithlete? The HRV scoring system
We needed a measure that was scientifically credible from a 1 minute measurement and was intuitive for the user. Here is why our patented lnRMSSDx20 formula fitted the bill.
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Fatigue – is it all in the mind?
Who, what & why? Everyone reading this will be familiar with the sensation of gradually increasing effort to maintain the same pace whilst running or power output whilst cycling or rowing. But what exactly contributes to this sensation? And what can we do (safely)...
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Why ithlete? The choice of sensor
There are many great reasons to choose ithlete, so many that we’ve written a blog series looking at why we do things the way we do. Follow the series to learn more about the type and length of measurement, how breathing influences your HRV and much more. The different...
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Why ithlete? The one minute measure
The second installment in our Why ithlete? series looks at the ultra short 1 min measurement. Why we chose it, how it was validated and is now best practice
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Why ithlete? The importance of paced breathing
When you breathe in your heart beats faster, and when you breathe out, it slows down again. For this reason, we ask you to follow paced breathing whilst we measure your heart rate variability (HRV).
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Better is Better
Like so many coaches out there, I’ve coached a fair share of athletes who subscribe to the “more is better” mindset. Over my years in the endurance world, I’ve definitely learned to subscribe to the “more is not better; better is better” philosophy. Why? Because...
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Can daily HRV monitoring predict the incidence of injury in CrossFit™ athletes?
Although undoubtedly effective in developing strength and fitness, CrossFit also has a reputation for overuse injuries. Can tracking HRV reduce this risk?
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