In the real world I cannot agree more
We do this daily with upwards on 20 team sport players every day of competition training and consistency is the most important factor.
FAR too many people worry about precision in a sport where precision goes out the window in the warm up - let alone the game.
The key word here, might I suggest is, “reliability”
Once the method is reliable and repeatable - in the real world - accuracy is largely irrelevant.
Yes, I mistyped. Reliability in terms of the measurement being reliably the same. It doesn’t matter if a scale if 5 lbs off so long as it is always teh same 5 lbs off.
The reservations NumberTwo mentioned are pretty compelling.
If the test is only six minutes long first thing in the morning…hell, I hit my snooze button three to five times before I get up!
Also, it seems like six minutes of data would necessarily cut back on potential for variation compared to the ithlete by well…about six times, though as svincenz stated, you could always repeat the test a number of times on the ithlete.
Can the reading be used straight off the Suunto / Polar, or does it have to be manipulated?
The data can be collected by the Polar or Suunto and imported directly into Kubios HRV which allows you to display multiple statistical analyses. The most important one is the plot that shows you the influence of the sympathetic vs parasympathetic nervous systems (Frequency Domain Analysis). Send me a PM with your email address and I’ll send you a summary output sheet produced by Kubios HRV.
This is the data output the program was giving me
Hi Lyle, there are errors in the analysis, you have much parameters out of scale.
You have to use the filter option.
Then, there is an error in the choice of the time analysis, this give you incorrect data and FFT spectrum!
HRV has specific rules, if you don’t respect their, you’ll have only “numbers”.
You can send me your file: armandovinci@gmail.com and I’ll do an analysis for you.
I am getting goosebumps from all those graphs… more, more! 
I agree with Armando’s assessment. Do you have other examples Lyle that we can examine?
I am a novice in this area. Would someone with experience be willing to do a short tutorial on what this all means?
I two sentences …
The variation in timed interval between heart beats suggests reflections of aspects of the autonomic nervous system (ANS).
Conclusions are drawn as to functioning of organism, and neurocardiac regulation, through influence of the ANS - (sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system).
(There’s quite a bit out there and under HRV and Omegawave in the search function on CF.com too)
I’ll put something together for you. Maybe a quick video. Once you get the basic elements under your belt, this can be most useful for analysis.
I don’t give a shit so no, this file is from 2 years ago and I don’t bother with HRV anymore. I don’t have the raw data anyhow.
After my watch crapped out, I couldn’t give the first damn. This was just Kubios set with it’s standard setting and saying ‘ur settings are wrong’ requires more than a blank assertion from you to me. Again, I don’t give a damn.
BTw, the dates on these are indicated in the file name
04122008.text means April 12, 2008
all analysis you have posted are full of “errors” (out of scale, no filtering, too much short time of analysis…)