Hi friends. This post is a bit sassy and probably of unpopular opinion, but I have to write it. In the current world of fitness trackers and sleep scores, of dynamometers and max hangs, I worry that we’ve forgotten how to interpret the most important sensor of all: ourselves. Let me explain.
Our world in data
Data is amazing. I’m not contesting that. Devices that measure things in quantitative terms so that you can analyze data and draw conclusions are pretty fucking cool. I have a smart watch. I spent an hour and 37 minutes in REM sleep last night.
Here’s my issue: most of these devices measure one variable. One. But we humans are infinitely complicated. Our biological imperative is to maintain homeostasis (a state of steady internal, physical, chemical, and social conditions). We are in a constant equilibrium that our bodies control: our temperature, our blood sugar, the pH of our digestive systems… literally everything.
When we change something, our bodies try to counteract that change. If I go outside in Las Vegas in the middle of summer when it’s 120 degrees, I start to sweat. I’ve altered my environment to be hotter, and my body is working to cool me down and maintain my core temperature. Think about it: if bodies didn’t do that we would all die very quickly.
That’s a very simple example, but it applies widely. So looking at one thing and drawing overarching conclusions from it doesn’t necessarily make sense. What I mean is probably best illustrated by an example…
Let’s talk about heart rate variability (HRV)
If you have a smart watch, I’m sure you know all about HRV. If you don’t, it’s a measure of the variability between your heartbeats. A higher number (more variability) is better. The reason why is beyond the scope of this blog post, but you can take my word for it or ask Google.
Most fitness trackers spit this number out, and it’s interpreted as a measure of how recovered you are. Ever heard of “Body Battery” on a Garmin device? It’s “a feature that uses a combination of heart rate variability, stress, and activity to estimate a user’s energy reserves throughout the day.” Basically, if your HRV is low, you might be fatigued – and if it’s high, that could point to you being well-recovered.
It’s worth mentioning here that any HRV reading from a wrist strap is limited, and a watch’s measure of stress is at best an estimate and at worst a total shot in the dark.
That sounds all well and good right, so what’s the problem? Well, HRV is just one variable in an ocean of measurable – and unmeasurable – variables. It’s one that can be measured easily and non-invasively. That does not mean it is the be-all and end-all.
We humans like to explain and categorize things. It helps our brains to process all the sensory input that we receive all day, every day. But for most of us, it’s very hard to read an HRV score (or any number of other things that can indicate how you might be feeling) and not let that bias how we feel.
I know so many people who wake up in the morning and immediately look at how they slept and what their HRV did overnight. If you haven’t gotten out of bed and established how you feel that day, your feelings are going to be swayed by those numbers on your phone. And that’s my problem.
Just as an aside, this is actually something that scientists study. Here’s a link to a systematic review that questions “whether or not sleep tracking and the behavioral feedback it affords users is beneficial for sleep or if this practice perhaps induces anxiety about sleep onset or duration”. The review ultimately concludes “the compelling question as to whether sleep tracking is helpful or harmful for patients remains unanswered”.
We are such sophisticated creatures that it’s impossible for a device to tell us how we feel. I mean, even that sentence is ridiculous. That device is giving us a number, to which we’re ascribing feelings. But you know the great thing about feelings? They’re ours. As everybody who has ever had an argument with their significant other knows, nobody can tell you how you feel. No device can tell you that either.
The bigger picture
Only you know if you are hungry. Only you know if you are full. And only you can tell how recovered you are. Data can give you clues to all these things, but that’s all they are: clues. Ever taken three rest days only to feel less recovered than the last time you climbed two days in a row? Exactly.
HRV is one thing. But in the information age, data permeates everything. Want to track your calories? There’s an app for that. But that app will never be able to tell you how many calories you burned in a day (or even how many you consumed, given that calorie labels are far from accurate – a post for another day if anybody is interested?).
I see people making decisions about their lives and about their training based on these kinds of numbers, which are a teeny tiny piece of the puzzle. “I feel good but my Body Battery is only 34% so I’m going to do a lighter session.” Or worse: “I feel exhausted but my Apple Watch says I slept really well and my HRV is at an all-time high, so I’m gonna go to the gym”. That’s how you get injured.
Sometimes, it’s nice to feel like absolute ass and check your HRV to see that it’s been plummeting. That probably reinforces your decision to not train that day. But getting that nice little pat on the back that you did good isn’t worth overweighting data and making bad decisions because of it. I promise.
For good measure, here’s an example from my own HRV data, where I got my hardest-ever flash on a day with a very low HRV score.
So what can you do instead?
It’s pretty simple: listen to your body and its gut instincts. I know that probably sounds all New Age and woo-woo, but our (infinitely complicated and sophisticated) bodies send us messages all the time. Some of them we’re practiced at interpreting. Some of them we’re not. But they exist, whether we’re listening or not.
You might be thinking “that sounds nice and all but it’s not very actionable”. And you would be correct. So I’m going to give you some actionable ways to start listening to and interpreting the signals your body sends you.
How to listen to your gut
Let’s look at the signals we all know first: hunger and tiredness. These are generally pretty obvious. And if we ignore them, there are consequences. That’s why most of us can recognize these signals. We just need more practice listening to the more subtle ones.
As for how to do that, let’s pick a signal: fatigue. Being able to accurately assess how tired you are is extremely useful in climbing. That’s how you know when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em, so to speak. And there are a number of measurable things that can help with this (hours of sleep, days of training, life events, etc). But most of the time, your body will know whether you should be climbing or not. Here are some clues:
- Lower psych than usual
- Feeling like you “should” rest (even if you don’t want to)
- Thinking about all the things you could do if you didn’t climb
- Needing caffeine to get through a session
- Feeling relieved if the weather changes such that you can no longer climb
Let’s dig a little deeper into one of those: lower psych. Climbers are usually very psyched. If you’re not psyched, it’s probably for a reason. Learning to trust that signal (of low psych) and make quality decisions (like maybe not climbing that day) is a process.
Once you’ve noticed one of these signals, the next step is to make a decision. Let’s say you decide not to climb. Cool. Here’s the important part: reflect on the outcome of that decision after the fact. If you’re anything like me, 99% of the time you’ll be saying “I’m so glad I didn’t climb today” later. That’s a data point! It might not come in a neat little package, but it’s data nonetheless. Save it – either in your head or write it down. Repeat.
Over time, you’ll collect a huge database of information based on your experiences. And that, my friend, is far more valuable than an HRV of 93 – or any other single variable.
In defense of external data
As I said, data is amazing. I’m not saying to throw this stuff out of the window. I’m just saying to take it with a grain of salt; to be interested in it rather than controlled by it. Pulling lower numbers than usual on your hangboard? There are about a million reasons why that could be and a million things you could choose to do with that information. Collate it with all your other data – both quantitative and qualitative – and make a decision based on all of the information that you have. That includes how you feel.
The better you are at listening to your gut, the more useful data is. I’ve spent years practicing listening to my body, and I use data to provide context to how I feel when it seems accurate. Remember, none of this is a perfect science. If I feel good but xyz thing says I should feel bad, I ignore it. Trusting your murky feelings over *science* can be really hard, but even your murkiest of feelings are about 1000x more accurate than what your Fitbit says – if I’ve calculated that correctly.
That’s it. The end. If you’ve made it all the way to the end of this post, let me know your thoughts. You can leave a comment below or message me on Instagram. Until next time ✌️
Image credit: Ryman Wiemann