Recovery Score Calculator

Useful self-report signals: 7+ hours of quality sleep, no significant muscle soreness, low stress, and a subjective energy level above 6/10. If several of these are poor, consider a rest or easy day. Resting heart rate near your baseline and HRV near your average are additional indicators, but they are not used by this calculator, which is built only on the self-reported inputs above. For measured HRV, see the HRV Decoder.

Sleep is one of the most important modifiable recovery factors — growth hormone is released during deep sleep. Other major factors: nutrition (protein timing, hydration), stress levels, training intensity of previous sessions, and age.

As a rule of thumb, small muscle groups (arms, calves) recover in 24-48 hours, large muscle groups (legs, back) need 48-72 hours, and high-intensity or eccentric training can extend recovery to 96+ hours. These ranges are heuristic, not from a single trial. Recovery is individual and improves with training age.

Active recovery (light walking, easy swimming, yoga) may modestly reduce muscle soreness shortly after exercise, though evidence is mixed and the benefits are small and short-lived compared with complete rest. A meta-analysis (Dupuy 2018) found active recovery had only a small effect on soreness, no significant effect on perceived fatigue, and was inferior to massage and cold-water immersion. Avoid anything that causes additional fatigue.