In an unexpected twist, Garmin has added HRV Status to the Fenix 6 series watches in last night’s Public Alpha firmware update. HRV Status is a feature Garmin launched on their Forerunner 955 & Forerunner 255 series watches last month, which tracks your heart rate variability values at night while you sleep, and then plots them against your baseline after a calibration period. The idea is you can use it for longer-term trending of how your body may be handling everything from training load to recovery, to alcohol consumption, or testing positive for COVID.
I’ve written quite a bit more about how HRV Status works within my Forerunner 955 review, and discussed it even more in my video tutorial if you want to dig into that section here. HRV of course is hardly new in the industry, either to Garmin or other players. Companies such as Whoop have built entire products around it. Polar has for years included it in limited form within sleep data, and even Garmin themselves has tracked it in various forms over the years, albeit usually not super visible to the end user.
The idea of HRV status is making it clean and easy to see in widgets on the watch when you wake up. For context, here’s my HRV Status data from last night from my Forerunner 955:
In any case, Garmin previously hadn’t committed (or even hinted/suggested) that it might come to the Fenix 6. Instead, it was only slated to be rolled out to the Fenix 7/Epix series/variants, along with the Instinct 2 series/variants. But, that’s changed.
The most recently posted Fenix 6 public alpha build last night started off with these two line items in it:
1) Added major update to Training Status widget. The main widget now displays Training Status, HRV, and Acute Load data. The widget also contains its own glance view containing Acute Load, Load Focus, VO2 Max, Recovery, Heat Acclimation, and Altitude Acclimation data. 2) Added a new Acute Load graph, which can be accessed via the updated Training Status widget.
(Note: This is for the Fenix 6 Series, Tactix Delta Series, Enduro, and MARQ watches)
That first line is about as loaded a line-item as you can get. While it falls short of including the new Training Readiness feature found on the Forerunner 955 (and in beta on the Fenix 7/Epix series), it delivers the bulk of the HRV Status feature. It also revamps the training status pieces to include Acute Load and other notable FR955/Fenix 7 changes.
After updating the firmware, you’ll see the new training status page, which includes an HRV section. Garmin says that a dedicated HRV widget is coming in the next firmware iteration. In black below is my Fenix 6 Pro with the updated Training Status page (after update, sans-data), while at left is my FR955 showing the HRV Status page the Fenix 6 will soon gain (once I have enough data).
Of course, keep in mind that the HRV Status period has basically two parts to it:
A) Immediate Gratification: This will immediately show your HRV values for last night, including some nifty graphs and nightly average & max values B) Not-Instant Gratification: After 19 nights’ worth of sleep data, then you’ll start to get the color-coding that you see that says whether your HRV status is balanced or not. It takes that 19 days to develop your baseline. Other companies have varying calibration periods, usually in the 10-14 day range, but with HRV, more data is better.
As with any baselining function, if you’ve done something funky in the calibration period (first 19 days), then your baseline data won’t be as accurate. So if you had COVID during that timeframe, or cycled the Tour de France, or went on a three-week meditation retreat to Bali – then that will initially impact that baseline period.
In any event, all this data gets transmitted up to Garmin Connect, where you can see it on your Garmin Connect account on the website or mobile app – like so:
Garmin says that the HRV here is part of Training Status 2.0, which is why you see the Acute Load bits (replacing 7-day load) and revamped UI. In fact, if you look at the Acute Load option within the Fenix 6, you’ll now see the new green ‘tunnel’ showing your ideal load. Acute load better represents the last 7 days of effort than the previous 7-day widget, because it burns off the older load. Meaning, a big workout 6 days ago is far less meaningful to your recovery than a big workout yesterday.
While Physio TrueUp is enabled on my watch, it’s not quite syncing my load over from my other watches, for some reason. Note that HRV Status is not part of Physio TrueUp yet, that’s coming later this year.
So, with all that said, if you’ve got a Fenix 6 and want to join the beta, you can either head to the Garmin Beta sign-up page here and stumble through it. Or, you can read my past post on signing up for the Garmin beta program here.
Because this is the *first* release of the public alpha, this one has to be side-loaded (meaning, copied to the watch from a computer using a USB cable). Whereas once it reaches the official Public Beta stage, then you can go ahead and have it wirelessly delivered to your watch automatically. And as always with any beta or alpha build, be aware that it may do bad things, up to and including data loss.
With that – thanks for reading!
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Exciting to know that the Fenix 6 I bought in November isn’t a complete orphan after the F7/Epix came out quicker than I expected.
Any information if it will be available also on Forerunner 945?
The 945 just had it’s last alpha (11.03) go to release candidate (11.04). I would imagine that gets released relatively quickly, and then the next alpha will probably be in a month or so. I’m crossing my fingers that it will include these features there (though it’s very likely that they won’t come out with the next alpha for the 945 until they’ve worked the bugs out of the Fenix 6 alpha).
Last I checked, it was just slated for the FR945 LTE, and not the base FR945. But at the same time, the Fenix 6 wasn’t slated to get this either…
Hopefully, that would be awesome! My Forerunner 945 is still perfectly fine!
Nice from Garmin! What would be nice too is for Garmin to add a standalone HRV Status to the Venu 2 series to compete with the lowly Polar Ignite series…
Do you know when it’s coming to 945 LTE? I was pleasantly surprised to find the real time Stamina capability there a week or two ago. Fun stuff!
That would be great. I was reading on Reddit people thinking it is unlikely for Venu series as Venu is a lifestyle watch, not a sports watch. I guess it is a waiting game.
I would be extremely happy if it arrived on my Garmin venu 2.
“if you’ve done something funky in the calibration period”
On my 955, during this calibration period, I was doing the Raid Pyrenees, sleeping (or not) is sweltering French hotels. Might have had a few beers too. Do you know if this baseline is a rolling average? Or is it a one-shot thing?
Would be interesting to know. I thought it’s rolling, but I’m no so sure anymore. I got covid the day after I started using 955 (very mild, I was feeling 100% after 3 days, but HRV has been impacted, lower than usual).
Very much a rolling average. It looks at up to the last 90 days of HRV data.
Good to know… but normally .. when i’m going to bed… my watch goes off.. maybe i’ll try it once
I lost my fenix 6 Sapphire cliff jumping in Portugal. It was actually the addition of HRV status on the epix gen 2 that made me go for the upgrade rather than buy another much cheaper Fenix 6. So I’m somewhat miffed they are adding this now and didn’t do so at the same time as they did on the 7 and epix gen 1
@Ray – where are you seeing that there’s now a new public beta for the Fenix 7? I’m only seeing the alpha 9.15 version
Me too and it’s only via side loading not automatically delivered. I got all excited for a minute there!
Ahh, doh, nevermind. I had the FR245 e-mail up, and that had the switch to Beta. Apologies!
From what I can see it means this functionality will be added in this release. You can upgrade to 9.15 OTA but you will be able to for 9.16 etc.
— Alpha version 9.15. adds the ability to update software over Wi-Fi
Sorry that meant to read.. “..-you can not upgrade to 9.15 OTA but you will be able to from 9.16…”
Thanks Ray for this article. Very good news! I’m using both a Fenix 6 Pro and a Polar GritX. Do you think this HRV tracking is on pair with the Polar training load/recovery pro ? The 2 only things that restrained me to ditch GritX is Recovery Pro and native support of Stryd. I can live with the Stryd CIQ app for structured workout but current Garmin’s sleep score and HRV tracking seem less valuable than Polar implementation
Also interesting appeared yesterday in the Garmin connect iOS app was writing of blood pressure to iOS health kit. Any thoughts on if garmin is adding blood pressure to watches/ has a new watch or even a blood pressure sleeve to go with the scales?
BP from watches will always be junk data. Every device ready blood pressure on the wrist is a funky numbers generator. Last time I checked Samsungs implementation for example, they just guessed it from the reading of the OHR sensor.
We ride a lot of calls on the ambulance because people got a cheap wrist BP Monitor and got scary numbers.
If you want to track it, buying a stethoscope and a cuff is still the best method. Tracking it in Connect would be nice but seems not yet to be enabled.
I bought a 955 (and this might not be the right place for this comment) and it’d be nice if acute load actually worked. Mine worked until 1 July and there’s plenty of other people on Garmin Forums with the same issue. Acute load not working also messes up race predictor, training status, probably readiness and I don’t get workout suggestions anymore. I like the 955 but going back to my 935 for a couple of months is a real possibility.
That’s odd, mine hasn’t changed – seems fine. What specifically isn’t working?
It seems acute load get “stuck” and so anything that uses acute load is messed up.
It’s here: link to forums.garmin.com
And attached is my acute load, that’s with numerous GPS runs and rides recorded on the 955 since it stopped updating on 1 July.
The previous alpha mentioned HRV in it’s Strained Training Status I had recently. It looks like this alpha has begun the process of setting up the framework for HRV, but as of yet not seeing any data in the HRV Status field even though I’ve had the previous alpha the near 3 weeks required for data
Is there any newa when the F7 gets the bèta update?
It’s already got the alpha update, my guess is the transition to beta probably isn’t too far away.
Dear DCR, As you are are a dedicated user of the 745 (AKA magma red) Can you please let us know if hrv status will flow down to the 745 watch which is still relatively newish
what’s the “normal” gap between the alpha and beta releases? trying to decide if i want to take the risk with putting this on my fenix manually. i can be patient…but not that patient 🙂
This is for the 6 series to give you an idea of timescales
Discussion Welcome to the new Alpha/Beta Forums! 1313 views 0 replies Started 2 months ago by Jeff_ODQA Discussion Alpha Version 22.75 1222 views 0 replies Started 22 hours ago by Jon_ODQA Discussion Alpha Version 22.74 3339 views 0 replies Started 14 days ago by Julianna_ODQA Discussion Alpha Version 22.73 6668 views 0 replies Started 22 days ago by Julianna_ODQA Discussion Beta Version 21.80 6670 views 0 replies Started 1 month ago by Julianna_ODQA Discussion Alpha Version 21.71 3880 views 0 replies Started 1 month ago by Julianna_ODQA Discussion Beta Version 21.00 2316 views 0 replies Started 2 months ago
Shouldn’t this be “a big workout 6 days ago is far LESS meaningful to your recovery than a big workout yesterday.”
Will Garmin add this data to their health API? link to developer.garmin.com That way 3rd parties can make use of this extra data. Say if a 3rd party wants to use this info to help determine what workouts to give you to do
Does that lack of physio trueup for this extra data explain why people have complained on the forums that the workouts suggested by their watch is different from the ones suggested by their edge unit? The watch knowing more about the person’s training status while the edge unit doesn’t have a complete picture.
I wondering if bringing this function to the fenix 6 has to do with wanting a bigger pool of HRV data about people so have more data to do analysis on for other metrics/features. (Look at some of the statistics HRV4traing has done based on their large data set)
The watches have an other training status algorithm than the edges. Ray mentioned this in the 1040 review. Suggestions could differ because of this I think.
I certainly hope so. I am in a thread with the intervals.icu developer and he is saying there’s no APIs of this new HRV status and Training Readiness. I sure hope that is only a short term issue 🤞
Something I was reading last night made me think it should be under Train APIC link to developer.garmin.com
I thought it required the ELEVATE 4? Nothing from Garmin about that?
Nice from Garmin! What would be nice too is for Garmin to add a standalone HRV Status to the Venu 2 series to compete with the lowly Polar Ignite series…
And what is the major difference between Stress level and HRV status ? Having both these metrics just add up to confusion and redundancy IMHO…
And you haven’t even mentioned Body Battery that as probably the better “overall” metric. Provides more variations too, by going from 100 to 0,using both HRV and Sleep quality. Barring any accidents HRV Status is going to stay within the normal range.
I agree there are becoming too many metrics. I think in general, Training Readiness does a great job at solving that problem for Garmin specifically.
Body Battery: Used on a per-day basis to trend daily energy levels, more for ‘life’ day to day than sport usage. Stress: Simply tracks if your stressed, I find it fairly accurate. Someone might use it to figure out which situations stress them out and resolve that. Or not. HRV: This is more about tracking your body’s reaction to a thing (training/sleep/life/whatever). It’s best used for longer term tracking, though can sometimes be used on a daily basis in conjunction with common sense and real-world feel.
I’d think that Body Battery is built on HRV/Sleep/Stress ? No training load info but then you’re looking at the end result.
Training Readiness is interesting but either you’re Ready…or you’re Not 😉 I don’t find it to be terribly actionable with its 0/100 range…
I noticed a very strong correlation between (lack of) “recharging” body battery during the night and if I had a glass (or two) of wine and/or snacks late in the evening.
Another interesting observation is that when I can focus on actually writing software (turn off Slack etc) body battery actually increases during the day; “regular” work with all distractions sees a normal decline in body battery.
Body battery is my no 2. favourite feature of the VivoActive 4S (no 1. being its vibrating alarm)
wonderful news, I really like my fenix 6 pro. I was thinking about getting the 7, I’m almost giving up. a pity that it doesn’t have Training Readiness, well they could add that right?
Regarding Physio TrueUp: is this fully synched between the 955 and 255?
HRV Status is not today part of Physio TrueUp (meaning, it won’t be sent down to devices). That’s slated for later this year, as part of a broader re-architecting of Physio TrueUp.
I just wanted to say that if Garmin pulls this off and starts to improve the platform as much as possible they will earn a big long term appreciation. Congratulations to the team for trying. (I hope they read it)
I may have missed something, maybe utilizing wrong widget, but on my Marq, keeps requesting a chest strap. Kinda defeats the purpose?
That’s the HRV Stress widget. Different thing
That is really surprise for 6th generation owners. For 7th gen & fr955 users should Garmin introduce some more definetely!
Love that the photo indicates your watch is telling you your “Raining Readiness” instead of “Training Readiness.” Perfect for figuring out if you are in a good spot to write as Mr. Rainmaker or are in regular Mr. Maker mode. Also for figuring out whether you will melt if it’s raining outside, I suppose.
Kudos to Garmin for extending this feature to Fenix 6!
Really kicking my arse now. I went with an instinct 2 because it was due to get HRV, but amazon prime deals had the Fenix 6 pro at just a few dollars more. Someone help me not feel sad that I should have gotten a Fenix 6.
I guess I’m a dunce but I have the latest firmware upgrade on my 6X Sapphire and I can’t see to figure out how to access this. Any suggestions
Down in the widgets roll, you’ll see Training Status. Right now it shows there, but soon it’ll have a separate HRV Status widget too. You can also see the data after each night on Garmin Connect Mobile in the stats.
aha! i knew this hrv stuff wasn’t tied to the elevate 4 sensor. garmin just basically decided to do nothing with hrv data all of this time and now they suddenly have found Jesus
Thank you for such a good news Ray. After many years of reading your review, just wondering how many watch you normally wear overnight and how it look like ^_^
Haha…just two watches. Plus Whoop 4.0 on usually an armband, and Oura on the finger.
You’ve tested these, so this is your personal preference? I am keen to know why you wear a Whoop and Oura ring (and a Garmin watch?) all tracking HRV?
PS I’ve tested a FR255S and Oura Ring V3 for overnight HRV (for 2 weeks) and it is almost identical.
Ahhh … so my F6x and Applewatch seem normal then … haha
I assume you also wear more than 1 watch at a time during normal workday? If so, can you share some pictures? I’m struggling how to wear AW and F6x at the same time 😉
“As with any baselining function, if you’ve done something funky in the calibration period (first 19 days), then your baseline data won’t be as accurate. So if you …..or went on a three-week meditation retreat to Bali – then that will initially impact that baseline period.” So my FR955 arrived on the Wednesday before I flew NZ to UK via Singapore – ie lost 12 hours of time and was also in a fairly atypical routine. Just checking that in reality this just means the data in the watch may take a bit longer to be reliable as it gets more data that’s more normal, as opposed to the watch taking this first 3 weeks as ‘gospel’ and as a forever reference.
Correct, it’ll just take a bit more time for that event to wash out, it’s forever updating (well, it has a rolling day period).
I have A Fenix 5 and I’m one of those people where the wrist-based HR measurement is terrible when exercising. I usually wear a Wahoo chest HR band to get an accurate measurement, but when I’ve either forgotten to wear it or the battery has gone flat, the Fenix 5 HR wrist measure is woeful (always low – up to 30bpm). I’m interested in HRV in newer Garmin models, but wonder if I would get an accurate wrist HR (HRV) measurement given my experience with the Fenix 5? Interested in your thoughts on this.
I installed this on my Fenix 6 Pro, and while the widget is there, the HRV status never updates. I’ve worn the watch for 36 hrs continuously since the install, and sleep status updates fine.
Correct, HRV Status won’t update for another 18 days (assuming you’ve done one day now). You should however see nightly HRV details already in Garmin Connect though. Once you’ve completed the 19 day baseline, then that particular section will light up.
Additionally, in the next firmware version, you’ll see the HRV Status widget, which gives you the nightly day before the 19 day period. That just didn’t make the cut for this Alpha build (photos above showing what it looks like on a FR955 though).
From what the widget says, you actually need to wear the watch for seven days to see last night’s data (see screenshot). So no instant gratification yet 🙂
That’s the 7D average. Odd, my understanding was that you should be seeing the per-night data in there (little chart thingy).
In my case, my account is got plenty of data in it, so it’s hard for me to repro that at the moment.
22.76 fixed it and added an HRV widget – see picture
Updated pic of widget in 22.76
As a Fenix 6X owner I can only encourage this approach by Garmin. Hopefully this is the start of a policy change by Garmin, with watches being updated far longer. At least for let’s say 4 to 5 years. More is better. In my opinion these watches are way too expensive and way too well built to be technologically left behind for those options that could be added from a technical point of view.
I just purchased the HRM Pro Plus strap just to get nightly HRV – haven’t even opened it yet. I recently heard the EPIX will receive this functionality as well (the watch I own). Does that mean I don’t need the HRM Pro Plus strap? Will this firmware provide the same data/functionality as the strap? I wouldn’t be using the strap for anything else – my type of training doesn’t need it. I’m more interested in HRV for health reasons.
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Yeah, love the new update on the old 6XPro!!
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