Navigating the Nervous System: A Ten Week Heart Rate Variability Program
Welcome to a ten-week deep dive into all things breathing, heart rate variability, and optimizing the health of our nervous system.
The heart, brain, and respiratory system are intrinsically linked. They work in unison, but they do not always work in synergy. Our breathing rate can be sporadic and elevated, even when our brain is telling us to chill out. Our heart can beat rapidly even when we are lying in bed and attempting to go the sleep.
Heart rate variability training is a tool for improving the communication between these critical systems of the body and allowing them to work in unison.
When the systems of the body are working together and all metrics are in alignment with the energy demands of the task at hand, we call this physiological resonance. Another way to look at physiological resonance is to view it as a state in which both parts of our autonomic nervous system-the parasympathetic and sympathetic-are in balance with one another.
Training this state through longer bouts of focused breathing not only decreases stress and balances the systems of our body during the 20 minute sessions it creates systemic changes in our baseline for stress, anxiety, and biases us towards improved energy, increased mental clarity, and performance readiness.
In the video below we give a brief overview of how we’ve used heart rate variability training and what we hope to share with you through this offering for Physiology First University!
Overview of the program:
Breathing for Your Body:
How the Program Works:
The program consists of two 20 minute breathing sessions per day over the course of ten weeks. This is a program built off of the foundation of Dr. Leah Largos’s phenomenal work on heart rate variability training. We modify the protocols slightly due to what we’ve learned in the study of respiratory physiology and our personal experience working with clients, athletes, and students through this practice. Our approach allows flexibility to modify breathing patterns throughout the 20 minute time-block as our tolerance to carbon dioxide changes as our body becomes more relaxed.
We will be monitoring the impact of the program in our own lives through data from Oura. We will share this data as the program progresses and encourage anyone involved to track a few key metrics-no wearable technology required.
Resting heart rate upon waking and mood are two of the easiest things to keep track of without any technology. Just take your pulse in the morning when you wake up and track any changes over the next ten weeks.
If you miss a session or miss a day-that is totally ok. We are committed to the twice a day program ourselves, but the chances are that some days will be more conducive to this practice than others and forcing yourself to do a 20 minute breathing session while laying in bed after a long day is not in line with the programs goals ;)
We will share tips that we find helpful for adding bouts of focused breathing to our day and tips on breathing function as the program progresses! We hope that you enjoy the course and we look forward to learning more about our bodies, breath, and brain through this ten week exploration of heart rate variability training!
We created this twenty minute breathing loop to use for the program. Please, feel free to use it as a guide, or to find your own favorite music, timer, or intuitive approach to focused breathing. We created the digital heartbeat that beats like a metronome every two seconds to make breath counting feasible without being visually distracting. We’ve found it helpful to be aware of the changes in patterns and even changes in baseline starting point from session to session without fixating too much of breathing to a specific cadence. We will usually begin with a 4 or 6 second exhalation (2 to 3 heartbeats) and a slightly longer exhalation and alter this pattern as feels natural throughout the twenty minute session, often finding both inhalation and exhalation lengthening throughout the session.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/jzx4mzfebu8brp5/20%20minute%20jupiter%20loop.mp3?dl=0
Next week we will cover ideas on building an antifragile breathing practice which will include different breathing strategies for HRV training sessions and a deeper dive into how to interpret some of the metrics.
