Does HRV-guided training improve cardiac-vagal modulation, aerobic fitness, and endurance performance compared to predefined training?
HRV-guided training provides marginal benefits over predefined training for fitness and performance, though it may better maintain vagal-mediated HRV.
Best methodological practices pertaining to HRV index selection, recording position, and approaches for establishing baseline reference values and daily changes (i.e., fixed or rolling HRV averages) require further study. HRV-guided training may be more effective than predefined training for maintaining and improving vagal-mediated HRV, with less likelihood of negative responses. However, if HRV-guided training is superior to predefined training for producing group-level improvements in fitness and performance, current data suggest it is only by a small margin.
Manresa‐Rocamora et al. (2021) studied this question.