We continue with our Best Practice series “HRV-Professionals report”. This time we looked over Erich Schwarz’s shoulders and give you an insight into his practical work.

Erich Schwarz

certified hrv-professional
certified mental coach

Mail: erich.schwarz@hotmail.com
website: www.powerscout.cc

Erich, why did you decide to work with the HRV?
“One of the main reasons is the experience that health is always experienced subjectively in the sense of “I’m feeling …”, “I am …”. Even before I knew the HRV, I felt it needed something that would make people emotionally motivated and help to take a healthier path. A complete blood count is of course important, but eventually often not satisfying enough: “Everything is ok anyway! All values are in the green range! ” is too little and unfortunately does not really reflect how it works in many cases.“

How long have you been working with the HRV so far?
“I first came in contact in January 2008. An Ö3 moderator has reported on the radio that after a measurement he now knows of his “LifeFire”. That interested me so much that I registered for the first module in February on the same day.”

How do you use the HRV in your work?
“In addition to the self-measurements, which I have been doing regularly for 11 years now, I apply the HRV in the workplace health promotion with athletes and “normal” people, whom I call “heroes of everyday life”, because they are responsible for themselves and take their own health into their hands and don’t just make great speeches about it.”

How do your clients react to the measurements and results?
“Most clients see themselves confirmed by the measurement in their own perception. Not only in terms of her general health, but even more so when it goes into detail. If you can see in the spectrogram how the ability to concentrate on the PC wears off during work and if fatigue creeps in, if lunch does not lead to an afternoon performance slump, or if running workout improves sleep, it is very trustworthy and satisfying. Experience has shown that the subjectively perceived feeling does not always match with the objectively measured data. Here it is important to have a closer look to know why. These are usually particularly challenging, but also exciting measurements.”

Your best experience with the HRV:
“There is certainly no shortage of interesting experiences with the HRV measurement! But two striking ones:

A new Formula One rider has dropped his jaw when I showed him that while he sits in his (almost) flying vehicle, he has quite passable HRV scores, but when he receives press and sponsorship appointments after the races, he is so stressed that his spectrogram looked like a burnout sufferer. He had never completed a media training and therefore was psychologically completely overwhelmed. After the measurement, he has discussed the stressful situation openly and honestly with his team, has since been well briefed and trained for media appearances. Meanwhile, he even enjoys the contact with journalists.

During a BGF project, an insurance consultant, who was just before his pension, made a measurement in which his grueling occupational listlessness unmistakably came to light in the spectrogram. “We work to rule” was still far too much … But after work, he developed HRV scores that were simply sensational! What happened there? He smiled and said, “Does the term ‘heraldry’ tell you something?” Not really. And then, with the fire in his eyes, he began to tell that he was one of Austria’s leading experts in heraldry, giving high-profile lectures and teaching at university level. He, the little, frustrated consultant! We have still had to laugh a lot about the ambiguous professional life that has now become visible through the measurement. And of course, we kept it for ourselves.“