Heart Rate Variability
Train Your Nervous System. Reclaim Your Resilience.
You've optimised your sleep hygiene, managed your stress, done what you're supposed to do. And you still can't fall asleep easily, wake up unrested, feel constantly activated.
The problem isn't effort. It's autonomic inflexibility. Your nervous system has lost the ability to shift smoothly between activation and recovery.
Heart Rate Variability shows you what's actually happening.
The Flexibility Problem
Your heart rate should vary between beats. This isn't a flaw, it's a feature.
When you inhale, your heart speeds up slightly. When you exhale, it slows down. The degree of variation (your Heart Rate Variability) reflects your nervous system's capacity to adapt, recover, and respond appropriately to changing demands.
High HRV indicates autonomic flexibility: Your system can activate when needed (meeting a deadline, handling conflict, intense exercise) and then smoothly return to baseline. You recover quickly. You sleep deeply. You handle stress without getting stuck in it.
Low HRV indicates autonomic rigidity: Your system is chronically activated - sympathetic dominance, poor vagal tone, stuck in fight-or-flight even when there's no threat. You're wired but exhausted. You can't downshift. Recovery doesn't happen.
Modern life creates this rigidity. Chronic stress, inadequate sleep, metabolic dysfunction, inflammation - all suppress your vagal tone and lock your nervous system in overdrive.
The result: you function, but it takes enormous effort. And you're running on empty.
Why HRV Matters
HRV isn't just a stress metric. It's a master indicator of whole system health.
Stress Resilience & Recovery: Low HRV creates difficulty recovering from stress, feeling wired and tired simultaneously, chronic hypervigilance, and poor stress tolerance. High HRV builds faster recovery from challenges, adaptive stress responses, robust resilience under pressure, and capacity to truly rest.
Emotional Regulation: Low HRV drives anxiety, irritability, emotional volatility, reduced capacity for complex emotions, and mood instability. High HRV supports emotional steadiness, reduced anxiety and depression, better impulse control, and enhanced capacity for connection.
Cognitive Performance: Low HRV impairs focus and concentration, creates brain fog and memory issues, reduces executive function, and generates difficulty with complex tasks. High HRV enhances mental clarity and sustained focus, improves decision-making under pressure, supports cognitive flexibility, and builds working memory capacity.
Metabolic & Cardiovascular Health: Low HRV correlates with insulin resistance, increased inflammation, cardiovascular disease risk, and metabolic dysfunction. High HRV supports glucose stability, reduced systemic inflammation, cardiovascular resilience, and improved metabolic flexibility.
Sleep Quality: Low HRV causes difficulty falling asleep, frequent waking, non-restorative sleep, and racing thoughts at bedtime. High HRV creates deep, restorative sleep, efficient sleep cycles, natural sleep-wake rhythm, and waking refreshed.
Research demonstrates that low HRV predicts adverse health outcomes across multiple systems - cardiovascular disease, metabolic dysfunction, mood disorders, chronic pain, and premature mortality.
The goal isn't perfect HRV. It's building autonomic flexibility - the capacity to activate and recover smoothly, to respond appropriately to demands, and to maintain resilience under pressure.
Train your nervous system.
What HRV Reveals
Heart Rate Variability measures the time variation between consecutive heartbeats. These fluctuations are controlled by your autonomic nervous system - the balance between sympathetic (activation) and parasympathetic (recovery) branches.
We track HRV using a chest strap sensor, measuring specific markers that reflect your nervous system's state and capacity.
What we discover:
Your baseline autonomic capacity and vagal tone
How stress, sleep, and exercise affect your nervous system
Patterns driving exhaustion, anxiety, and poor recovery
The connection between your physical state and emotional regulation
Your system's ability to shift between activation and rest
This isn't just tracking a number. It's understanding how your autonomic nervous system shapes your energy, mood, resilience, and capacity to function under pressure.
How We Work
You begin tracking HRV with a chest strap sensor. We establish your baseline nervous system capacity and identify patterns affecting your resilience.
We decode your HRV data alongside glucose trends, symptom tracking, and sleep quality. We identify what's driving your autonomic rigidity (chronic stress patterns, metabolic dysfunction, inadequate recovery, lifestyle factors maintaining activation) and co-design personalized strategies to restore flexibility.
We implement targeted interventions: HRV biofeedback training (resonance frequency breathing to rebuild vagal tone), nervous system regulation practices, metabolic optimization, sleep restoration, and recovery protocols. We track changes in your HRV, subjective experience, and functional capacity.
Most clients see measurable HRV improvements within 8-10 weeks alongside subjective shifts in sleep quality, stress resilience, and recovery capacity. Mid-program, we reassess baseline versus current function, refine protocols based on response, and embed sustainable practices that maintain resilience long-term.
Vagal Tone & Training
Vagal tone is your nervous system's responsiveness - how effectively your vagus nerve activates the parasympathetic system to create rest, recovery, and regulation.
The vagus nerve is the primary brake pedal of your autonomic system. It wanders from your brainstem through your throat, heart, lungs, and digestive system, coordinating the rest-and-digest response.
When vagal tone is low:
Your brake pedal barely responds. You can activate (gas pedal works fine) but can't downshift. You're chronically sympathetic-dominant - wired, hypervigilant, unable to recover. Sleep is disrupted. Digestion suffers. Inflammation increases. Emotional regulation deteriorates.
When vagal tone is high:
Your brake pedal is responsive. You can ramp up when needed (meeting a deadline, handling conflict, intense exercise) then smoothly return to baseline. You recover quickly. You sleep deeply. You maintain emotional steadiness. Your system is flexible, not fragile.
Research demonstrates that vagal tone is trainable through targeted interventions: HRV biofeedback training, nervous system regulation practices, metabolic optimisation, and recovery protocols. Measurable improvements in autonomic flexibility typically emerge within 4-8 weeks.
We use HRV data to understand how your system is functioning and what it needs to restore resilience. The result: a nervous system that can activate when life demands it and recover when it's safe. This is what resilience actually looks like.
Who This Is For
You're high performing but exhausted. Wired but tired. Functioning but it takes enormous effort.
You experience sleep disruption, chronic stress you can't shake, difficulty recovering from challenges, or anxiety that doesn't respond to standard interventions.
You want objective data, not vague wellness advice. You value evidence over trends. You're ready to address root causes, not manage symptoms.
You don't need to have diagnosed autonomic dysfunction to benefit. This is optimisation for people whose nervous systems are stuck in patterns that no longer serve them.
FAQs
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A chest strap heart rate monitor. The monitor and chest strap are provided for the duration of your 12-Week Systems Reset program. Wrist-based wearables (Apple watch, WHOOP etc) provide trends but lack the precision for HRV biofeedback training.
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Most clients notice subjective shifts within 2-4 weeks (falling asleep faster, feeling calmer after stress). Measurable HRV improvements typically emerge at 4-8 weeks with consistent practice. Sustained changes solidify by 10-12 weeks.
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No. Breath-work is one component. We address sleep, metabolic function, nervous system regulation practices, recovery protocols, and the lifestyle factors maintaining your autonomic rigidity. It's a systems approach.
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Glucose instability suppresses HRV. Chronic stress dysregulates metabolism. Your nervous system and metabolic system are inseparable. We optimise both simultaneously for whole-system regulation - this is what makes the wellbeing + co approach effective.
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The chest strap is yours to keep. The monitor is returned at the end of the 12-Week Systems Reset program.
Ready to Restore Your Resilience?
Stop pushing through. Start regulating.
HRV training reveals your nervous system's capacity and creates the autonomic flexibility required for sustainable high performance.