Recovery Score Explained
What your Whoop, Oura or Garmin "recovery" really measures — and a quick estimate of your own readiness from HRV, resting heart rate and sleep, with what to actually do today.
Green light. Your body looks primed — a good day for hard training, key workouts or demanding focused work. Still warm up and listen to how you feel.
What each device’s score actually uses
| Device | Score | Main inputs |
|---|---|---|
| Whoop | Recovery (%) | Overnight HRV (RMSSD) weighted most heavily, plus resting heart rate, respiratory rate and sleep performance. |
| Oura | Readiness Score | HRV balance and resting heart rate, body temperature deviation, previous night’s sleep, a recovery index and prior-day activity. |
| Garmin | Training Readiness / Body Battery | HRV status, sleep, recovery time, acute training load and all-day stress (Body Battery blends HRV, stress, activity and sleep). |
| Apple Watch | (no single score) | No built-in recovery score; you can read overnight HRV and resting-HR trends manually, or use a third-party app. |
Educational estimate, not medical advice and not a substitute for any device. The signal is in the trend against your own baseline, not one day’s number — and a score is information to weigh, not an order. Persistent low recovery with symptoms warrants a doctor, not just a rest day.
Readiness, without the anxiety
ONDA Life turns HRV, resting HR and sleep into one calm readiness read — focused on your trend, not a daily score to chase. Recovery you can act on, not obsess over.
Download ONDA Life on the App Store →Sources & methodology
Every wearable "recovery" or "readiness" score is a heuristic built mostly from the same signals — overnight heart-rate variability and resting heart rate measured against your personal baseline, plus sleep, and sometimes respiratory rate, temperature or recent training load. HRV and resting HR reflect autonomic balance, which research links to whether you’re adapting well or over-reaching (Bellenger 2016; Laborde 2017). This tool mirrors that: it estimates a readiness score from how your HRV and resting HR compare to your normal, your sleep, and any illness/soreness/stress flags — and weights HRV most, as the devices do. The single most important caveat (Plews 2013) is that the meaning lives in the trend against your own baseline, not one day’s absolute number — and that a score is information to weigh, not an order to obey. Educational only, not medical advice; persistent red recovery with symptoms warrants a doctor, not just a rest day.
- [1] Plews DJ, Laursen PB, Stanley J, et al. (2013). Training adaptation and heart rate variability in elite endurance athletes: opening the door to effective monitoring. Sports Medicine, 43(9):773–781.
Shows HRV tracks training adaptation — but the signal is in the trend vs your own baseline, not one day’s number.
- [2] Bellenger CR, Fuller JT, Thomson RL, et al. (2016). Monitoring athletic training status through autonomic heart rate regulation: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Sports Medicine, 46(10):1461–1486.
Meta-analysis linking autonomic markers (HRV, resting HR) to positive vs negative training adaptation — the basis of recovery scores.
- [3] Laborde S, Mosley E, Thayer JF (2017). Heart rate variability and cardiac vagal tone in psychophysiological research. Frontiers in Psychology, 8:213.
Connects vagal tone (HRV) to self-regulation and recovery — why HRV anchors every wearable readiness score.
Common questions
What does a recovery or readiness score actually measure?
Despite different names, Whoop Recovery, Oura Readiness and Garmin Training Readiness are built from largely the same inputs: your overnight HRV and resting heart rate compared with your personal baseline, plus sleep, and sometimes respiratory rate, temperature or recent training load. HRV is usually the heaviest-weighted signal because it reflects autonomic (vagal) recovery.
Why is my recovery score low?
A low score usually means your overnight HRV dropped and/or resting heart rate rose versus your baseline — the classic signature of incomplete recovery. Common causes: poor or short sleep, alcohol, late meals, hard training the day before, illness brewing, dehydration, heat or high stress. One low day is normal; a sustained dip is the signal that matters.
Should I skip training if my recovery is red?
Not necessarily skip, but adjust. A red score is a reason to pull back intensity and volume — favour easy Zone 2, technique or rest — rather than push a max effort that you’ll recover from poorly. Light movement can even help. Treat the score as information to weigh alongside how you feel, not an order.
Why do my devices give different recovery scores?
Because they weight the inputs differently and measure under different conditions (and HRV itself is hard to capture from the wrist — see our guide on why HRV differs across devices). Don’t compare absolute scores between devices. Pick one, and watch its trend against your own baseline, which is where the real signal is (Plews 2013).
Is a recovery score accurate or worth tracking?
It’s a useful, evidence-grounded heuristic — autonomic markers like HRV and resting HR do track training adaptation (Bellenger 2016) — but it’s not a precise verdict on your body. Its best use is spotting trends and catching under-recovery early, not obsessing over daily numbers. If chasing the score is adding stress, that’s self-defeating; use it calmly or not at all.