Training and breathing safely

HQ is not medical advice

HQ is a training and wellbeing tool. Its plans, charts, scores, estimates and suggestions are not medical advice, diagnosis or treatment, and HQ is not an emergency monitoring system. Readings from a watch, a ring or a scale can be late, incomplete or simply wrong, and a number that looks alarming is not a diagnosis.

If you feel unwell, seek advice from a qualified health professional. If you think you are having a medical emergency, call your local emergency number.

Before you train

You confirm, when you set up a plan, that you are healthy enough to exercise, or that you have checked with a doctor first. If you are returning from injury or illness, are pregnant, or have a condition affected by exercise, speak to a health professional before starting a plan.

A plan is a suggestion, not an obligation. A session you are too tired, sore or unwell for is a session to skip or shorten, and doing so is not a failure — it is the point of training by feel as well as by numbers.

While you train

Stop and seek medical help if you have chest pain or pressure, severe breathlessness, an irregular or racing heartbeat at rest, dizziness or fainting, sudden severe pain, or confusion.

Build up gradually. Most training injuries come from doing too much too soon rather than from one hard session, and a plan that jumps because you missed a week is a plan to adjust.

Breathwork

Breathwork changes your heart rate and blood gases quickly, and can make you light-headed or faint. HQ asks you to confirm this before your first class, and asks again when this information changes.

You confirm that

• You are 18 or older.
• You are not pregnant.

Never practise while

• Driving, riding or cycling
• Operating machinery or tools
• In or near water: the bath, a pool, the sea
• At a height, or anywhere a fall could hurt you

Always

• Sit or lie down somewhere safe and comfortable, where feeling light-headed would not put you at risk.
• Stop at once and breathe normally if you feel dizzy, faint, tingly, anxious or stressed, or have any pain or discomfort.

Talk to your doctor before you begin if you have, or have had

• High blood pressure
• Epilepsy or seizures
• Diabetes
• Schizophrenia or psychosis
• Uncontrolled hyperthyroidism
• Chest pain or heart problems
• Sickle cell anaemia
• Cancer
• An arterial aneurysm
• Kidney disease
• Panic disorder or anxiety
• Severe sleep apnoea
• Any other cardiovascular condition

Asthma: go easy on fast and power breathing, keep your reliever close, and skip classes marked Intense if they bring on symptoms.

HQ's classes are general wellbeing practice. They are not medical advice or treatment.

Your health data

To plan training and show how you are responding, HQ stores what you record and what you choose to connect: sessions, their duration, distance and heart rate, sleep and recovery readings from a connected device, body weight, and your breathwork practice including BOLT scores.

You choose what connects, and disconnecting a service in your settings stops future imports. What the service holds, how long it is kept, who can see it, and how to export or delete it are in the privacy policy.

A coach you accept can see your sessions, your calendar, and your fitness, fatigue and form. They see nothing until you accept, and ending the coaching ends that access.

Where you agree to this

Creating an HQ account accepts this information along with the terms of service and the privacy policy.

The app asks again for the parts that matter before they apply: training safety when you set up your first plan, and breathwork before your first class. Each is recorded with the time you agreed, and breathwork is recorded with the version you agreed to, so you are asked again if this information changes in a way that matters.

You can decline. Declining the breathwork information means the classes stay closed; everything else in HQ still works.

Questions

Write to hello@hq.training.