What I Track Every Morning (And Why I Stopped Caring About the Number)
I get asked this regularly, so let me be specific. Here's exactly what I look at every morning on my Garmin Epix Gen 2, and what I do with the information.
Three numbers. One decision. About ninety seconds total.
HRV Status
Garmin gives you a colored indicator — balanced, unbalanced, or poor. I don't obsess over the absolute number. I look at the trend over seven days.
A single low day is noise. Three consecutive low days is a signal.
Body Battery
This is Garmin's proprietary recovery score — a composite of HRV, sleep quality, and stress data. I use it as a load-management tool.
Below 50: modify training intensity
Below 30: cancel anything elective that adds stress
Sleep Score
Specifically I look at how much deep sleep and REM I got, not just total hours. A six-hour night with good deep sleep often feels better than eight hours of fragmented sleep.
The Decision That Follows
Based on those three numbers, I make one decision: am I in a recovery day or a performance day?
If recovery — lighter training, more breathwork, early bed. If performance — load normally and push where needed.
That's it. The minimum effective dose of data that actually changes behavior.
The Protocol Isn't the Garmin
The Garmin is just a measurement tool. The protocol is the decision that follows the data.
Most people collect the data and ignore it. They glance at the number, feel briefly informed, and behave the same way regardless of what it said.
Don't do that.
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