Pulse and heart rate variability
The pulse (heart rate) describes the pressure wave that spreads through the blood vessels as a result of the contraction of the heart. He shows how many times per minute the heart contracts to pump blood throughout the body. Resting heart rate is the frequency of the heartbeat when the body is at rest. In order to correctly measure the resting heart rate, it is necessary that the measurement is not carried out immediately after physical exertion and that the test subject has rested before the measurement.
Heart rate variability (HRV) is a spontaneous variation of the heart rate (heartbeat) and describes the heart's ability to adapt to different performance situations.
A healthy heart does not beat evenly like a clock. Between two contractions of the ventricle, which appear on the ECG as so-called R waves, there are time differences in the range of milliseconds. The different distance between two R waves reflects the size of the HRV.
You can get an idea of your HRV by feeling your pulse and taking a few deep breaths: as you breathe out, the intervals between beats become longer and the pulse slows, and as you breathe in, your pulse speeds up.