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Introducing DailyBeat HRV, SweetBeat HRV on Android & Vernier.

We are very excited to introduce you to the newest apps in our suite of heart rate variability applications: DailyBeat HRV and SweetBeat HRV on Android. DailyBeat HRV provides you with an accurate assessment and feedback based on your overall health and resilience. The original SweetBeat HRV on Android goes back to our roots and provides HRV for Training recommendations and stress management sessions. Our clinical grade algorithms measure Heart Rate Variability (HRV) and provide you with intuitive and easy to understand health statuses. In addition, the Vernier hand held heart rate monitor has been invaluable as an alternative to the chest strap. The Vernier heart rate monitor is perfect for your morning readings or a 5-minute spot check.

What’s New in DailyBeat HRV?

Willpower: Your Willpower chart is based on YOU compared to YOU (not the general population of your age and gender). The purple line shows your Willpower for the day and the yellow line is your personalized reference line. If your Willpower is above the reference line, you likely have the power to meet all of your goals. If it is below the reference line for 1 day, your Willpower is drained. If it stays below the line for 2 or more days, your Willpower is critically low. The associated recommendations will guide you on how best to stay on track, depending on your Willpower reserve.

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Power Balance: Your Power Balance chart shows you where you are relative to your age and gender. Consider a stereo that is 50 watts verses one that is 250 watts. The 250 watt stereo will play music louder without distortion than the 50 watt version. Also while listening you want the balance of the speakers equal so that you hear both channels equally. The Power Balance chart is an indication of how many “Watts” you have for the day and the balance of “Fight or Flight” and “Rest and Digest”.

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Resilience:  Your Resilience is an indication of your ability to Respond and Recover from daily stressors. We often React rather than Respond and then we stay in that reactive state for hour, days or even weeks. By knowing your Resilience you are able to plan ahead to avoid undesired reactions.

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Summary Charts: The DailyBeat Summary Charts provide insight into your overall health and balance. Let’s face it we all have low energy or grumpy days. The Charts let you see how often you have positive, powerful balanced days and how often you are on the low side. This vital information will help you adjust your wellness regime that creates measureable results.

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See our website for complete details and screenshots of our newest iOS application, DailyBeat HRV.

SweetBeat HRV is officially in the Google Play store! 

SweetBeat HRV on Android includes our clinical grade heart rate variability algorithm matched with our personalized HRV for Training recommendations and stress management sessions.

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Requirements:

Features:

  • Run a Stress Session for your stress score – We recommend at least a five minute session but you can record up to several hours
  • Stress is measured between 1 (lowest) and 5 (highest)
  • HRV for Training – 3-minute sessions with personalized feedback. We recommend doing these sessions at the same time each day. Whether it is first thing in the morning or last thing before you go to bed, keep it consistant
  • Our newest compatible heart rate monitor, the Vernier hand grips are the best way to conveniently measure your morning HRV
  • Graphs include ability to pinch and zoom
  • See your Raw RRs in graph form or select “session” to see your session data graphed
  • You will also have the ability to graph locally saved sessions and sessions only available on the server straight from the application

Read more about SweetBeat HRV on Android in the Google Play Store. Click on the red birdie below to see screenshots.

SweetBeat Android on Google Play

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SweetBeat HRV on iOS

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TrainingPeaks Compatibility & HRV Reports

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TrainingPeaks Compatibility

We have exciting news for our users! You can now upload your SweetBeat HRV scores to your TrainingPeaks dashboard. It is quick and easy!

Step 1: Sign-in to your SweetWater Health account and scroll down to find the TrainingPeaks button. Select this and enter your TrainingPeaks account information. Your accounts are now synced!

Step 2: To upload your first HRV scores to TrainingPeaks, simply run a “HRV for Training” session with SweetBeat HRV (will also work with Bulletproof Stress Detective, NatureBeat & PrimalBeat).

Note: You must turn on location services in order for the time to be correct on the session.

HRV Reports Now Available!

We are excited to announce that our first HRV report is now available in your SweetWater Health store! This report is based on sessions labeled, “Meditating” & “Relaxing”. You must have at least 10 sessions with each of these tags to receive valuable feedback from the report. These SweetBeat HRV sessions should be 5-minute sessions done at least once a week while meditating and after meditation while relaxing.

  • To access the store and your report, sign-in to your SweetWater Health account.
  • The “Store” button will become available next to the “My account” button at the top of the page.
  • Here you can purchase a sample of the report for free!
  • You can also purchase your “HRV Meditation Report” for $9.99.

We Want to Hear From You!

What kind of reports would you like to see in the store? Please send us an email at support@sweetwaterhrv.com or leave a comment below to let us know!

It’s That Time of the Year Again: Apple Releases iOS9!

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It’s That Time of the Year, Again!

As we know, Apple rules the world. Every year, they update their operating system and devices. Apple has scheduled the release of iOS 9 for this month. As they update their systems we must update our applications to be compatible. 

While we work on making our code compatible with the new technology, we ask you to remember that you must update your applications as the updates become available.

When you update your device to iOS 9, you must update your HRV application!

  • NOTE: The following applications must be updated: SweetBeatLife, NatureBeat, Stress Detective, Food Detective, PrimalBeat, Wholeistic Coaching & ResilienceZone.
  • If you have one of the following applications you do not need to purchase anything, you just need to update.
  • The updates are available for SweetBeatHRV (previously SweetBeatLife), Naturebeat & PrimalBeat.
  • If you do not update, you will most likely not be able to connect your Bluetooth Low-Energy (BTLE) heart rate monitors. 

In other news, SweetBeatLife will now be called SweetBeatHRV!

How Else Am I Affected?

Apple makes certain things obsolete after updates are released. Due to this, we are not able to update SweetBeat or HRV Sense any longer. These two applications will be removed from the iTunes app store. It is unfortunately, out of our control.

SweetBeat & HRV Sense can no longer be updated and will be removed from the iTunes app store.

We are here to support you through this difficult but necessary change. If you are using SweetBeat or HRV Sense, we have several solutions for you:

  • Update to SweetBeatHRV. The new application has many more features and interactive graphs.
  • If you purchased one of these applications within the last three months, please email us at support@sweetwaterhrv.com and we will take care of you.
  • This will affect those of you using ANT+, as it is not included in SweetBeatHRV. If you are a long time user of ANT+, please let us know. We’d love to hear from you!
  • You can choose not to update your device to iOS9. As a warning, we have noticed that older operating systems do not work as well when a new one is released.
New features coming soon!
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Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns: Support@sweetwaterhrv.com

Coaching and Heart Rate Variability (HRV) for Improved Sports Performance – Webinar

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We are very happy to announce our “Coaching and Heart Rate Variability (HRV) for Improved Sports Performance” Webinar. Most athletes know that getting enough rest after exercise is essential to high-level performance, but many still over train and feel guilty when they take a day off. In competitive sports, improved performance is achieved by alternating periods of intensive training with periods of relative rest. While standardized training programs produce well documented results, they do not take individual responses into account. In the past decade, college sports teams and world-class athletes have been increasingly using HRV to monitor fatigue and recovery from workouts. In this webinar you will be able to understand:

  • The Science and Physiology of HRV
  • In depth explanation of HRV metrics rMSSD, LF and HF
  • How to interpret the HRV metrics
  • Using HRV for Individualized Endurance Training
  • The Relationship Between Stress, Food, HRV and Peak Performance
  • The basics of the Kubios HRV analysis software

REQUIREMENTS:

  • Download the freeware, Kubios! When you are asked to enter an email to download the software, use beathealthy@sweetwaterhrv.com.
  • In addition, email yourself one of your sessions from within SweetBeatLife. To do this select History > Choose a Session > Share > Email. This way you can plug it into Kubios with Ronda and see your results.

The cost of the webinar is $49.99 and includes access to a recording of the webinar.

Below is a little background on your presenter:

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.

In other news:

Happy Quantifying!

The SweetWater Health Team

New Graphs: SweetBeatLife Update!

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Yes, you read it right! There is a SweetBeatLife update available, which includes brand new enhanced graphs. The graphs are completely interactive and allow for a better view of your SweetBeatLife metrics.

Key features of the new graphs:

  • Zoom in by putting your pointer finger and thumb on the graph and moving your fingers away from each other. Double tapping the graph can also be used to zoom in.
  • Zoom out by using the same two fingers and making a pinching motion.
  • By holding your finger down on the graph, you will create cross hairs to pinpoint.
  • There is a yellow circle with an “I” in the middle of it in the top right corner which opens up the graph’s key.
  • Turning your phone to the left will give you a landscape view.

Note: If you do not see these graphs when you open SweetBeatLife, this means you have to manually install the update. You can do this by going to your App store, click on the bottom right tab labeled Updates, and install the SweetBeatLife update.

See below for examples of the new graphs:

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We have been constantly working on SweetBeatLife to make it the most full functioning heart rate variability (HRV) application you’ve ever used. We hope you enjoy these new graphs as much as we do!

Happy Quantifying!

Increase Your HRV, Lower Your Stress

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You’ve just found the most powerful nervous system enhancement & stress relief tools in the world

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Every person experiences stress from time to time.  Just the word may be enough to set your nerves on edge. Some, though, cope with stress more effectively, or recover from stressful events more quickly, than others. Some are chronically stressed and easily fall into coping strategies such as anxiety, anger, depression, overwhelm, sadness, overeating, and many others.

Effec­tive stress management and emo­tional reg­u­la­tion depends on your ability to flexibly adjust your phys­i­o­log­i­cal response to a chang­ing environment. This flexibility is also referred to as resilience and can be measured via Heart Rate Variability (HRV).

What does flexibility look like?

A flexible nervous system has a few components:

  • Balance between Sympathetic and Parasympathetic branches of the Autonomic Nervous System
  • The ability to carry a variety of electrical impulses throughout the body
    • Called power levels of the nervous system

SweetBeatLife measures these 2 branches of the Autonomic Nervous System via LF (Sympathetic/fight or flight) and HF (Parasympathetic/rest and digest). While a healthy balance of LF and HF power is a ratio of 1:1 to 2:1 respectively, many customers find that their LF response is consistently 5x, 10x, and even 20x greater than their HF response!

In addition, many people show LF power levels in the thousands while their HF power numbers are in the low hundreds. We even see LF readings in the hundreds and HF of less than 100. These low readings are indicative of chronic stress.

The Good News Is….

…you can re-wire your nervous system, increase your power numbers (and your resiliency) and measure your progress via HRV. How? By using Centerpointe Research Institute’s Holosync® audio technology in combination with the SweetWater Health iPhone app called SweetBeatLife.

Holosync® audio technology provides a super-enriched environment for your nervous system, causing enormous, beneficial changes in the brain. SweetBeatLife is the easiest and most accurate way to measure your HRV and track the changes in your nervous system as you progress through the Holosync® program.

By creating resilience via Holosync® meditation, people and situations that used to stress you no longer affect you the same way. Your nervous system becomes more balanced and resilient.

What is Holosync®?

Holosync® is an audio technology you listen to using stereo headphones, which enables the left and right brain hemispheres to be targeted separately. By gently altering the electrical patterns in your brain, Holosync® creates states pf profoundly deep meditation usually only experienced by advanced meditators meditating for several decades (e.g. Zen Buddhist Monks). Holosync® is based on research by Dr. Gerald Oster of Mt. Sinai Medical Center, a pioneer of the effects of binaural beats on the brain, and the world-famous Menninger Clinic.

Holosync® has been around for twenty-five years, and has been used by over two million people in 193 countries.

Most people know that an EEG measures the different frequencies of electrical brain activity. Alpha brain frequencies are associated with relaxation, focus and concentration and enhanced learning ability; theta frequencies with dreamless sleep, creativity, and visionary meditation experiences; and delta frequencies with deep sleep, access to the unconscious mind, and charisma and persuasiveness. It is believed that in these brain wave patterns, usually experienced during sleep, the nervous system and body repair and recover from the previous day’s stressors.

Research has shown that meditation alters the alpha, delta and theta EEG patterns significantly, thus aiding nervous system repair and recovery. Holosync®, by directing specific sound frequencies to each brain hemisphere, gently creates alpha, then theta, and delta brain patterns.

Your brain responds by creating new neural pathways linking the left and right hemispheres and similar links between the amygdala (the brain’s more primitive emotional center) and the pre-frontal cortex (the source of executive control). This enables the Holosync® user to mitigate emotional reactivity and self-sabotaging behaviors as well as experiencing the other benefits of deep meditation, but without the long learning curve.

HRV during Holosync Meditation

Below are some examples of HRV measurements during meditation using SweetBeatLife. While HRV is dynamic and not the same for everyone, there are average ranges for the general population. Image 1 (below) is from an individual meditating without Holosync®, and who has never used Holosync®. Notice the HRV maxed out at around 695. Image 2 is from an intermediate Holosync® user during Holosync® meditation. During this session the HRV was more than 5400 (higher HRV is a sign of higher nervous system flexibility). The advanced Holosync® user shown in Image 3 maxed out at 12,430 during a Holosync® meditation, clearly signifying a very high and healthy nervous system.

As you can see, the Holosync® users show a significant difference in HRV, a difference enabling them to navigate life’s challenges with more flow and happiness.

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Special opportunity for a limited number of current SweetBeat and SweetBeatLife users:

SweetWater Health and Centerpointe Research are partnering to study the effects of Holosync® on HRV. We’re looking for a limited number of SweetBeatLife app users to participate! Each participant will receive a free personalized HRV assessment valued at $100.00 consisting of a brief assessment at the beginning of the study and a comprehensive report when the study concludes.

If you’re accepted to participate, you’ll not only get the above assessment, you’ll also contribute to scientific understanding of HRV, its relationship to stress and resiliency, and the effectiveness of Holosync® meditation in improving both.

To participate, you must have the SweetBeat or SweetBeatLife app and a supported heart rate monitor, and you must purchase Awakening Prologue, the initial level of the Holosync® program ($179 for CDs or $159 for downloadable MP3s). Centerpointe Research even offers an unheard of one-year money back guarantee on Awakening Prologue. They have millions of satisfied customers around the world (including me—I’ve been using Holosync® for 6 years).

To apply for participation, click here.

Even if you aren’t interested in participating in this study, we strongly suggest that you try Centerpointe’s Holosync® program. It will improve your overall HRV—and give you many other mental, emotional, and even spiritual benefits associated with meditation. Please check out their website.

In a Nutshell

  • Every person has stress
  • Chronic stress may lead to serious health problems such as heart disease, high blood pressure, anxiety, depression and other illnesses
  • HRV is associated with nervous system flexibility
  • A high HRV is indicative of a healthy resilient nervous system that can cope with a wide variety of situations
  • Meditation has been scientifically proven to reduce stress, anxiety and emotional well being
  • Holosync meditation dramatically accelerates the benefits of meditation
  • Holosync and SweetBeatLife provide the perfect toolset for you to achieve and track the benefits of deep meditation

Interview with Ronda Collier: How Heart Rate Variability Can Help You Manage Stress by Primal Blueprint

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Description: Host Brad Kearns talks with Brock Armstrong (the voice of the MDA blog podcasts and a Sweetbeat ambassador/product tester) and Ronda Collier, CEO of Sweetwater Health, makers of the Sweetbeat Life iOS application. Sweetbeat Life allows for convenient Heart Rate Variability (HRV) measuring and information storage. This discussion will acquaint listeners with the basics of HRV, and proceed quickly to discuss some of the finer points of HRV’s effectiveness in monitoring stress and recovery. Heart Rate Variability is a measurement of the variation in intervals between heartbeats. More variation indicates better cardiovascular fitness and stress management, and is represented in a higher HRV number on a 1-100 scale.

Finer details of this show’s discussion include: how Low Frequency (LF) and High Frequency (HF) values correlate with sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system activity; techniques for how to moderate your stress response and improve your recovery through breathing exercises, yoga, meditation, and extra sleep; and a step-by-step process for how to get started in HRV monitoring (buying the proper equipment, operating the Sweetbeat Life app smoothly, and understanding how to best use the informational graphs generated by the app). This is a fantastic show to help you jump head first into the amazing health technology of Heart Rate Variability!

Topic timestamps:

  • What is HRV?: 01:19
  • Autonomic nervous system: 03:01
  • You want a high HRV: 08:32
  • Crossover point: 13:46
  • Look at other stressors: 21:31
  • The brain’s job: 23:37
  • Getting quality sleep: 30:31
  • Analyzing sleep cycle: 33:09
  • How to get started: 35:42
  • How did Ronda get into this?: 42:29
  • Stress measurement: 44:2

Listen to the full podcast here!