The Principles of Performance

Podcast 125 – Heart Rate Variability, Stress and Endurance Training with Marco Altini

Jan 22, 2025

Marco Altini, a scientist and developer at the crossroads of health and technology, shares his expertise on heart rate variability (HRV) and performance. He emphasizes HRV's crucial role in assessing athletes' stress responses and optimizing recovery. The conversation covers the interplay between wearables and physiological data, stressing the need for understanding individual differences. Altini also discusses the importance of zone training for endurance fitness, offering insights into training strategies that maximize performance while managing stress.

55:08

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Episode guests

Marco Altini

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Quick takeaways

Integrating scientific data with training practices, like HRV measurement, is crucial for enhancing athletic performance and recovery.

Understanding the impact of lifestyle stressors on training effectiveness allows athletes to make more informed decisions about their performance.

Individualized interpretation of HRV data highlights the importance of tracking personal trends rather than relying solely on population norms.

Deep dives

The Intersection of Science and Training

Marco Altini emphasizes the importance of integrating scientific data with training practices to optimize athletic performance. He has developed HRV4 training, a mobile platform that measures heart rate variability (HRV) and quantifies stress levels, benefiting athletes at all levels. Altini notes that understanding the interplay between lifestyle stressors and training is crucial for improving performance, as many athletes often overlook how non-training factors can significantly influence their overall physiological responses. This awareness facilitates more informed adjustments in training and lifestyle choices, leading to improved athletic outcomes.

Intro

2min

Understanding Heart Rate Variability in Athletic Performance

20min

Understanding the Dynamics of Heart Rate and Variability

5min

Decoding Wearables: HRV and Athletic Recovery

19min

Understanding Zone Training and Its Impact on Endurance Fitness

5min

Exploring Heart Rate Variability and Recovery in Training

5min

Marco Altini is a scientist and developer mainly working at the intersection between health, technology and performance. Marco has a PhD in Data Science and a MSc in Computer Science Engineering as well as another MSc in Human Movement Sciences, with a specialization in High Performance Coaching

He started HRV4Training in 2012, making it a tool that is today trusted by more than 150 000 athletes, including olympic medalists and professional teams. HRV4Training is a mobile platform using advanced signal processing and data analytics to measure physiology and quantify stress, helping athletes of all levels to better balance training and lifestyle stressors to improve performance

Marco also serves as a Data Science Advisor at Oura, helping their team developing meaningful insights from physiological data. In addition, he is also a guest lecturer at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Physiology section of the Department of Human Movement Sciences.

Links:

https://www.marcoaltini.com

https://www.hrv4training.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/altini_marco/

Twitter/X: https://x.com/altini_marco

Strava: https://www.strava.com/athletes/12073735

Substack: https://marcoaltini.substack.com