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Metric

Recovery

What recovery and readiness scores are built from, why they drop, and what they can honestly tell you.

Recovery and readiness scores try to tell you how prepared your body is for the day, usually by blending HRV, resting heart rate, sleep, and recent strain. They're useful as a trend and easy to over-read on any single day. Here's what these scores are actually built from, what moves them, and where the research supports leaning on them.

What your device actually calls this
Scientific measurementNot a single physiological signal. Every version of this is a composite score combining HRV, RHR, and sleep data through a proprietary, not fully published weighting formula.
DeviceWhat they call itWhat it actually measures
Whoop"Recovery Score" (0-100)HRV (the single most influential input), RHR (measured during deepest sleep), plus respiratory rate, sleep, skin temp, blood oxygen.
Oura"Readiness Score" (0-100)Recent activity, sleep patterns, RHR, HRV, body temperature.
Garmin"Body Battery"RMSSD-derived HRV, daytime stress patterns, sleep quality/duration.
Fitbit"Daily Readiness Score" (Premium-only)HRV, RHR, sleep quantity and architecture, weighted roughly equally with recent activity.
RingConn"Dynamic Health Balance"Weighs recent activity, sleep, and stress into a readiness-style number, though RingConn also reports separate Lifestyle and sleep-specific recovery metrics rather than one consolidated figure.
Samsung Galaxy Watch"Energy Score"Weighs sleep time, sleep consistency, and sleeping heart rate/HRV into one daily number, leaning more on sleep consistency than same-day activity or stress.
Amazfit"Readiness Score" and "BioCharge" (two separate features)Readiness Score generates once each morning from overnight data; BioCharge updates continuously through the day from largely the same inputs.
Withings ScanWatch"Readiness Indicator"Draws on nightly HRV, temperature, sleep, and breathing data. Exact weighting formula isn't publicly documented.
Polar Vantage"Recovery Pro" and "Orthostatic Test"Combines a published two-position (lying/standing) heart-rate and RMSSD protocol with long-term HRV data and subjective feedback, a real peer-reviewed evidence base most competitors' recovery scores don't have.

Despite all four using similar inputs and similar-sounding names ("Recovery," "Readiness"), a real peer-reviewed evaluation found these composite scores are not methodologically equivalent to each other. Direct comparison between, say, a Whoop Recovery Score and an Oura Readiness Score on the same day isn't scientifically sound, even though both numbers claim to answer the same question.

Device measurement accuracy: Uncertain · on the Research Desk
How each device actually shows this
Whoop "Recovery Score" (0-100) Oura "Readiness Score" (0-100) Garmin "Body Battery" Fitbit "Daily Readiness Score" (Premium-only) RingConn "Dynamic Health Balance" Samsung Galaxy Watch "Energy Score" Amazfit "Readiness Score" and "BioCharge" (two separate features) Withings ScanWatch "Readiness Indicator" Polar Vantage "Recovery Pro" and "Orthostatic Test" See every device →

Sources: Whoop's own recovery methodology page (whoop.com) and Oura's own readiness-score support page and blog (ouraring.com), both primary. Fitbit's Daily Readiness Score description from secondary comparison sources. The composite-score-inequivalence claim traces to a real peer-reviewed paper, Doherty et al., "Readiness, recovery, and strain: an evaluation of composite health scores in consumer wearables," 2025, doi:10.1515/teb-2025-0001.

The benchmark
Recovery
Recovery Score Explained: What Recovery Scores Actually Measure

What's inside the number and what it can and can't tell you.

See how you compare
Example result
HRV down ยท resting HR up
would push the score toward the low end
HRV carries the most weight
Research Desk · live file
See the full Recovery Research Desk
Every claim rated Established, Emerging, Uncertain, Insufficient, or Unsupported, with a research log reviewed against new studies on a rolling basis.
Open the Research Desk
More on Recovery
Are Recovery and Readiness Scores Validated?
An evaluation across ten brands found recovery scores lean mostly on HRV, with little transparent or consistent scientific grounding behind the final number.
Recovery Score vs HRV
A recovery score is not HRV. A review of manufacturer documentation found HRV is the most common input, blended with resting heart rate and other signals.
Recovery Score vs Readiness Score: What Are You Actually Looking At?
Recovery and readiness are two labels for composites built from overlapping inputs, most often HRV, resting heart rate and sleep. The weighting stays private.
Why Is Your Recovery or Readiness Score Low?
A low recovery or readiness score points to no single cause. Its inputs, mainly HRV and resting heart rate, move with training, illness, alcohol and sleep.
Studies Test Recovery Score Signals, Not the Scores
Recovery scores blend HRV, resting heart rate and sleep, and none of 14 reviewed scores shared its formula. Studies test the signals, not the scores.
Does Caffeine Affect HRV?
Across 7 trials, caffeine before exercise did not change HRV recovery. A bedtime dose raised sleep HRV and cut heart rate 3.2 bpm in 21 men.
Does Body Fat Affect Heart Rate Recovery Score?
Higher body fat tracks with less favorable autonomic markers such as lower RMSSD. For heart rate recovery specifically the picture is narrower than that.
Recovery Score Signals Repeat at Rest, Not After Workouts
HRV repeated well at rest (ICC 0.81 to 0.86) but not 30 to 60 minutes after exercise (-0.06 to 0.60) in 18 people. No study here tests a named score.
Does Cold Exposure Improve Heart Rate Recovery?
Cooling around exercise sped heart rate recovery in several small trials using fans, vests and immersion. This is about cooling, not cold plunging at rest.
Can Your Recovery Score Predict Health Risk, or Just Tomorrow's Workout?
Slower heart rate recovery predicts worse cardiovascular outcomes in the clinical literature. Your wearable's recovery score is not the same measurement.
Melatonin Before Bed Did Not Beat Placebo on Sleep in a Trial
A crossover trial of melatonin, caffeine and the combination in athletes found no sleep parameter differences between melatonin and placebo at night.
Why Your Recovery Score and How You Feel Can Disagree
Your wearable says you're recovered but your legs disagree, or the reverse. Research on coach and athlete perception shows why the two readings split.
Why Exercise Training Doesn't Fix Everyone's Heart Rate Recovery
More training is supposed to mean faster heart rate recovery. In one clinical population, twelve weeks of aerobic training changed nothing at all.
Why a Low Readiness Score Isn't a Reliable Signal to Rest, According to the Research It's Modeled On
A systematic review found the heart rate changes readiness scores rely on can mean overreaching or genuine fitness gains, and resting HRV barely moved.
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In the works

  • Recovery Metrics That Matter Most

We publish each piece when the research behind it is done, not before. Check back, or start with the benchmark above.

Other metrics
Heart Rate VariabilityResting Heart RateSleepVO2 MaxWearable ECGCGMRecoveryActivityBlood Oxygen

KnowYourPrime Evidence Registry: Finding KYP-ER-0005: Readiness and Recovery Score Validity