We’re excited to introduce our new HRV & Morning Readiness feature! Athletes who are subscribed to Athlete Premium can now take a daily HRV reading each morning using only their phone’s camera. By simply placing your finger over your phone’s camera, the Final Surge app can now determine your HRV (Heart Rate Variability), resting heart rate, and give you a Readiness Score, helping you make smart, informed decisions about your training and recovery.
If you are not already an Athlete Premium subscriber, you can start a 7-day free trial through the Final Surge iOS or Android app, or by going to the Athlete Premium page on the Final Surge website: https://www.finalsurge.com/premium
Get Started with HRV & Morning Readiness
To take your first HRV reading, open the Final Surge app on your phone. If you use the Daily View of the calendar, tap on the “Take Your HRV Reading” band across the top of the day:
If you use the Weekly View of the calendar, tap the HRV icon at the bottom of today’s weekly column:
If you do not see the HRV option on both the Daily and Weekly view, you can also access it by going to the More menu in the app, selecting Account & Workout Settings, and then scrolling down and tapping on your Athlete Premium Subscription. From there you can then tap on the HRV & Morning Readiness feature:
Take Your First Reading
It is important that you take your HRV readings first thing in the morning around the same time each day. Do this before any activity (shortly after you wake up) to get best results.
To take your first reading, follow the prompts on the screen by giving the Final Surge app permission to access your phone’s camera. Place your fingertip over your camera lens and click the “Start Camera Measurement” button at the bottom of the screen:
Hold still and relax while the reading is being taken. You will see a countdown on the screen showing the reading’s progress:
Once the reading has been completed, you’ll see a success message. Once this message appears you can remove your finger from the camera lens:
The app will take a few moments to process your results, and then display your Readiness Score along with your ANS Balance.
IMPORTANT: A Readiness Score cannot be generated after just one reading. You must take a reading on two consecutive days to generate your first score. The more consecutive days of readings you take, the better we can establish your HRV baseline and give you an accurate Readiness Score.
Viewing your Readiness Score
Once you have taken more than one HRV reading, a Readiness Score will be generated each day, with a suggestion regarding your training and recovery. Each day will be color coded green, yellow or red based on your readiness:
Learn More about Readiness and ANS Balance
At the bottom of the Readiness Score screen is a list of common FAQs. We suggest reading through these to help familiarize yourself with HRV and your Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) Balance.
Setting up In-App Alerts and Push Notification Alerts for Taking Daily Readings
If you would like to receive a push notification each day reminding you to take your reading, or to view an in-app notification when you first open the app each morning, you can configure these alerts by tapping on the settings icon at the top right of the Readiness Score screen:
Using a Bluetooth Chest Strap HR Monitor to Take Readings
If you have a Bluetooth heart rate monitor (chest strap) that you would prefer to use to take your reading (instead of using your phone’s camera), this can be enabled from the reading page. Tap the external device icon at the top of the screen to search and connect your heart rate monitor. Once connected, your reading can be taken this way. This feature supports most blue tooth chest strap monitors but does not support wrist-based HR monitors such as the HR sensor in your watch:
Coach Access to your HRV & Readiness Readings
If you work with a coach in Final Surge, they will also be able to view and see your daily readings. This will help your coach make smart, informed decisions about your upcoming training. This information can also be accessed through the web platform by enabling the Readiness Score option at the top of the calendar, and then clicking on your score for a particular day. Coaches and athletes will be able to view an HRV Baseline chart and historical charts of Daily Readiness and Resting Heart Rate.
Final Surge is excited to offer this new feature to our Athlete Premium users to help take your training and recovery to the next level!
