Recovery score from HRV, heart rate and sleep

How it works in FORM

1. Wear a tracker overnightRecovery needs a night recorded by a wearable that shares HRV, resting heart rate and sleep with Apple Health or Health Connect.
2. Let the baseline buildFORM compares each night with your own last 14 days. Give it a couple of weeks of nights before you lean on the read.
3. Read the band in the morningRecovery shows as Low, Typical for you, Recovered or Primed. Stress shows as Low, Typical, Elevated or High.
4. Decide how hard to goWeigh the band against how you feel and what your plan says. It informs the decision. It doesn’t make it.

Some mornings the bar feels light. Some mornings your warm-up feels like a max. A recovery score tries to put a number on that difference before you get to the gym. It does that by reading what your body did overnight, while you weren’t paying attention.

What goes into a recovery score

• Heart rate variability (HRV): the small changes in time between heartbeats. Higher than your usual often means your body is in a rested state. Read more in HRV, explained.
• Resting heart rate: your lowest steady heart rate, usually reached overnight. A few beats above your normal can follow hard training, alcohol, heat or poor sleep. See resting heart rate.
• Sleep: how long you slept and how broken the night was. Short nights tend to show up in the other two numbers.

Why your own baseline matters

HRV varies a lot between people. Age, fitness, genetics and even the device change it. Two healthy people of the same age can have very different numbers, and neither is wrong. Comparing yourself to a chart of averages tells you very little. Comparing today with your own recent nights tells you something. That’s why recovery scores are built on a personal baseline. The signal is a change from your usual, not the number itself.

How FORM reads recovery

FORM reads HRV, resting heart rate and sleep from Apple Health or Health Connect, written there by your wearable. It compares last night with your own 14-day baseline and gives you one of four bands.

• Low: last night’s signals sit below your usual range.
• Typical for you: a normal night, by your own standard.
• Recovered: better than your usual.
• Primed: well above your usual.

Stress works the same way, against your own 14-day baseline, and reads as Low, Typical, Elevated or High. Recovery also has its own iOS widget, so you can check it from the Home Screen.

Using the band without obeying it

A simple way to use it: plan the week as normal, then let the band adjust the edges. On a Low morning, keep the session but drop a set or skip the hardest finisher. On a Typical morning, do what you planned. On a Primed morning, do the session as written and don’t go looking for extra. Over a month, the bands tell you more than any single morning does.

When it works well, and when it struggles

• Works well: steady routines, where the same watch is worn every night and a change from normal stands out.
• Works well: deciding between a hard session and an easy one when you’re on the fence.
• Struggles: the first couple of weeks, before there’s much of a baseline to compare with.
• Struggles: switching wearables. Different devices measure HRV differently, so the baseline needs time to settle again.
• Struggles: nights the watch stayed on the charger. No night, no recovery read.
• Struggles: one-off events, like a late drink, a hot room or a long flight, that move the numbers for reasons unrelated to training.

Honest limits

A recovery score is an estimate built from estimates. It can’t tell you whether you’re getting sick, it doesn’t detect overtraining, and FORM does not diagnose anything. A Low band doesn’t mean you must rest. A Primed band doesn’t mean you should chase a personal best. If you feel unwell, rest regardless of the number. If your resting heart rate stays unusually high for days, or you feel faint or have chest pain, see a doctor.

How recovery connects to food, sleep and training

Recovery doesn’t happen in the watch. It happens in the hours around it. In FORM, the recovery band sits on the same day as your meals, your alcohol and caffeine logs, and yesterday’s session. A Low band after two glasses of wine and a late dinner reads differently from a Low band after a hard leg day. Recovery and low stress both lift your daily Health Score. If you’re weighing a dedicated recovery band instead, here’s how FORM compares with WHOOP.

FAQ