Readiness score is a vendor-specific recovery or preparedness signal produced by consumer wearables, including Oura's Readiness, WHOOP's Recovery, and Garmin's Body Battery. These products are not one identical composite: each vendor uses its own inputs, baselines, labels, and score bands. Apple Training Load is related, but it compares recent workout load against prior workout load rather than producing an overnight readiness score.
Why it matters
No single biomarker tells the whole recovery story. A readiness score can put a drop in HRV baseline, a restless night, or an unusually hard training day into the same daily context. That is more information than a user can hold in their head, which is why the daily number exists in the first place.
Inputs vary by vendor
The exact formulas are proprietary, and the products should not be treated as interchangeable. The most useful generalized model is a checklist of possible inputs, not a fixed set of weights.
| Product | What the vendor describes |
|---|---|
| Oura Readiness | Sleep quality, body signals, activity levels, overnight RHR and timing, body temperature, HRV balance, and activity balance |
| WHOOP Recovery | HRV, resting heart rate, respiratory rate, sleep hours versus sleep need, sleep stages, and skin temperature |
| Garmin Body Battery | Heart rate variability, stress level, sleep quality, and activity data to estimate available reserve energy |
| Apple Training Load | Workout intensity and duration over the last 7 days compared with the previous 28 days |
This is why composite scores earn their place: they can stop a single green component from hiding a red one. The tradeoff is that each score is only interpretable inside its own product's method and baseline.
How to read it
Use the vendor's own labels before importing another platform's thresholds.
| Product | Vendor score labels |
|---|---|
| Oura Readiness | 85–100 Optimal, 70–84 Good, 60–69 Fair, 0–59 Pay Attention |
| WHOOP Recovery | 67% or above High Recovery, 34–66% Moderate Recovery, 33% or below Low Recovery |
| Garmin Body Battery | 76–100 very high reserve energy, 51–75 high, 26–50 medium, 0–25 low |
| Apple Training Load | Well below to well above, based on recent workout load versus previous workout load |
What readiness reveals about a stack
Because some scores fold HRV, RHR, sleep, temperature, stress, or activity into one number, an intervention that pushes just one component may or may not be visible in the composite. Late caffeine, evening alcohol, hard training, illness, and short sleep can all move recovery-related inputs, but a high readiness score does not prove that a stimulant or stack is well tolerated. A compound that raises HRV while dropping sleep efficiency may not move readiness at all — a real, informative null result.
Wearable differences
The major scores are not numerically comparable:
- Oura Readiness reflects recovery and activity balance using short-term and long-term contributors.
- WHOOP Recovery is calculated during sleep and estimates preparedness for strain against a personal baseline.
- Garmin Body Battery estimates reserve energy from HRV, stress, sleep quality, and activity data.
- Apple Training Load is not an overnight readiness score; it compares 7 days of workout intensity and duration with the previous 28 days.
Track the delta within a single device across a stack cycle; do not compare raw numbers across platforms.
How this appears in Unfair
Readiness score is available as a top-line objective proxy for any stack with recovery, sleep, or performance goals. It is pulled in through wearable sync and charted alongside adherence on the review screen, so a log pattern and a score pattern can be read together. This is part of Unfair's advanced capabilities — simple per-metric tracking misses the cross-component signals that matter most when a compound moves one input and damages another.
Clinical safety note
A readiness score dropping sharply or staying unusually low for several consecutive days with no lifestyle explanation is worth investigating alongside resting heart rate and symptom history with a clinician. Stack decisions should wait until illness, thyroid, iron, and sleep-disorder causes are ruled out.