HRV: The Number That Shows How Your Body Is Actually Coping
/February is Heart Health Month, and chances are you’ve already heard the usual advice:
watch your cholesterol, keep an eye on blood pressure, move your body.
All important.
All worth paying attention to.
But there’s another heart-related metric I want more women to know about:
Heart Rate Variability (HRV).
If you’ve seen HRV pop up on your Whoop or Apple Watch and thought,
“I have no idea what this means,”
you’re not alone.
Let’s make it simple.
What HRV Really Measures
HRV reflects the tiny variations in time between each heartbeat.
Those small variations tell us something powerful:
how well your nervous system is adapting to stress and recovery.
Not just physical stress—
but emotional, mental, hormonal, and metabolic stress too.
Because of this, HRV is often called the ultimate lifestyle metric.
It quietly integrates everything you do:
Sleep
Nutrition
Movement
Stress levels
Hormonal shifts
Recovery
…and turns it into a single signal of how your body is coping.
Why HRV Matters—Especially for Women
1. Stress and emotional load
Lower HRV is associated with chronic stress, anxiety, and difficulty regulating emotions.
Higher HRV reflects greater adaptability, resilience, and nervous system flexibility.¹
2. Cardiovascular risk
Research shows lower HRV can predict increased risk of heart disease and mortality.²
In other words, HRV isn’t just about how you feel—it’s connected to long-term health.
3. Hormonal transitions and menopause
HRV naturally fluctuates across the menstrual cycle and often declines during menopause,
making it a useful window into nervous system strain during hormonal change.³
The encouraging news:
moderate aerobic and resistance exercise can improve HRV in menopausal women.⁴
What Makes HRV Rise—or Fall
HRV tends to improve with:
Consistent, sufficient sleep⁵
(think morning sunlight and calmer evenings)Stabilized blood sugar from balanced meals
Moderate, regular exercise—both strength and cardio
(intensity isn’t the hero here)Mindfulness, breathing practices, and stress reduction⁶
Choosing recovery and rest instead of constant output
HRV tends to decline with:
Chronic stress, overtraining, or lack of recovery
Alcohol and late-day caffeine
Late-night eating and scrolling
Poor or irregular sleep
Blood sugar spikes or nutrient gaps
Emotional overload, burnout…
or excessive fixation on metrics themselves
And that last one matters more than we talk about.
My Personal Wake-Up Call with HRV
I spent months tracking everything connected to my HRV:
sleep, exercise, hydration, food, meal timing, alcohol, mood, breathwork.
At first, it felt exhilarating.
I could see improvement. I felt empowered.
But eventually… my HRV started to drop.
Why?
Because I was frantic.
Doing all the things.
Trying to optimize everything.
A wise friend gently suggested that maybe my obsession itself
was stressing my nervous system.
She was right.
I had become so focused on improving my life
that I had quietly stopped living it.
The Question That Changed Everything
I had to ask myself:
Am I actually enjoying my life right now…
or am I spending it obsessing over how long I can make it last?
It was humbling to realize I’d started treating my body like a machine
to fix, tweak, and hack—
instead of something to nourish, support, repair, and replenish.
Yes, our bodies carry a lot.
Yes, stress, environment, and food systems matter.
But here’s the truth we forget:
We are not machines.
Not everything needs tracking, optimizing, or fixing.
Real healing begins somewhere quieter:
Nurture
Self-trust
Self-love
Returning to the basics
Remembering that the person most capable of caring for you… is you
A Different Definition of Heart Health
This Heart Health Month, maybe heart health isn’t only about
avoiding disease someday.
Maybe it’s also about:
How supported your nervous system feels today.
And the beautiful part?
You have more influence over that than you’ve probably been told.
Know your metrics—HRV included—because they offer honest feedback
about your body and nervous system.
But don’t let numbers become stress.
Metrics are tools, not measures of your worth.
Use them to guide care, recovery, and awareness.
Then step back…
…and live your life.
