From the heart

Understanding your heart rate variability gives a valuable insight into your shooting performance, not to mention your general health

- James Simon

Like many of us I’m sure, for years I lay under the misconception that a pulse as regular as a Swiss cuckoo clock was a potent harbinger of health and vitality. The truth, it turns out, is far more nuanced. Not only does a healthy heart pulsate irregularly, but the variability of its beats can reveal a huge amount about us, including the likelihood of us shooters hitting the next target.

Making the effort to understand heart rate variability (HRV), and how to manage and manipulate it, is a given in many other sports but it’s rarely practised in shooting. So, if you’re looking to gain an advantage over your competitors, listen to your heart, it’s trying to tell you something.

The beat goes on

Remember that first aid course you attended, where the teacher instructed you to feel another student’s wrist or neck for a strong, regular pulse? Well, they were pretty much bang on. A pulse that feels weak or irregular is usually a strong indication that something’s not quite shipshape. However, it’s a matter of degree. Although your pulse may feel like it’s beating as regularly as an atomic clock, it will actually be off by some margin. In other words, if you have a resting pulse rate of 60 beats a minute, which is typical for many adults, your heart still won’t be pumping with the precision of a watch’s second hand. Some beats will be slightly ahead and some a little behind. The time between the beats, which is measured in milliseconds, is known as the ‘R-R interval’ and a variation between one and the next is both normal and healthy.