How to Read Your Smartwatch

Let's be honest, if people 100 years ago could see what we have on our wrists their heads would explode. Not only do our watches tell time, but most of them can also send texts, play music, and read tons of health metrics. In fact, it is accurate enough that many cardiologists are asking to use Apple Watch data when making their diagnosis. Whether it’s a Garmin, Apple Watch, Fitbit, or anything else, they can track a lot.  

I know those charts and numbers can seem overwhelming, here’s five of the more important metrics, what they mean, and how you can know if they are getting better. 

Steps👣

What it is: This is probably the most straight forward metric. This is simply the number of steps you take a day and can be a good way to know how active you are throughout the day.

Why it matters: Simple, the more you move the healthier you are.

Goal: A good goal for steps is to hit 7,000+ steps a day. A great goal is to get 10,000+.

RHR❤️

What it is: RHR stands for resting heart rate. This is your heart rate when you’re not doing anything—like sleeping, lounging, or staring at your phone pretending to work.

Why it matters: RHR tells you how efficient your heart is. The better you get at cardio, the less your heart needs to beat when you are doing nothing.

Goal: Slowly decrease your RHR overtime.

Sleep Score 💤 

What is it: Sleep score is a score of 1-100 that you will get based on your light, deep, and REM sleep. The better sleep you get the higher the number.  

Why it matters: Getting good sleep is everything. The more sleep you get, the better you recover, the more you can focus, and the more energy you will have. In my circle this quickly becomes a competition to see who can get the highest score (Yes, I know I’m boring). 

Ways to improve your score: 

• Eat your last meal 2 hours before bed. 

• Get plenty of exercise. 

• Go to bed earlier. 

• Avoid screens before bed. 

Goal: Get the highest score, beat everyone in the office. 

HRV Status 🛏️

What is it: HRV status stands for heart rate variability, and it may be the hardest to understand. Your HRV is the average amount of variation in time between heart beats during your sleep.  

Why it matters: The more stressed you are, the more your heart works like a metronome with no variation (Low HRV). The more relaxed you are the more your heart can beat when it feels like it without keeping good time. So, a higher heart rate variability means you are recovered and stress free.  

Goofy analogy I saw: Low HRV is like a marching army. Stressed, rigid, and lock step. It’s not variable. A high HRV is like a hippie. Groovy and relaxed man - highly variable. 

Pro Tip: Your HRV status lowers drastically right before you get sick as your body starts to fight the infection. If you see your HRV drop for no good reason, whip out the Vitamin C and cold medicine! 

Goal: Slowly increase your HRV status overtime. Be a hippie! 

Recovery Time ❤️‍🩹

What is it: Recovery is the time you should rest before your body will be able to exercise fully again. After a hard workout it may be three or four days. An easy workout may only result in 12 hours or so. This recovery time is based on training, sleep, daily activity, and other factors.  

Why it matters: When it's time to work out, your recovery time should be at or near zero. On your training days you should see some workouts that result in a really high recovery time, and some workouts that result in lower recovery times. This way you can assume you're getting a good mix of easy and hard workouts. 

Goal: Try not to track too many back-to-back workouts that really rack up your recovery time. Generally, you want to get back to zero before the next workout. 

Final Thoughts 🎯 

Your watch is no longer just a clock; it's a tiny health coach on your wrist. Check your stats from the last 3 months, are they improving? Use this data to know if you’re moving in the right direction. And don’t forget to flex those high sleep scores and be a hippie! 

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