An Expert Guide To HRV & How To Improve It - Joel Jamieson - #264

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
Hello, beautiful people. Welcome back. It is finally no longer 2020, and I'm kicking off the new year with a guest I've been looking forward to speaking to for a very long time. Joel Jamieson is one of the world's experts in HRV training. Heart rate variability is the most popular new metric. Everyone's talking about it. Your whoop strap tells you it. But what is it? Why is it important? And how can we improve it through our training and recovery? Today, Joel gives us a full breakdown, including his history, that he's worked with the metric, what it actually means, how you can manipulate it, both through your training, your lifestyle, through breath work, through the different sorts of cardio output that you're doing, absolutely everything. It's such a beautiful way to break down the murkiness that has surrounded this metric. Also Joel coached Demetrius Mighty Mouse Johnson. He was the conditioning coach for the guy with the longest ever title defense in UFC history. So if you're looking for longevity and health across the long term, this is the man for you. But for now, it's time to learn about HRV with Joel Jamieson. Performance Architect is the coolest job title in the fucking world.

**Joel Jamieson** (1:31)
It took me quite a while to like play around some different ones, and I'd get some emails back, and be like, what the hell do you think you are? And then I finally came up with that one, and it seemed to stuck around, and I haven't had anybody insult me over my title for a while, so I like that one.

**Chris Williamson** (1:44)
I'm a performance architect, so cool, man. So I wanted to dig into HRV today. HRV's like the hot new girl in school at the moment, I think, in terms of the metrics.

**Joel Jamieson** (1:55)
It's funny, because I've been using it since like the early 2000s, and I used to go into a presentation, and I'd say, who here is using HRV, or who's got HRV? And people would look at me like I was asking about an STD or something, because they just had no clue what the hell the thing was back then, right? But now it's everywhere. Apple Watch has got it, and people are talking about it. It's such a big change from where it was, like I said, 15, 20 years ago when I was first getting into it. So it's exciting to see, because it's a valuable metric.
It's one of the few pieces of fitness tech that truly can change people's outcomes and get better results.

**Chris Williamson** (2:27)
You're ahead of the curve, man. Trans-setter.

**Joel Jamieson** (2:30)
Yeah, I mean, I was just, I wish I claimed that it was entirely intentional, but I just kind of stumbled upon to it. And once I did, then I immediately saw the value and jumped into it. But I would never have predicted, way back then it would get as popular as it is now. So it's definitely been a journey to get there for sure.

**Chris Williamson** (2:47)
How did you get started with it?

**Joel Jamieson** (2:49)
Yeah, so kind of a crazy story. There was a guy named Randy Huntington, who a lot of people probably are not familiar with. Randy was a fantastic track coach. He worked with Mike Powell when Mike Powell broke Carl Lewis' 20-year long jump world record. And he's a local guy. And I just kind of came to meet him as a young coach and asked him some tips and things he would advise, and just general advice from an old guy to a young guy. And he said, you should look at this thing called the Omega Wave. And I was like, what the hell is the Omega Wave? And he just kind of gave me a number and said, call this guy. And so I'm like, OK. So I call this number, and it's just thick accent. Sounds like Russian or Eastern European. And I'm like, I barely understand the guy. But he's telling me to meet him in an airport the next day. So I'm like, am I going to get kidnapped? Like, am I going to get myself a guy vodka? Like, what's going on here? So I go down to the airport, and there's this guy in this long trench coat. And literally, I'm like, is this KGB? Or is this like a practical joke? Like, what the hell's going on here? And he tells me basically in the hotel airport to lay down on the couch and take my shirt off. And I'm seriously like, this makes no sense, but I trust Randy, and if I'm, you know, like, okay, I'll play along.