The other day a Program Manager at work asked me for some advice on how to foster growth for his new open source community specifically around conferences; attending, speaking, setting up events, etc. I’ve given too many talks at International Engineering Conferences to even count anymore so “presenting” was a big theme of what we talked about as that’s where I got the biggest bang for the buck, always. I always liked to come up with catchy, sometimes totally irrelevant, talk titles not only to stand out but to add a little fun to what otherwise might be just another collection of mundane engineering talks. Reminded me of a talk I attended I think in Austin TX many years ago at an OpenStack conference where the talk was listed on the agenda as “Everything I Know About OpenStack I Learned From Game of Thrones” — I attended and it was standing room only LOL. Of course, the talk had absolutely nothing to do with GOT.

Let’s talk about the Vagus Nerve as it too has nothing to do with GOT. It does, however play a significant role in training amongst other things. The Vagus Nerve connects your brain, digestive system and heart; it is the primary parasympathetic transmission route between the three (it does a lot more than that but that’s what we’ll focus on for now). What does that mean? It means it plays a key role in recovery which should be a major focus of any serious training program.

Now lets turn to Heart Rate Variability (HRV) which I’ve posted about before as this metric really became popular with the introduction on the Whoop; now most fitness trackers have it but Whoop was the ground breaker IMHO. Check out my post Time to Whoop It Up from back in 2019. Back then I didn’t fully appreciate how important tracking HRV was. You can read more details about it from the folks at Whoop here: Everything You Need to Know About Heart Rate Variability (HRV). Here’s a quick blurb directly from that article but I do encourage you to read the whole thing before proceeding.

Heart rate variability is literally the variance in time between the beats of your heart. So, if your heart rate is 60 beats per minute, it’s not actually beating once every second. Within that minute there may be 0.9 seconds between two beats, for example, and 1.15 seconds between two others. The greater this variability is, the more “ready” your body is to execute at a high level.

OK, so we’ve introduced the Vagal Nerve (albeit very briefly) and HRV and if you’re following along you can see how focusing on higher HRV can lead to better training sessions through increased recovery. Read even more about that here: How to Use Heart Rate Variability (HRV) to Guide Your Training. But now, back to the Vagal Connection because my goal here is not only to provide you with some incredibly valuable information on HRV but link it to the Vagus Nerve as the vagus nerve is the parasympathetic “brake” for your heart. More vagal activity means a lower resting HR, efficient recovery, better stress tolerance. Endurance and HIIT training tend to raise vagal tone over week leading to higher HRV and faster heart-rate recovery (HRR). Faster HRR is very cool especially if you’re a huge fan of HIIT like I am. Wear your heart rate tracker and watch your heart rate pattern look like this:

If you are not impressed by that chart, you should be 🙂 This came from some very cool research “High Intensity Interval Training Leads to Greater Improvements in Acute Heart Rate Recovery and Anaerobic Power as High Volume Low Intensity Training“.

What else can we do to raise Vagal Tone?

· Consistent aerobic base (Zone 2): 3–5×/wk, 30–60 min. Big driver of higher HRV and faster HRR.

· Sleep: 7–9 h, regular schedule. Single biggest lever on HRV. Whoop can help immensely if your sleep is out of whack.

· Post-workout cool down (2–5 min): Easy movement + longer exhales (e.g., 4-sec in / 6-sec out breathing). Diaphragmatic breathing (see below). Helps vagal reactivation.

· Alcohol & big late meals: both depress HRV.  Minimize as much as possible.

· Hydration & electrolytes: low volume means lower HRV and a tough recovery.

I mention Diaphragmatic Breathing a technique I learned about first in getting my CSCS and then later in a Sports Psychology class as part of my MS in Health Science as a pre-competition relaxation technique. I use it just about every night to help ease myself into an awesome night’s sleep (aka recovery).

I was a little all over the place here with this post but not only do I think this is very interesting data, it is also very actionable. It can make a big difference in your training for sure. There is a lot more you can read about the Vagus Nerve. Here’s a nice overview from The Cleveland Clinic. And another “The Vagus Nerve Connection” from Dr. Arianne Missimer who’ve I’ve been following on LinkedIn for a while. She’s got some fantastic materials.

Happy Training!