Measure Your Stress and Recovery Levels More Accurately – Updated Firstbeat Life Analytics Promote Health and Well-Being

Firstbeat Life is the most advanced technology for balancing stress and recovery. The measurement data provided by the service helps to understand one’s own reactions and resources with science-backed confidence. Thanks to the analytics update, the amount and intensity of stress and recovery can be verified with accuracy to the nearest few seconds.

Managing stress and recovery in everyday life challenges both employees and work communities. Increased load and stressful situations are also often reflected in quality of life, health and performance. It is not always easy to identify the factors affecting load or the effects of daily activities just by yourself. Therefore, individual guidance based on reliable objective data can encourage small lifestyle changes that support health and well-being in the long run.

Launched a year ago, the Firstbeat Life wellness solution supports work communities and is available for our partners to integrate into their health and wellness services. Firstbeat Life is an effective tool for users to take care of their own well-being. Service providers and companies, on the other hand, receive a proactive tool based on objective measurement data for developing corporate wellness and the promotion of well-being and health.

Measure Physiological Data With Pin-point Accuracy

Firstbeat Life measurements are based on digital physiological modelling of the body based on heart rate variability (HRV) analysis and 3D motion tracking. As part of the service, we also launched the new ECG-based Firstbeat Bodyguard 3 measurement device, which measures motion tracking data and heart rate to the nearest millisecond – more precisely than is possible with any other technology.

Indeed, the measurement provides the most reliable insights on HRV and autonomic nervous system in motion and at rest, day and night. It is suitable for all users, regardless of skin color or body anatomy. On top of that, the measurement accuracy of the Bodyguard 3 measuring device is even better than our previous Bodyguard 2 device, while the size of the device has been reduced.

Thanks to a personal measuring device, measurements can be taken at any time and personal results are immediately available in the Firstbeat Life app. Even a one-day measurement provides very accurate information about a user’s well-being and the impact of their daily activities on it. Up to five-day measurement periods again show the differences between days and the user’s overall condition in more detail.

Regular measurements offer opportunities for every user to make long-lasting lifestyle changes that have a true impact on well-being and to monitor the effectiveness of lifestyle changes. With anonymous group data, the employer, on the other hand, stays on top of the work community’s overall well-being, while service providers can utilize company and individual results to support change.

Measure Even Small Stress and Recovery Reactions

With the update of the Firstbeat Life analytics in September 2021, it is now possible for each user to understand their body’s reactions, well-being and health even more accurately.

• Measurements identify recovery reactions lasting just a few seconds. Firstbeat Life now measures recovery reactions lasting as little as a few seconds, whereas previously identification required at least 30 seconds of continuous recovery. Thanks to the improvement, a previously unaccounted-for physiological moment can now be reliably defined as a true physiological state.

• Understanding the importance of rest and comparing reactions gets easier. Now, Firstbeat Life users can verify the effects of rest for recovery more concretely than before. In addition, the intensity of stress and recovery reactions can be compared using the Firstbeat graph.

• Recommended recovery and stress levels ​​have been updated. As the analytics update measures users’ reactions more accurately, this also increases the amount of identified recovery and stress in the daily results. For this reason, we have also updated the recommended values ​​of both. In future, the requirement for good recovery is at least 37% per day (previously 30%) and a normal level of stress is no more than 65% per day (previously 60%). The new values ​​are also considered regarding the scores describing the balance between stress and recovery and the restorative effect of sleep.

• Recognition of exercise and sleep becomes more accurate. The utilization of the fitness level measured through brisk walking (VO2max) in refining the identification of oxygen and energy expenditure has been expanded. As a result, exercise and its effects to health are identified more individually and energy expenditure values ​​are even more accurate than before. Firstbeat Life also includes automatic sleep detection with heart rate and motion data, eliminating the need to record sleep in a diary. Identified sleep periods are utilized to break down data into days. Check all the Firstbeat Life key features here.

Significant improvements have been made to the physiological analysis of the new Firstbeat Life solution compared to Firstbeat Lifestyle Assessment, and therefore it is not meaningful to compare the results given by these two different services.

Scientific Research as the Cornerstone of Continuous Development

The development of Firstbeat Life is based on multidisciplinary scientific research, lifestyle recommendations and Firstbeat’s own database. Firstbeat’s big data contains more than a million days of HRV data measured with ECG accuracy.

Our goal is to continuously improve the accuracy of our methods and to validate our metrics against the best scientific reference methods. Our research focuses on the identification of stress and recovery, the quality and structure of sleep, health effects of physical activity and fitness levels, more recently also in unhealthy individuals. We publish the results in peer-reviewed scientific journals; you can see the latest publications here.

Today and in the future, Firstbeat Life is even more accurate and reliable, and development work is not stopping here. We will continue to improve our services based on measurement data, user feedback, our database and the latest scientific information and research.

Firstbeat Life is the most advanced technology for balancing stress and recovery for individuals, groups and work communities. Find out how the service supports your well-being, health and performance.