Recovery Score

What is the Recovery Score

The recovery score quantifies how well your body is prepared to handle physical challenges. Paying attention to your recovery score can help you choose the right type of exercise, prevent injuries caused by overtraining, and make new training habits more sustainable.

How to Interpret the Recovery Score

The recovery score is displayed as a percentage; the higher the percentage, the better the recovery.

A high recovery score indicates that your body has fully recovered and is in excellent condition for challenging workouts.

A low recovery score suggests that your body needs more time to recover. High-intensity exercise, sleep, stress, lifestyle habits, and diet can all affect recovery. It is recommended to focus on active recovery, such as meditation, nutrition, and increased sleep, to improve the recovery score.

For example, if you are a running enthusiast planning to participate in an upcoming marathon, you wear your Apple Watch to bed every night. The next morning, you check the recovery score on PeakWatch. If the score is high, PeakWatch will recommend high-intensity training for the day. Conversely, if the score is low, it indicates poor body condition, and PeakWatch will suggest light recovery training or a rest day.

It is important to pay attention not only to the current recovery score but also to its long-term trends. If you notice a continuous decline in the recovery score, it may indicate overtraining syndrome, requiring systematic adjustments or other medical interventions.

Factors Affecting the Recovery Score

The recovery score is calculated by analyzing two key physiological indicators: heart rate variability (HRV) and resting heart rate (RHR). These indicators reflect the activity of the autonomic nervous system, which controls unconscious physiological functions like heartbeat.

PeakWatch uses a rolling average of your HRV and RHR over the past 60 days as a baseline and compares it with the current day's readings to determine your recovery score. This involves complex statistical analysis, but simply put, it compares your current physiological state with the average level over the past to help you assess your recovery status and readiness for exercise.

Why the Recovery Score Changes Throughout the Day

Although the recovery score is a static daily indicator, it may fluctuate due to periodic adjustments of RHR by the Apple Watch.