Have you ever thought about how the changes in your routine, rituals and habits caused by the Pandemic have impacted your stress levels, fitness and how you recover?
I have, and I wanted to find out more.
In this article, I am going to look at how the Pandemic has impacted my ability to perform, give an insight into the markers that impact how we tolerate stress and how quickly we are able to switch gears. Lastly, we will look at how to improve each of them, so that you can look, feel and perform at your best.
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Like most people, the first Lockdown changed my world irreversibly. Within 3 weeks, I had shut my Personal Training studios in Canary Wharf indefinitely and began pivoting my business. My heavily pregnant partner and I juggled working from home whilst looking after our 2-year-old son, while also in the process of writing my first book.
Everything about my daily routine changed. Simple things such as having breaks to walk to the coffee shop or grab some lunch out. No commute to or from work. More than Doubling my time spent at a computer. Although small, each change shifts how we naturally go about our day and look after our mental and physical health.
I tried to keep as many things the same as possible. I get up and go to bed at the same time. I follow the same morning routine before starting work (minus the commute). I still have a morning break and lunch period where I leave my office. But I have also added new practices, such as going for a long walk and scheduling shorter 10-minute walks to increase my step count, and enforcing a finish time where I put my laptop away not to be reopened.
I wanted to find out if the Pandemic and the change in my habits had affected my fitness level, stress levels and recovery?
So, I took a First Beat assessment, which tracks heart rate variability (HRV) plus a number of other health markers.
HRV
HRV is the measure of the variation in time between heartbeats over a fixed period. Unlike a metronome, a heartbeat doesn’t maintain an even tempo; instead, there is a variation of milliseconds between each beat – the bigger the variation, the better your ability to perform.
Your heart rate is controlled by the two branches of your autonomic automatic nervous system: your sympathetic nervous system (SNS), better known as fight, flight or freeze and parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), also known as rest and digest.
Think of your SNS as the accelerator in a car. When in times of perceived danger, the foot pushes down hard on the accelerator to get ready to act, react and perform. The PNS acts as the break. When the perceived danger has passed, the break is gently applied, powering down the engine and entering the recovery phase.
Your SNS and PNS are always competing, sending signals to your heart to either speed up or slow down. Think of it as a game of tug of war: if both teams are equal, the greater variation between heartbeats. This indicates that the nervous system is well balanced and able to move between these two branches, and you’ll be more flexible to stressors. If one side dominates, the variation will be lower and so will your ability to switch gears.
There are times where you want to be switched on and ready for action such as in an important presentation or while exercising and this is when the SNS should dominate. However, when you finish the presentation or stop exercising, your body should recover and switch back to your PNS.
If you spend long periods in a stressed-out state, the natural interplay between your SNS and PNS is impacted. The body becomes adapted to being in a stressed state and stays primarily in the SNS even when resting. The variability between heartbeats declines, and your ability to switch gears and adapt to stressful situations will be lower. It is also a sign of lower aerobic fitness and highlights issues such as being fatigued, sick or in need of more recovery.
Had the Pandemic left me out of balance? Is my SNS now more dominant?
My results
Overall, my score came out as good.
My stress and recovery came out as good. This means that I have a well-balanced day, which supports stress management and boost my performance.
I have long focused on recovery strategies during my day. Having worked in corporate health for nigh on twenty years, I have witnessed first-hand the importance of getting the right balance.
I meditate every morning, find time for a relaxing walk during my workday, and take regular, short breaks away from my computer.
This seems to be working well within my routine.
My sleep showed as being fairly good. I get the right amount of sleep, but it is only fairly restorative, which is no surprise as my young children frequently wake me.
One of the things that has worked well is sticking to a set sleep pattern. If you’ve had the pleasure of parenting, you’ll likely have experienced the effects of disrupted sleep. Something my partner and I quickly implemented into our routine was going to bed early. Although it cannot undo the effects of disrupted sleep, it has enabled me to function, granted, not optimally.
My exercise showed as being only fairly good. It was excellent on Thursday and Friday when I worked out, but low on Saturday where I didn’t.
Something that I did notice was that my step count was around 4000 steps lower than usual. This was due to the strap on my smartwatch being broken and not tracking my step count. It shows the importance of monitoring our step count when working in a relatively sedentary role.
Increasing HRV is an important measure of overall health. So, what are the steps to improve it?
Improving your HRV
HRV is a measure of autonomic health. When we have balance between the PNS (calm) and SNS (stress), HRV will generally reflect this equilibrium. (1)
Thus, it goes without saying that if you are used to working and living in a high-stress environment, the more recovery strategies you implement into your routine, the better the balance will be.
Mindfulness practices such as deep breathing and meditation, once reserved for Buddhists and Yogi’s, are now common practice for many who want to improve performance. Finding time to rest and reset during a busy day will enable you to switch from your SNS to PNS.
Unsurprisingly, sleep is also key to optimal recovery. Following a structured pre-bed routine will give you the best chance of enjoying a restful night. This includes:
· Sticking to a regular sleep schedule by going to bed and waking up at roughly the same time each night
· Making your room dark and cool
· Not drinking caffeine 4-6 hours before bed
· Avoiding looking at tech at least an hour before bed
Arguably the most important factor in HRV is aerobic fitness. A lower fitness level often correlates with a higher heart rate. One of the more effective ways to increase fitness and HRV is to participate in low-intensity aerobic exercise. (2) For many people, simply going for a walk will improve their fitness and reduce their resting heart rate. This also allows for crucial mental downtime.
Other ways to improve HRV include eating a diet high in real, whole food and low in processed food. (3), staying well hydrated and getting the right balance in your workouts.
HRV gives a fascinating insight into how our habits impact our ability to perform.
Although you can undo the effects of going through a Pandemic, we can focus on improving our wellness habits so that we are in the best position possible to withstand the demands it brings.
Focusing on improving your exercise, eating and recovery habits is key to high performance.
(1) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5900369/
(2) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17762370/
(3) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5882295/
