28/04/2026
We tend to focus mostly on performance metrics, pace, power, strength, VO₂ max. But what often matters more, especially as we get older, is reserve. The ability to absorb stress, respond to it, and return to baseline
Your heart rate reserve is a snapshot of how well your muscle–heart–brain axis is communicating and how much reserve that system still has
Reserve capacity doesn’t show up in a mirror or on a leaderboard. But it’s how your body handles the space between effort and recovery
Reserve is your ability to shift gears. To move from sympathetic drive effort, strain, output, back to a parasympathetic state of recovery and repair. That transition is where resilience lives. And when it begins to slow, you don’t always feel it right away… but you are losing ground
This is why recovery becomes such an important part of the conversation as we age. Not just whether you can complete a workout, but whether your physiology can recover from it and be ready to go again
There’s a simple way to get a glimpse of how your parasympathetic nervous system influences your recovery. It takes about a minute, and most people have never measured it
It’s called heart rate recovery (HRR).
The recovery burden associated with exercise as we age is a major consideration. This metric is a great way to assess whether your physiology can recover from an exercise program
Here’s how I do it… Grab your smartwatch, your bike cleats, or your running shoes. Let’s do this…
The Test:
Pick something that reliably elevates your heart rate, a brisk uphill walk, a flight of stairs, a short jog, a few minutes of fast bodyweight movement. You want to feel clearly exerted, not destroyed. I use a long hill near my house. When my heart rate hits around 160-165 (your numbers will be different), I stop
Note your heart rate the moment you stop. Note it again 60 seconds later. The difference between those two numbers is your one-minute heart rate recovery
