Recovery
A training app that adapts to your HRV
Most apps give you a recovery score and leave the rest to you. Here's how a plan that actually adapts to your HRV works: what it reads each morning, what it changes, and what it deliberately never touches.
The short answer: a recovery score only tells you how ready you are. A training app that adapts to your HRV goes one step further and changes the session itself: it moves, lightens or swaps today's workout based on how you recovered overnight, and tells you why. Fitovo does this for adults aged 40 to 65, using your Apple Watch, Oura or Whoop.
What it reads, and when
Every morning Fitovo builds a readiness score from 0 to 100 using your most recent night's sleep:
- Heart rate variability (HRV), the clearest sign of how well your nervous system has recovered
- Resting heart rate, which tends to creep up when you're tired, stressed or coming down with something
- Sleep, how long and how well you slept
- Yesterday's training load: a hard day counts against this morning
Crucially, it compares these with your normal, not with a population average. For the first week or two it starts from sensible defaults, then shifts to your personal baseline as it learns what's normal for you. Nothing you do after waking changes the score, so it's a stable read on the night, not a number that jumps around all day.
| Readiness | Score | What the plan does |
|---|---|---|
| Green | 70–100 | Train as planned |
| Amber | 40–69 | Lighten the session or move the hardest work |
| Red | Below 40 | Swap in something lighter, or make it a recovery day |
What it changes
When you're not fully recovered, Fitovo proposes one specific change, such as moving today's hard session to a better day, swapping in a lighter one, or trimming the session you've got. You tap to accept it or keep your plan. It never changes anything silently, and if you say no it won't nag you about it again for two days.
- Norwegian 4×4 intervals drop to 3×4 on a low day.
- Strength sessions move to the lower end of your rep range on an amber day, and to the bottom of it on a red day, with one set fewer on longer exercises.
- Zone 2 sessions are already easy, so they're left alone.
What it deliberately never changes: the weight
Readiness changes the volume (reps and sets), never the weight on the bar. That's a deliberate choice. Adjusting load from a daily readiness score hasn't been validated for people in their 40s to 60s, whereas doing a few fewer reps at your normal weight keeps most of the training effect. It also caps how much a bad morning can take away: however the trims stack up, it never removes more than 40% of a session.
What happens after a run of bad days
Three red days in a row, from illness, stress or a heavy week, switches the plan into recovery mode: breathwork and lighter movement instead of training. Coming back is gradual and led by your readiness rather than the calendar: around 55% of your usual volume the first week, 75% the next, then back to full.
It works around the rest of your training
HRV isn't the only thing that affects how ready you are. Fitovo also reads the workouts you do outside the app from Apple Health, such as runs, rides, swims, tennis and gym classes, and plans around them. It won't stack a hard session on the day after a hard match or long run, and if you've already done your hard cardio that week, it drops the intervals it had planned.
Want to understand the number itself? Read How to Actually Use Your HRV Number.