Using the Mindfulness App for Recovery & How to Not Inflate your HRV

Apple’s Mindfulness App (formerly the Breathe App) comes pre-installed on the Apple Watch and is designed for meditation and relaxation. However, it also has the added benefit of triggering a Heart Rate Variability (HRV) reading—which Athlytic can use to calculate Recovery.

For users who do not have AFib History turned on, their Apple Watch only records 3-5 HRV samples per night, which may not be ideal for Recovery calculations. Because of this, we recommend using the Mindfulness App immediately upon waking as an alternative HRV source for the most accurate and consistent Recovery measurement.

Best practice: Use the Mindfulness App before checking your phone (texts, emails, notifications, etc.) to avoid external stressors that could affect HRV.

How Athlytic Uses Mindfulness HRV

• If you complete a Mindfulness session in the morning (before noon), Athlytic will prioritize this HRV reading for Recovery.
• If you do not use the Mindfulness App, Athlytic will default to using sleep HRV (if available).
• Your Mindfulness HRV reading will NOT be used if you have:
  • “Prioritize Sleep or Mindfulness HRV” turned OFF in Recovery Customization.
  • “Ignore Mindfulness App HRV” turned ON in Recovery Customization.

How to Use the Mindfulness App for HRV Without Inflating Your Readings

While the Mindfulness App prompts you to breathe deeply, we strongly recommend that you breathe naturally instead.

Why? Deep breathing exercises are proven to increase HRV, but when done during an HRV sample, it artificially inflates your HRV and may not reflect your true physiological state. If you breathe normally, your HRV reading will remain consistent and within your natural range, ensuring accurate Recovery calculations.

Pro Tip: To help with this, disable Mindfulness haptics so you’re not influenced by the breathing cues:

1. Open the Watch app on your iPhone.
2. Scroll down and tap Mindfulness.
3. Scroll to the bottom and set Haptics to “None”.

Be Consistent With Your HRV Source

To get the most accurate Recovery trends, it’s important to be consistent with your HRV source. Choose one of the following:

• Use the Mindfulness App every morning to generate an HRV reading for Recovery.
• Wear your Apple Watch to sleep, allowing Athlytic to use your sleep HRV for Recovery.

Why is this important?

• Even when breathing normally, HRV during a Mindfulness session is usually higher than the average of sleep HRV.
• Since Athlytic compares your HRV to a rolling 60-day baseline, switching between morning Mindfulness HRV and sleep HRV can make your Recovery less consistent.
• For apples-to-apples comparisons, it’s best to use the same method consistently for at least 60 days.

Set a Reminder to Use Mindfulness in the Morning

To help you remember to use the Mindfulness App each morning, set a notification reminder:

1. Open the Watch app on your iPhone.
2. Scroll down and tap Mindfulness.
3. Select Allow Notifications.
4. Under Mindfulness Reminders, enable Start of Day.
5. (Optional) Tap Add Reminder to set a custom time.

If none of these troubleshooting steps resolve the issue, consider reaching out to Athlytic support for further assistance.