Decide if you should train hard today.
Readiness is the question of whether today's hard session will produce adaptation or just accumulate fatigue. Five inputs carry most of the signal, and they are weighted by how well each predicts performance the next day. Sleep gets the largest share because short sleep degrades power output, reaction time and injury risk simultaneously. Resting heart rate above your own baseline is the classic marker of incomplete recovery or oncoming illness, and it is deliberately compared to your personal baseline rather than a population norm. Soreness, life stress and how many hard sessions you have already stacked this week fill in the rest. The output names your single biggest limiter, because knowing whether you are short on sleep or simply stacking too many hard days changes what you should do about it.
Component subscores
Sleep = min(hours,8)/8 x 100; HR = 100 - 8 x (bpm above baseline); Soreness = 100 - 22 x (rating - 1)
Readiness score
Readiness = 0.30 sleep + 0.25 heart rate + 0.20 soreness + 0.15 stress + 0.10 accumulated load
Decision bands
80+ green, 65-79 amber, 45-64 yellow, below 45 red
General wellbeing guidance for recreational planning, not medical advice. Individual needs vary with health conditions, medication and injury history. Consult a qualified health professional — a doctor, physiotherapist or accredited practitioner — before starting, changing or relying on any recovery, therapy or training protocol.
Resting rates vary enormously between individuals — a trained endurance athlete may sit near 40 while a healthy untrained adult sits near 70. What carries information is the deviation from your normal. Five or more beats above your own baseline commonly signals incomplete recovery, dehydration or a developing infection.
Not necessarily total rest, but no hard work. Easy aerobic movement, mobility or technique practice at low intensity generally aids recovery. What a red score rules out is high intensity and heavy load, which need the body to be in a state to adapt to them.
Because the evidence is strongest and its effects compound. A single short night measurably reduces power output, slows reaction time and raises perceived effort at a given workload, and repeated short sleep raises injury risk substantially. No other single input on this list moves next-day performance as reliably.