SweetWater Health’s co-founder and CEO, Ronda Collier, will be hosting a webinar on May 14, 2014, 5 pm Eastern time via USA Triathlon. Listen in and see if Ronda can answer some of your HRV for Training questions. Sign up now!

Event registration

Most athletes know that getting enough rest after exercise is essential to high-level performance. Still many over-train and feel guilty about taking a day off though scientific research proves that improved performance in competitive sports is achieved by alternating periods of intensive training with periods of relative rest. Standardized training programs produce well documented results, but do not take individual responses into account. In the past decade, college sports teams and world-class athletes have been increasingly using Heart Rate Variability (HRV) to monitor fatigue and recovery from workouts. In this webinar you will be able to understand:

• The Science and Physiology of HRV
• Using HRV for Individualized Endurance Training
• The Relationship Between Stress, Food, HRV and Peak Performance

If you cannot attend this webinar at the specified time and date, you can register in advance and the complete webinar recording will automatically be emailed to you after it is completed.

Ronda Collier, B.S.E.E., M.A. Psychology

Ronda has more than 25 years of experience in high technology product development with a proven track record of delivering leading edge consumer electronic products within both privately held startups and Fortune 500 corporations. She spent 3 years as an independent scholar researching non-invasive health monitoring techniques to improve overall personal wellbeing. This research led to the founding of SweetWater Health, L.L.C. in 2011 and the release of SweetBeat, the HRV measurement app in 2012.

Ronda has presented HRV basics and applications at the 2012 and 2013 Quantified Self conference and SweetBeat was featured at the 2012 Health 2.0 conference in San Francisco. In addition, she has been interviewed by several popular podcast hosts, including sports physiologist and author Ben Greenfield, and The Bulletproof Executive’s Dave Asprey. She is known for presenting HRV in a simple and understandable fashion.

Download SweetBeat on iTunes!

It’s time for an update on my adventure to my optimal self and the fight against my sugar addiction. It is now day 89 without me having a relapse. Yay!

Usually, I can eat a meal, get up from the table without having any desert and still feel happy and satisfied. This is huge. Risky for me are now only days when I eat too much fruit or wait too long with preparing my next meal. Then grasping a “healthy bar” (too much sugar) or a piece of cheese (personal sensitivity: can trigger cold sores) is still very tempting.

Otherwise I eat gluten free without any regrets (when I eat gluten, it can cause depression or self-doubt within 2 days) and I don’t buy anything that comes with an ingredient list.

All is well that ends well? Unfortunately not.

My own heart measurement (SweetBeat App, 60Beats chest strap) has shown that my HRV (heart rate variability) and HF / LF (high frequency, low frequency) values ​​are less than optimal. Both are measured to determine

• the personal stress tolerance,
• the biological (real) age,
• the vital reserves,
• the physical and mental fitness,
• the recovery and regeneration capability,
• and the respiratory function.

On the contrary, my values are ​​by far the worst that I have ever measured on a test subject. Oops, that was a shock, and my active cycling comeback scheduled for this spring had to be cancelled. My journey to my optimal self is thus far from over.

Well, my dear heart was always my weak point. What to do next was the big question. Being professionally involved with health solutions proves to be very helpful at such occasion. I used my Swiss Nutritioneer analysis system, as described in my online practice. The findings were as follows:

– Adrenal fatigue in the 2nd stage (caused by chronic stressors)
– Resulting catabolic dominance in the body
– Assumed compensation by adrenaline
– Chronic adrenaline acts like “poison” for my heart

The real headache was to identify my main stressors. After a meeting with myself that included a sheet of paper, a pen, a quiet place in the sun and the willingness to question everything, I was able to determine these factors quite clearly. There are two emotional stressors in my current life that cause enormous, chronic stress (multiple simultaneous projects with their organizational and financial requirements). By the way, the three main causes of chronic stress are listed here, if you need help to identify yours.

As a result, I created the following, optimal program for me:

1. Nutrition
   Self-experiment applying Dr. Terry Wahl’s diet protocols. (Watch her TED Talk: Defeat multiple sclerosis and other diseases with healthy food! 17 min.)
2. Remove emotional stressors
   – Change my attitude towards these ongoing projects (book recommendation Eckhard Tolle, The Power Of Now.) I plan to write an additional blog post about what worked for me to stay in the moment instead of worrying about future events or regret things happened in the past)
   – Breathing exercises using the Inner Balance App and the necessary ear sensor.
   – Freeze frame technique (book recommendation The Heartmath Solution)
   – Laugh! There is hardly a more powerful weapon against chronic stress than laughter. One Chuck TV episode in the evening works very well for me. You’ll have to find out what works best for you.
3. Movement
   – Explosive, super short one rep max strength exercises of the strongest muscle groups in the body (chest press, leg press, shoulder pulls, calf raises), which trigger an anabolic hormone response.
   – HIIT (high intensitiy interval training): Extremely short but full gas sprints of max. 6 seconds with 2 minutes rest in between. A total of 6 to 12 sprints. (boosts anabolic hormones)
   – Overall, no workout longer than 15 to 20 minutes and no cycling (too much of a catabolic effect)
   – Work less, surf more. Or translated for landlocked countries: less work, more hobby;)
4. Monitoring progress
   Every morning, using HRV and LF / HF 3-minute test (SweetBeat App)

Obviously, my next chapter on the journey to my optimal self and faster cycling is opened…

Visit iTunes to download SweetBeat!

To read the original article and more from the Swiss Nutritioneer, visit his website!

Rene von Gunten is certified by the National Academy of Sports Medicine and the Nutritional Therapy Association and also holds a diploma in Nutritional Balancing Science from the Westbrook University. Rene is a graduate of the renowned mentorship program in functional medicine by Dr. Kalish.

Download the free chapter now!!

Ben talks about his new book in the video, “How To Achieve Your Peak Performance Without Destroying Your Body.”

Download SweetBeat (see in the video at 1:55)!

About the Book: “You have amazing physical goals. You want the best body you can get. You want to look, feel, and perform like a champion.

So you beat up your body with tough training, day after day, week after week, month after month. As a result, you’re held back by frustrating issues like brain fog, broken gut, hormone depletion, heart problems, and damaged joints – limited to living at a fraction of your peak capacity and powerless to tap into your full potential and achieve your dreams – potentially destroying your brain, heart, gut and metabolism in the process.

But what if you could get an incredible physique, do an Ironman triathlon, compete in Crossfit, run a marathon, become a powerlifter, do extreme exercise, play any sport you want and achieve amazing feats of physical performance without destroying your body?

Now you can, with Ben Greenfield’s brand new book “Beyond Training: Mastering Endurance, Health & Life“.

Contrary to popular belief, it truly is possible to be healthy on the outside, to look amazing, and even to compete in teeth-grittingly hard events like Ironman triathlons and Crossfit – and still be healthy on the inside too. And this book gives you every training, nutrition, and lifestyle solution you need to do it, including:

• The 2 best ways to build endurance fast without destroying your body
• Underground training tactics for maximizing workout efficiency
• The best biohacks for enhancing mental performance and instantly entering the zone
• How to know with laserlike accuracy whether your body has truly recovered
• 26 ways to quickly recover from workouts, injuries and overtraining
• The 25 most important blood and saliva biomarkers and how to test them
• 5 essential elements of training that most athletes neglect
• 7 stress-fighting weapons to make your mind-body connection bulletproof
• Proven systems to enhance sleep, eliminate insomnia, and conquer jetlag
• 40 high-calorie, nutrient-dense meals that won’t destroy your metabolism
• Done-for-you tools to customize your carbs, proteins and fats for your unique body and goals
• 9 ways to fix a broken gut, create toxin-free life, and detox your body
• A complete system to safeguard your immune system and stomach
• Potent time-efficiency tips for balancing training, work, travel, and family
• Training and meal plans so that you easily and immediately implement everything you discover

Whether you’re a triathlete, marathoner, CrossFitter, swimmer, cyclist, ultrarunner, recreational athlete or any other extreme exercise or regular exercise enthusiast, this is the last system for training, endurance, health, and life you will ever need.”