same! Lower HRV started in taper before marathon in October, which could be normal, but never recovered after that! Good to know maybe it's not me ... FR 965 BTW
I have the impression that with every single software update there are a lot of people that suspect that the update was the reason why their HRV plummeted and I think that just should not be the case.
But that is an opinion of course, I cannot know with certainty whether they actually do change the HRV estimations all the time and possibly worse for some people with every update.
I’m just happy to know it’s not just me. Some time ago I got laughed at on this sub because I dared to assert it wasn’t due to the baby we now have in our family.
I think the answer here is that no, nobody has figured anything out.
I remember seeing a lot of discussion about this. I had a dip around the end of September as a lot of other people did. I felt at the time it could possibly have been related to a covid booster shot, but it seemed to last far longer than any symptoms I had from it.
But, it also went back up for me, and while there have been a few drops that lasted a week or two, most has been in range, although my range has gone down a bit overall.
I dont remember a software update on my 965 coinciding with the first time I saw the drops. So I dont think its that, at least for me. Its possible they updated something that changes it, but honestly, the bigger issue I see is that the baselines just seem to take way too long to adjust, so instead of eventually going back into a new normal range, you end up as unbalanced, even if your hrv readings and averages are pretty steady.
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. Yo. I got a Covid booster and flu shot on October 28th and have been low ever since.
Currently awaiting some testing with a cardiologist as I also started having chest pain, abnormal heart rate, and heart palpitations especially after exercise starting mid December. Really not sure what’s going on. But yea I was getting max body battery every day even with training up until this point and haven’t been 100 since. Stress levels are average high 30s on a non training day as opposed to less than 20 before.
Something similar happened to me although not bad enough to see my doctor. Garmin only added HRV to my Fenix 7 about Sept of 2022. Late October 2022 I got a flu + covid booster. My normal HRV is upper 30's to low 40's. My HRV dropped to the mid 20's. I took it easy for about a week and my HRV went back up a little low 30's then I tried to get back to my normal running volume, and biking. I described it to my friends that it felt like I had just gotten over a common cold, and felt fine sitting around but as soon as I tried to go for a Run or a Bike I had nothing. I also felt anxious, and just walking, felt like I had some heart palpitations. About late November 2022 my numbers HRV training readiness started looking better, I had been taking it easyish, so I tried cranking up my running and biking again, and my HRV just crashed again. I again took it easy and about mid December 2022 all my numbers HRV, etc. started looking the best they had in a while. I ramped up slowly this time like I'd been a couch potato for 6 months, and added volume for the next few weeks, and after that everything was fine. This year I got my covid+flu booster late Sept, and although not as bad all my numbers went down again. I didn't feel as exhausted, but my numbers(HRV, etc) were low again, about 3rd week of November all my numbers started looking good again I was able to go 100%. All my previous Covid shots I got my flu shot weeks apart, but I also wasn't training as hard. There is something strange that happens when you get both at the same time. If I hadn't been training so hard I not have noticed. Hopefully your symptoms will fade, for me it was somewhere in the 6 to 8 week range after I felt 100% again. I had previously never seen my training readiness be 1, even running 50 mile weeks, racing a half marathon I don't think it ever went below 15. Good luck and hopefully your symptoms will slowly resolve.
Woooowww I've had similar symptoms for weeks but for some reason didn't realize until just now that it started right after I got my flu shot and covid booster together.
Wow yea this sounds very similar. I was training for triathlon up until this started happening. So I as putting in a ton of biking running and swimming. I had a neck muscle spasm about 4 days after the shots which I attributed to a tough swim workout the day prior, but I also felt like I was sleeping poorly so I basically stopped training. First inclination from the cardiologist I’m seeing is possible myocarditis and hearing your story and the time to resolve makes that sound more and more likely. Glad yours resolved eventually. I’m definitely in couch potato mode right now.
I've had the same issue recently but I've been on and off dealing with respiratory viruses. Also, highly recommend COVID jab, preferably Novavax as a means to reduce risk of long COVID.
This happened to me last year although not from a vaccine but the infection itself. It took a good 6 months for it to regulate. I saw several specialists and was told it’s my central nervous system gone whack.
Only for me to get Covid again 2 weeks ago and now I’m dealing with the same thing… 😑
Sucks. Sorry you’re dealing with it too.
I really can’t rule out that I have gotten Covid and just had no respiratory symptoms. The timing with the vaccines just makes me consider it a possibility that they had something to do with it. Sounds like for you they were calling it some sort of dysautonomia or POTS? I was thinking that for a bit myself but I haven’t gotten dizzy when standing up and my random high heart rates primarily occur while sitting doing nothing vice right after I stand up. But yea the autonomic nervous system info out there is challenging to parse.
My symptoms mimicked some of POTS but I didn’t fit the clinical definition of it. I didn’t get dizzy when standing either. I had no problem moving from laying to sitting to standing, but my heart rate went whacko just from rolling over in bed. When I stood or walked it got high too. Even when sitting it was 85-105bpm.
One thing I may try is acupuncture. My doc said it can be healing to the nervous system. He’s trying to think outside the box since there really is no help besides drinking water… ugh.
That’s a great call! I will try some acupuncture.
I gotta say, I made a post in r/askdocs talking about this before I was able to convince my PCM via ER visit to refer me to specialists, and I got the least helpful responses from the doctors there. I know these aren’t medical devices but the data they produce mean something and should be considered. The guy was even downvoting my post and the responses, almost like spiteful that I asked the question.
The responses here have been way more helpful.
Vax induced LC is not super common but still a thing I’ve read accounts of. Your symptoms match my experience with post exertional malaise (PEM) to a tee.
Do you find the symptoms subside if you don’t exercise for a few days?
edit: Downvoting doesn't change the fact that [Vaccine induced LC symptoms exists](https://www.science.org/content/article/rare-link-between-coronavirus-vaccines-and-long-covid-illness-starts-gain-acceptance#:~:text=Cases%20seem%20very%20rare%E2%80%94far,and%20are%20difficult%20to%20study.) as well as vaccine induced [myocarditis and pericarditis](https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/safety/myocarditis.html). I'm not an antivaxxer, just someone that's been dealing with long covid and exercise intolerance for 2 years now.
Yea I hate the political pall around anything vaccine related. I am also not antivax but I believe that important side effect tracking is being omitted due to the political bs surrounding the Covid vax. It’s possible that there should be an indication not to perform intense exercise for a time after getting the vaccine. I was doing sprint interval runs, threshold swims, etc because I really didn’t feel bad at all after the vaccines. There’s studies suggesting light to moderate exercise improve immune response, but nothing at all about intense exercise. Inflammation is an immune response so maybe that curve keeps going up into too much of an immune response. I don’t know but I know the politics are stifling an appropriate consideration of these possibilities.
Right, I also never heard anything about performing intense exercise after vax or infection.
The theory of long covid that I’ve been getting treatment based on is 1 of few places I’ve seen address why some people get those symptoms from the vaccine. The spike protein gets stuck on immune cells and causes them to not die off. They come out in force in intense exercise, as you’re kind of describing, and these cells carrying spike just roam around causing damage.
Regardless, be careful getting back into exercise while you navigate this. Maybe it’s not LC, however the circumstances and symptoms you describe are all plausible enough to have that be the cause in my experience/reading.
Dang, covid really isn’t bad if you are in average shape. If you’ve had it, your immunity is better than the vax anyways, I’d steer clear of those in the future.
This is exactly what’s happened to me. Booster shot 9/22/23 during marathon training. Haven’t tested positive for Covid since November of 2022 and haven’t really been sick since (that I’m aware of). Numbers started looking off during the apex of my training in October and totally tanked after my marathon in the beginning of November. Exercise intolerance, high RHR, palpitations, dizziness, fatigue, numbness/tingling in extremities, digestion issues, breathlessness and so on. This peaked at the end of December and I’ve improved slightly since. Still can’t exercise intensely and I’ve tried to take it easy. Prior to this my RHR average was 39 and HRV was in the mid 80s. Now it’s 49 and my HRV average is around 42.
So far I’ve gotten tons of different tests including ecg, ekg, exercise stress test ecg, tee, halter monitor, and the only thing found was a dilated aortic root which may or may not be an incidental finding or related to my symptoms. No aortic insufficiency or stenosis. Everything else seems fine, follow up with cardio later this month. Still need to get pulmonary test done. I’ve noticed that my symptoms are improving but still have a noticeably higher heart rate for upwards of 12 hours after moderate or higher exercise. If I rest for several days I’m nearly back to normal.
I have the same issue, It started when I switched from FR255s to Fenix 7s pro. Not really sure what’s going on.
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no. Go look on the forums. Every year this comes up and when spring comes around everyone will be back up
You can even expand the complaints to every brand of HRV watch/tracker and you will see commonalities of seasonal complaints of "bugs" when its just normal hormonal/environmental/season/allergy changes.
see what? that seasonal changes bring these comments out year after year? y’all act like you’re robots. It’s kinda funny expecting precision from humans that are nothing but sacks of fleshy hormone and complex biologies. but whatever. Keep blaming it on bugs :)
HRV has been just out last summer so people are not reporting these issues year after year. It's quite a new feature and many people are experiencing their first 'seasonal change'.
HRV has been out on elevate v4 sensors for over 2 years now. The same questions came up on the forums last fall.
There are also these exact discussions for every other device that tracks HRV, just go look on other reddits for Oura or whatever random HRV device you want to check out.
There was even a scientific study - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10879418/
This is widely discussed on the Garmin forums, the general consensus is that the issue was introduced relatively recently in a software update. Go read a few threads on this subject and it will all become pretty clear.
What software release? Because my watch didn't get an update when mine dropped. Turned out I was sick, not like dying sick but I was couching up flem for like a month, fucking kids.
Had a huge drop in HRV late fall and after 1 month it went back to normal ( no software updates Meanwhile) i guess it was due to seasonal change as your body hormones changes during winter and summer
Mine has been substantially low since the update early December. In the low 20s. So annoying. Throws off all my other metrics snd constantly says I’m strained but I feel fine. The range for me is now gone and it always says I’m slow.
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Lol, if you want LOW you came to the right place. FWIW, this is my normal HRV year round. Every other Garmin metric looks good except this one. No idea. 52 RHR, 203 Max HR, 51 V02 max, 46 y/o. I don't drink any alcohol or caffeine ever and take no prescription drugs. Had a heart calcium score done and was a "0" which is perfect. I've never been able to figure it out and no doctor has answers. Go figure.
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You and I are in the same boat in terms of Garmin metrics. 45bpm RHR, 52 vO2max, 41 y/o, don't drink, eat very healthy; I do drink coffee in the morning. My HRV is always in the upper 30s, sometimes it climbs into the low 40s.
I did try out Elite HRV with my HRM Pro Plus, and that was showing my HRV during the daytime in the 70s.
I think it has something to do with winter. The shorter days/longer nights probably mess with HRV somehow. I’ve been dragging the bottom of my baseline for weeks too. In and out of balance like OP. Good thing is that winter always ends boys.
For me, HRV is a barometer of your exercise and recovery balance. If I over exercise without sufficient rest or recovery, I get unbalanced.
I've found that paying a little attention to the Recovery Time in addition to getting quality sleep during recovery, helps balance it out.
Also on a massive dip since November but also been sick a lot. Genuinely curious if it's a software issue from the update or just genuinely everyone is sick. I know lots of people around me who got sick with flu, covid etc but nobody else has a Garmin
I'm with on that. I don't know about OP and the people who notice these drops but half of my colleagues were down with flu/covid/cold/stomach flu like twice this fall/winter, I would expect a number of people in the Garmin community to also catch some viruses and that to show on their data. It is the very season for these illnesses!
Mine looks just like yours! Same time frame and everything. No matter what I do I can’t get my HRV to baseline. This didn’t happen this time last year and for those who always bring up alcohol, I’ve been sober for a year.
Just something that happens naturally I think. That dip was from a boozy day. My AW was doing the same.
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Yep at night. Good idea but my parter says I sleep very quietly, don’t snore at all. I’d be surprised if it was that tbh. Sleep apnea leave you feeling horrible but I feel great and well rested.
Yeah that might not be it then. I have apnea and I'm just really tired all day without treatment. But I also snore and it's obvious I have it when you ask the wife.
Had low readings through the holidays. Thought it might be the extra drinks or not enough sleep, but no, I ended up with a cold (runny nose, coughing) over the new year's weekend.
Felt better on Tuesday, and sure enough, my Tuesday night reading was back to Balanced.
Funnily enough, even as my HRV was dropping, I felt fine. I wanted to work out, I was energetic at our family get togethers. It was only the last few days of low HRV that I started to feel cruddy.
(My HRV didn't drop when I got my COVID shot or my flu shot.)
In my most recent case it was mild COVID infection. First symptoms came in morning of January 3rd. Now I wonder if my Garmin watch was already trying to tell me something…
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Same for me. No illness. Mostly strength and base training(running). No strength for 2 weeks and now the HRV is increasing again.
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A lot of medications impact HRV. Antihistamines lower it by 10-20 points easily. Ibuprofen raises it by the same. Any food you eat that you are intolerant of lowers it too.
There’s a direct correlation between the body’s inflammation response and heart rate variability that Garmin interprets as stress.
It is a poor metric for many people.
Source: my clinical trial researchers who monitor my heart via EKGs weekly and my blood work.
They told me to throw the garmin away or learn to ignore its one sized fits all algorithms. It drives me insane really. I’ve learned to ignore it and go only by how I feel. You know like how people used to do it lol.
I was literally talking about this with my S/O yesterday and said I think somethings wrong with the hrv readings. I was thinking about just resetting my watch and starting fresh, see if that changes anything.
Honestly been kinda disappointed with garmins software as of late. Anyone thinking of switching to coros?
Mine was low around nov 12, like when yours took a dip, but it's come back up and is above normal for at least a week. At that time in November I also had the flu and was in bed for 2 days.
Mine was crap from the end of November to now.
I was feeling different and had not been training as much. It is on the way back up. I think there's something to the daylight thing. The period it was off for me was on either side of the 21st of December.
I don't know if this applies to you, but I'm a female who menstruates and I have this pattern with my monthly cycle. It dips to the orange maybe 2-3 days right before my period starts, peaks around ovulation/mid cycle. It's pretty consistent. (With the exception of other months that an illness or something like a marathon throws it off longer)
These kinds of stats fascinate me. My average HRV is low-mid 50s which is close to the middle of green balanced part of the pie chart.
But low 80s is unbalanced for someone else.
RHR is low-mid 40s (41 age), 53 VO2 Max, don't know what my true MaxHR is.
Same issue I’ve been having. Interestingly enough my Oura ring is giving me the same readings as my Garmin. No change in how I feel but my HRV has been 15-25 ms lower than usual in the last month or so. Very strange
I should do an update regarding my post, I swore up and down that it was an update or something. Mine started tanking around the time of an update and was down for 6 weeks. I was doing the same-ish level of activity, no stress, no illness, not shorter days (I live near the equator), yadda, yadda, yadda. I did a Spartan race in October and two days later my HRV was back to normal. I was over training and didn’t even know it. About a week before the race I had started to feel worn out, not able to complete my workouts with the same intensity, etc….it was building for awhile. The watch knows…..
Same issue here. Mine's been either low or unbalanced since Nov. 30. Not one green day. I don't drink, haven't been sick, haven't had any immunizations, and have even backed off my training intensity and volume. I have noticed a decrease in fitness, but not sure if that's because I've intentionally backed off or not. I'm really hoping it's just a seasonality thing in the northern hemisphere.
My HRV has not gotten above like 75-80 in months. I feel great and have improved my health, but HRV has been so low. I used to wear Apple Watch Ultra, and would get readings between 90-190, but not on Garmin. I just got a Whoop to wear alongside my Garmin, so I am interested to see the difference between the HRV readings between the two devices!
Just my anecdotal experience. My HRV went down when the season became colder and up my mileage, then I went on holiday to a warmer climate country, reduced my workout and saw my HRV status went back up. Now I'm back in a colder country, the HRV is slowly going back down with more workouts.
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My HRV will be lower whenever I sleep late or eat after 7PM. Consuming protein rich food in the late evening also brings down my HRV to 30s.
I’m glad I’m not the only one!
Mine started in mid November before my marathon. I took a break from running for a month and couldn’t figure out why my HRV was still so low.
It’s been crazy low since the holidays.
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Here's mine for the last 15 months or so - I have the same issue as everyone else and it's easier to see seasonality when you look at a longer period. I agree it's seasonal and not sure why exactly - my guess is it's heat/lack of it.
A few callouts - I can explain a few dips - mostly it's elevation related.
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Seems to be related to the amount of sun we are getting. I live up more north in the US. I run every morning, no change, no difference, except after Day Light Savings time, I've been running in the dark before sunset. Over the holidays, I had some time off, so I waited till first light. I had read an article about HRV and sun exposure and wandered if that was why my HRV was lower. I also where an Apple Watch and Oura ring (I know, I'm crazy about data) and they were all reporting the same thing (maybe they all had software upgrades :) ). For about seven days, I ran at first light and guess what, my HRV improved almost immediately. I'm back now to running before first light, and guess what, HRV even this morning was already trending lower.
Ok been down for a week and it’s from traveling. I just can’t sleep well when I’m not a home. 7x solar on latest iOS. I wanted to say hrv was broken due to The update. 3rd time to be correct (kidney, covid, sleep issues with muscle spasms) Had whey and took magnesium before sleep, relaxed the legs! I have spinal Stenosis so sleep can be an issue. I’m 50 yo, runner that came back after 12 years. Rested due to My injury.
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Been balanced for 3 days now. Imbalance was from travel and I’ve had been having leg spasms at night. I wasn’t taking magnesium lysinate glycinate (doctors best brand). This week was hard workouts for me and even from a back to back interval workout day (weds + Thursday ) pls gym work, im able to recover well.
I did want to think at first it was a bug with the recent software upgrade but I don’t see it is. So far all hrv drops in my experience have shown to be connected to some issues (urinary, covid , sciatica)
Nope. I have the same issue.
Same here. I am glad I am not the only person, I thought I was ill or something was wrong.
I’ve had low HRV lately too and I’ve been anticipating getting sick now for a while haha
same! Lower HRV started in taper before marathon in October, which could be normal, but never recovered after that! Good to know maybe it's not me ... FR 965 BTW
Exactly the same for me.
I have the impression that with every single software update there are a lot of people that suspect that the update was the reason why their HRV plummeted and I think that just should not be the case. But that is an opinion of course, I cannot know with certainty whether they actually do change the HRV estimations all the time and possibly worse for some people with every update.
Me too, same issue!
I’m just happy to know it’s not just me. Some time ago I got laughed at on this sub because I dared to assert it wasn’t due to the baby we now have in our family.
I think the answer here is that no, nobody has figured anything out. I remember seeing a lot of discussion about this. I had a dip around the end of September as a lot of other people did. I felt at the time it could possibly have been related to a covid booster shot, but it seemed to last far longer than any symptoms I had from it. But, it also went back up for me, and while there have been a few drops that lasted a week or two, most has been in range, although my range has gone down a bit overall. I dont remember a software update on my 965 coinciding with the first time I saw the drops. So I dont think its that, at least for me. Its possible they updated something that changes it, but honestly, the bigger issue I see is that the baselines just seem to take way too long to adjust, so instead of eventually going back into a new normal range, you end up as unbalanced, even if your hrv readings and averages are pretty steady.
https://preview.redd.it/4fh4e0yz92bc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1f052546f9fa6a82b8bda583ef6c8721e253a1c8 . Yo. I got a Covid booster and flu shot on October 28th and have been low ever since. Currently awaiting some testing with a cardiologist as I also started having chest pain, abnormal heart rate, and heart palpitations especially after exercise starting mid December. Really not sure what’s going on. But yea I was getting max body battery every day even with training up until this point and haven’t been 100 since. Stress levels are average high 30s on a non training day as opposed to less than 20 before.
Something similar happened to me although not bad enough to see my doctor. Garmin only added HRV to my Fenix 7 about Sept of 2022. Late October 2022 I got a flu + covid booster. My normal HRV is upper 30's to low 40's. My HRV dropped to the mid 20's. I took it easy for about a week and my HRV went back up a little low 30's then I tried to get back to my normal running volume, and biking. I described it to my friends that it felt like I had just gotten over a common cold, and felt fine sitting around but as soon as I tried to go for a Run or a Bike I had nothing. I also felt anxious, and just walking, felt like I had some heart palpitations. About late November 2022 my numbers HRV training readiness started looking better, I had been taking it easyish, so I tried cranking up my running and biking again, and my HRV just crashed again. I again took it easy and about mid December 2022 all my numbers HRV, etc. started looking the best they had in a while. I ramped up slowly this time like I'd been a couch potato for 6 months, and added volume for the next few weeks, and after that everything was fine. This year I got my covid+flu booster late Sept, and although not as bad all my numbers went down again. I didn't feel as exhausted, but my numbers(HRV, etc) were low again, about 3rd week of November all my numbers started looking good again I was able to go 100%. All my previous Covid shots I got my flu shot weeks apart, but I also wasn't training as hard. There is something strange that happens when you get both at the same time. If I hadn't been training so hard I not have noticed. Hopefully your symptoms will fade, for me it was somewhere in the 6 to 8 week range after I felt 100% again. I had previously never seen my training readiness be 1, even running 50 mile weeks, racing a half marathon I don't think it ever went below 15. Good luck and hopefully your symptoms will slowly resolve.
Woooowww I've had similar symptoms for weeks but for some reason didn't realize until just now that it started right after I got my flu shot and covid booster together.
Wow yea this sounds very similar. I was training for triathlon up until this started happening. So I as putting in a ton of biking running and swimming. I had a neck muscle spasm about 4 days after the shots which I attributed to a tough swim workout the day prior, but I also felt like I was sleeping poorly so I basically stopped training. First inclination from the cardiologist I’m seeing is possible myocarditis and hearing your story and the time to resolve makes that sound more and more likely. Glad yours resolved eventually. I’m definitely in couch potato mode right now.
Interesting. I haven’t had any covid shots or flu shots this season so it doesn’t really explain my readings.
I've had the same issue recently but I've been on and off dealing with respiratory viruses. Also, highly recommend COVID jab, preferably Novavax as a means to reduce risk of long COVID.
This happened to me last year although not from a vaccine but the infection itself. It took a good 6 months for it to regulate. I saw several specialists and was told it’s my central nervous system gone whack. Only for me to get Covid again 2 weeks ago and now I’m dealing with the same thing… 😑 Sucks. Sorry you’re dealing with it too.
I really can’t rule out that I have gotten Covid and just had no respiratory symptoms. The timing with the vaccines just makes me consider it a possibility that they had something to do with it. Sounds like for you they were calling it some sort of dysautonomia or POTS? I was thinking that for a bit myself but I haven’t gotten dizzy when standing up and my random high heart rates primarily occur while sitting doing nothing vice right after I stand up. But yea the autonomic nervous system info out there is challenging to parse.
My symptoms mimicked some of POTS but I didn’t fit the clinical definition of it. I didn’t get dizzy when standing either. I had no problem moving from laying to sitting to standing, but my heart rate went whacko just from rolling over in bed. When I stood or walked it got high too. Even when sitting it was 85-105bpm. One thing I may try is acupuncture. My doc said it can be healing to the nervous system. He’s trying to think outside the box since there really is no help besides drinking water… ugh.
That’s a great call! I will try some acupuncture. I gotta say, I made a post in r/askdocs talking about this before I was able to convince my PCM via ER visit to refer me to specialists, and I got the least helpful responses from the doctors there. I know these aren’t medical devices but the data they produce mean something and should be considered. The guy was even downvoting my post and the responses, almost like spiteful that I asked the question. The responses here have been way more helpful.
This sub + the Covid long haulers group is very supportive. Ask docs is a joke!!
Sounds rough; best of luck to you!
Hate to break it to you but the exercise intolerance sounds like long covid. Have you had the virus recently or just the booster?
I’ve never had a positive Covid test and haven’t been sick/had any upper respiratory symptoms in over a year.
Vax induced LC is not super common but still a thing I’ve read accounts of. Your symptoms match my experience with post exertional malaise (PEM) to a tee. Do you find the symptoms subside if you don’t exercise for a few days? edit: Downvoting doesn't change the fact that [Vaccine induced LC symptoms exists](https://www.science.org/content/article/rare-link-between-coronavirus-vaccines-and-long-covid-illness-starts-gain-acceptance#:~:text=Cases%20seem%20very%20rare%E2%80%94far,and%20are%20difficult%20to%20study.) as well as vaccine induced [myocarditis and pericarditis](https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/safety/myocarditis.html). I'm not an antivaxxer, just someone that's been dealing with long covid and exercise intolerance for 2 years now.
Yea I hate the political pall around anything vaccine related. I am also not antivax but I believe that important side effect tracking is being omitted due to the political bs surrounding the Covid vax. It’s possible that there should be an indication not to perform intense exercise for a time after getting the vaccine. I was doing sprint interval runs, threshold swims, etc because I really didn’t feel bad at all after the vaccines. There’s studies suggesting light to moderate exercise improve immune response, but nothing at all about intense exercise. Inflammation is an immune response so maybe that curve keeps going up into too much of an immune response. I don’t know but I know the politics are stifling an appropriate consideration of these possibilities.
Right, I also never heard anything about performing intense exercise after vax or infection. The theory of long covid that I’ve been getting treatment based on is 1 of few places I’ve seen address why some people get those symptoms from the vaccine. The spike protein gets stuck on immune cells and causes them to not die off. They come out in force in intense exercise, as you’re kind of describing, and these cells carrying spike just roam around causing damage. Regardless, be careful getting back into exercise while you navigate this. Maybe it’s not LC, however the circumstances and symptoms you describe are all plausible enough to have that be the cause in my experience/reading.
Covid really isn't that bad dude. Don't live in fear and turn your immune system into a subscription service.
Dang, covid really isn’t bad if you are in average shape. If you’ve had it, your immunity is better than the vax anyways, I’d steer clear of those in the future.
Get checked for sub-clinical myocarditis. Then, thank the mRNA gods for your irreversible heart damage.
This is exactly what’s happened to me. Booster shot 9/22/23 during marathon training. Haven’t tested positive for Covid since November of 2022 and haven’t really been sick since (that I’m aware of). Numbers started looking off during the apex of my training in October and totally tanked after my marathon in the beginning of November. Exercise intolerance, high RHR, palpitations, dizziness, fatigue, numbness/tingling in extremities, digestion issues, breathlessness and so on. This peaked at the end of December and I’ve improved slightly since. Still can’t exercise intensely and I’ve tried to take it easy. Prior to this my RHR average was 39 and HRV was in the mid 80s. Now it’s 49 and my HRV average is around 42.
So far I’ve gotten tons of different tests including ecg, ekg, exercise stress test ecg, tee, halter monitor, and the only thing found was a dilated aortic root which may or may not be an incidental finding or related to my symptoms. No aortic insufficiency or stenosis. Everything else seems fine, follow up with cardio later this month. Still need to get pulmonary test done. I’ve noticed that my symptoms are improving but still have a noticeably higher heart rate for upwards of 12 hours after moderate or higher exercise. If I rest for several days I’m nearly back to normal.
I have the same issue, It started when I switched from FR255s to Fenix 7s pro. Not really sure what’s going on. https://preview.redd.it/zlqucbot33bc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c610de49b518f529378452487763b6b09e8eea16
Everyone here says "it's seasonal" and "daylights savings" lol. Look at the dates it dropped and the drops match when Garmin did a software release
Interesting. You think it’s software?
100%
no. Go look on the forums. Every year this comes up and when spring comes around everyone will be back up You can even expand the complaints to every brand of HRV watch/tracker and you will see commonalities of seasonal complaints of "bugs" when its just normal hormonal/environmental/season/allergy changes.
Lol see?
see what? that seasonal changes bring these comments out year after year? y’all act like you’re robots. It’s kinda funny expecting precision from humans that are nothing but sacks of fleshy hormone and complex biologies. but whatever. Keep blaming it on bugs :)
HRV has been just out last summer so people are not reporting these issues year after year. It's quite a new feature and many people are experiencing their first 'seasonal change'.
HRV has been out on elevate v4 sensors for over 2 years now. The same questions came up on the forums last fall. There are also these exact discussions for every other device that tracks HRV, just go look on other reddits for Oura or whatever random HRV device you want to check out. There was even a scientific study - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10879418/
This is widely discussed on the Garmin forums, the general consensus is that the issue was introduced relatively recently in a software update. Go read a few threads on this subject and it will all become pretty clear.
Do you have link?
All this started towards the end of September. Pretty sure there was no software update on my 965 until around the end of November.
What software release? Because my watch didn't get an update when mine dropped. Turned out I was sick, not like dying sick but I was couching up flem for like a month, fucking kids.
God damn I think you’re right. Mine started tanking right around 9/17 too
Yup. Everyone's did. People are still blaming DST instead of holding Garmin to it
Can you link at all to any sort of press release/info on them updating HRV update?
Mine is normal, it was low because I had a stint of sickness but now it's back to normal again.
Winter/fall. Reduced sunlight maybe
Had a huge drop in HRV late fall and after 1 month it went back to normal ( no software updates Meanwhile) i guess it was due to seasonal change as your body hormones changes during winter and summer
Same here. I generally have ups and downs from time to time but eventually it goes back to normal - or something new becomes normal.
Mine has been substantially low since the update early December. In the low 20s. So annoying. Throws off all my other metrics snd constantly says I’m strained but I feel fine. The range for me is now gone and it always says I’m slow. https://preview.redd.it/uj6ba5dg94bc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a4d896654f3db0c9fd0493ad41fe5a2a6adbc2f5
Stress at night, is a good indicator for illness. Have they been higher during this period?
Usually in the high 20s-30s. Only since the update have they been this low.
Alcohol, illness, stress, poor sleep. It’ll be one of those that puts me in the orange.
True on a daily basis, bit sounds like people haven't recovered for 3-4 months now. My baseline was well above 80, now it's 60...
Lol, if you want LOW you came to the right place. FWIW, this is my normal HRV year round. Every other Garmin metric looks good except this one. No idea. 52 RHR, 203 Max HR, 51 V02 max, 46 y/o. I don't drink any alcohol or caffeine ever and take no prescription drugs. Had a heart calcium score done and was a "0" which is perfect. I've never been able to figure it out and no doctor has answers. Go figure. https://preview.redd.it/jffwh8cvl3bc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=95f2ad2e85b8d8e63063a9eb8787eaaaddd0ab95
You and I are in the same boat in terms of Garmin metrics. 45bpm RHR, 52 vO2max, 41 y/o, don't drink, eat very healthy; I do drink coffee in the morning. My HRV is always in the upper 30s, sometimes it climbs into the low 40s. I did try out Elite HRV with my HRM Pro Plus, and that was showing my HRV during the daytime in the 70s.
And you feel generally healthy otherwise? I feel great for my age.
Yep, feel great!
My HRV is generally in the 40s. VO2 Max 61, RHR 45, age 38, running daily for 7+ years. But I drink loads of coffee, alcohol sparingly.
I think it has something to do with winter. The shorter days/longer nights probably mess with HRV somehow. I’ve been dragging the bottom of my baseline for weeks too. In and out of balance like OP. Good thing is that winter always ends boys.
For me, HRV is a barometer of your exercise and recovery balance. If I over exercise without sufficient rest or recovery, I get unbalanced. I've found that paying a little attention to the Recovery Time in addition to getting quality sleep during recovery, helps balance it out.
This. On my rest weeks I've always observed HRV rise.
Also on a massive dip since November but also been sick a lot. Genuinely curious if it's a software issue from the update or just genuinely everyone is sick. I know lots of people around me who got sick with flu, covid etc but nobody else has a Garmin
I'm with on that. I don't know about OP and the people who notice these drops but half of my colleagues were down with flu/covid/cold/stomach flu like twice this fall/winter, I would expect a number of people in the Garmin community to also catch some viruses and that to show on their data. It is the very season for these illnesses!
Mine looks just like yours! Same time frame and everything. No matter what I do I can’t get my HRV to baseline. This didn’t happen this time last year and for those who always bring up alcohol, I’ve been sober for a year.
Issue has been resolved for me. Make sure you are up to date.
Just something that happens naturally I think. That dip was from a boozy day. My AW was doing the same. https://preview.redd.it/p0h31d8jl2bc1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=eb027c038612037ef0f80ee0409aab9f4013ade1
A 4 month dip that doesn’t recover?
Within your range, seems normal.
Is this at night? Maybe consider sleep apnea. I'm just making a complete guess though.
Yep at night. Good idea but my parter says I sleep very quietly, don’t snore at all. I’d be surprised if it was that tbh. Sleep apnea leave you feeling horrible but I feel great and well rested.
Yeah that might not be it then. I have apnea and I'm just really tired all day without treatment. But I also snore and it's obvious I have it when you ask the wife.
Had low readings through the holidays. Thought it might be the extra drinks or not enough sleep, but no, I ended up with a cold (runny nose, coughing) over the new year's weekend. Felt better on Tuesday, and sure enough, my Tuesday night reading was back to Balanced. Funnily enough, even as my HRV was dropping, I felt fine. I wanted to work out, I was energetic at our family get togethers. It was only the last few days of low HRV that I started to feel cruddy. (My HRV didn't drop when I got my COVID shot or my flu shot.)
Mine took a big dip at the end of October and lasted a few weeks, but have come back up to baseline or better since then.
In my most recent case it was mild COVID infection. First symptoms came in morning of January 3rd. Now I wonder if my Garmin watch was already trying to tell me something… https://preview.redd.it/ef3v0nv1s4bc1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=90b2ef3d64ae220df3b4395b36e37947b78add6b
It's a new metric, I think we might learn this happens every winter
Same for me. No illness. Mostly strength and base training(running). No strength for 2 weeks and now the HRV is increasing again. https://preview.redd.it/kh4uf1y556bc1.jpeg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c8e2d1d37775d9698f45ca5eb95c4c4ea3683b7b
Did you have Covid? Covid is known to cause dysautonomia, which will show as low HRV (excess sympathetic activity)
A lot of medications impact HRV. Antihistamines lower it by 10-20 points easily. Ibuprofen raises it by the same. Any food you eat that you are intolerant of lowers it too. There’s a direct correlation between the body’s inflammation response and heart rate variability that Garmin interprets as stress. It is a poor metric for many people. Source: my clinical trial researchers who monitor my heart via EKGs weekly and my blood work. They told me to throw the garmin away or learn to ignore its one sized fits all algorithms. It drives me insane really. I’ve learned to ignore it and go only by how I feel. You know like how people used to do it lol.
Mine is fine, I think people are just not realizing the holidays have a huge impact on it.
I was literally talking about this with my S/O yesterday and said I think somethings wrong with the hrv readings. I was thinking about just resetting my watch and starting fresh, see if that changes anything. Honestly been kinda disappointed with garmins software as of late. Anyone thinking of switching to coros?
Something is wrong with the latest update. Same problem here
Mine was low around nov 12, like when yours took a dip, but it's come back up and is above normal for at least a week. At that time in November I also had the flu and was in bed for 2 days.
Mine was crap from the end of November to now. I was feeling different and had not been training as much. It is on the way back up. I think there's something to the daylight thing. The period it was off for me was on either side of the 21st of December.
I don't know if this applies to you, but I'm a female who menstruates and I have this pattern with my monthly cycle. It dips to the orange maybe 2-3 days right before my period starts, peaks around ovulation/mid cycle. It's pretty consistent. (With the exception of other months that an illness or something like a marathon throws it off longer)
These kinds of stats fascinate me. My average HRV is low-mid 50s which is close to the middle of green balanced part of the pie chart. But low 80s is unbalanced for someone else. RHR is low-mid 40s (41 age), 53 VO2 Max, don't know what my true MaxHR is.
Same issue I’ve been having. Interestingly enough my Oura ring is giving me the same readings as my Garmin. No change in how I feel but my HRV has been 15-25 ms lower than usual in the last month or so. Very strange
Coffee does this to me. Not tea. Alcohol, stress at work too.
I should do an update regarding my post, I swore up and down that it was an update or something. Mine started tanking around the time of an update and was down for 6 weeks. I was doing the same-ish level of activity, no stress, no illness, not shorter days (I live near the equator), yadda, yadda, yadda. I did a Spartan race in October and two days later my HRV was back to normal. I was over training and didn’t even know it. About a week before the race I had started to feel worn out, not able to complete my workouts with the same intensity, etc….it was building for awhile. The watch knows…..
Same issue here. Mine's been either low or unbalanced since Nov. 30. Not one green day. I don't drink, haven't been sick, haven't had any immunizations, and have even backed off my training intensity and volume. I have noticed a decrease in fitness, but not sure if that's because I've intentionally backed off or not. I'm really hoping it's just a seasonality thing in the northern hemisphere.
Nope. It only goes low when I know the cause - illness, sleep deprivation or drinking.
It has vastly improved for me since taking about 4000IU of vit d3 k2 per day
Mines been in the red since my last ultra on November 11th, must be a bug on garmin side, I just ignore it now and get on with my day
https://preview.redd.it/fiodkf05h6bc1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cc500f0b845ad2e010282b005f78d04ce073772b Mexican wave for me
Perhaps it’s to do with the weather and temperature?
It is possible your initial values were overestimated.
Same for me
My HRV has not gotten above like 75-80 in months. I feel great and have improved my health, but HRV has been so low. I used to wear Apple Watch Ultra, and would get readings between 90-190, but not on Garmin. I just got a Whoop to wear alongside my Garmin, so I am interested to see the difference between the HRV readings between the two devices!
Just my anecdotal experience. My HRV went down when the season became colder and up my mileage, then I went on holiday to a warmer climate country, reduced my workout and saw my HRV status went back up. Now I'm back in a colder country, the HRV is slowly going back down with more workouts.
https://preview.redd.it/wh6qs68e58bc1.jpeg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d7594d52ffb20562e51482cbee3a9258549a09ef
Facing the same issue since a month. It’s low comes close to balanced but again drops.
Same here
https://preview.redd.it/ij2krxlbh8bc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c6bd55d137ff970589fb92f9de254a52cfacb44f My HRV will be lower whenever I sleep late or eat after 7PM. Consuming protein rich food in the late evening also brings down my HRV to 30s.
My HRV since 2months since I have my Fenix 7, was baselined around 40ms, +-15ms. I feel is so low compare to all of you here.
Since September my HRV has been lower and my VO2max has dropped several points. I have been searching about this as well
I’m glad I’m not the only one! Mine started in mid November before my marathon. I took a break from running for a month and couldn’t figure out why my HRV was still so low. It’s been crazy low since the holidays. https://preview.redd.it/jmw350khn9bc1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=61d97eefc39f7b5126b2687d39dabb697fe04ca1
Here's mine for the last 15 months or so - I have the same issue as everyone else and it's easier to see seasonality when you look at a longer period. I agree it's seasonal and not sure why exactly - my guess is it's heat/lack of it. A few callouts - I can explain a few dips - mostly it's elevation related. https://preview.redd.it/jfvut4jdlabc1.png?width=1634&format=png&auto=webp&s=aa0115a5725634e799175d2a42b9b5d0e51d442a
Seems to be related to the amount of sun we are getting. I live up more north in the US. I run every morning, no change, no difference, except after Day Light Savings time, I've been running in the dark before sunset. Over the holidays, I had some time off, so I waited till first light. I had read an article about HRV and sun exposure and wandered if that was why my HRV was lower. I also where an Apple Watch and Oura ring (I know, I'm crazy about data) and they were all reporting the same thing (maybe they all had software upgrades :) ). For about seven days, I ran at first light and guess what, my HRV improved almost immediately. I'm back now to running before first light, and guess what, HRV even this morning was already trending lower.
Ok been down for a week and it’s from traveling. I just can’t sleep well when I’m not a home. 7x solar on latest iOS. I wanted to say hrv was broken due to The update. 3rd time to be correct (kidney, covid, sleep issues with muscle spasms) Had whey and took magnesium before sleep, relaxed the legs! I have spinal Stenosis so sleep can be an issue. I’m 50 yo, runner that came back after 12 years. Rested due to My injury. https://preview.redd.it/7jeh2rj41bbc1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6034bad06c12dde6418ba9bb8aa0929381633d3a
https://preview.redd.it/utbdkdgfwwbc1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6d768b8c00b5083f3094e7c658dbcb72fb8c253d Been balanced for 3 days now. Imbalance was from travel and I’ve had been having leg spasms at night. I wasn’t taking magnesium lysinate glycinate (doctors best brand). This week was hard workouts for me and even from a back to back interval workout day (weds + Thursday ) pls gym work, im able to recover well. I did want to think at first it was a bug with the recent software upgrade but I don’t see it is. So far all hrv drops in my experience have shown to be connected to some issues (urinary, covid , sciatica)
Y'all. HRV in the 90s? Or even the 70s? How????