Several months ago, I downloaded a new app that reads the information from my Apple Watch — both workouts and other metrics.
It uses information such as my workout heart rates and intensity, as well as sleep, resting heart rate, and heart rate variability to calculate my “recovery score.” Based on my recovery score and recent exertion, it guides me on how much I should exert myself each day.
The thought of outsourcing to an app the decision about how intensely I should workout seemed appealing.
Imagine if an app could read your body and tell you what your capacity was in a given day. One less decision for you to make. Sounds great.
But here’s the problem I quickly ran into:
The app doesn’t really know the state of my body.
It might be able to tell me my heart rate stats, but it can’t tell if my muscles are sore or if my body just needs a little more warm-up time before it is ready to push hard.
The app doesn’t know what external stressors are weighing me down that might impact a workout.
When it tells me to push hard, it doesn’t know whether the environment I’m in is conducive to a hard workout. And when it tells me to rest, it doesn’t know if my environment supports that.
These apps are great at distilling data and presenting it in a way that makes it easier to see patterns.
I regularly monitor my heart rate during workouts and look at the trends after workouts. Using different tools to distill the data helps me see patterns better.
But when it comes to how intense to push myself, I listen to what my body is telling me. The app will never know the full story.
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