What do the Green, Yellow, and Red indicators mean on the Morning Readiness reading analysis?
N/A: You see this indicator type on your first Morning Readiness reading (or if you haven’t taken a MR reading in a while). The score of n/a shows that you need to establish a baseline of a few days to compare to before you can start receiving Morning Readiness scores, indicators, and recommendations.
Green: indicates that compared to your own personal trends, you should be able to handle more stress today and still experience stability or favorable adaptation over the long run. In other words, if recovery and long term results aren’t your goal for today, then the absolute value of HRV may be more important than the Green, Yellow, Red indicator.
This often includes being able to:
- Exercise a little harder than normal
- Tackle a few more items on your to-do list
- Think a little more clearly at work or school
- Have a little more fun with alcohol, cheat foods and bedtimes :)
Yellow (Sympathetic): indicates the body is under a bit more stress or reduced recovery than usual. If your goal for today includes long term growth or results, consider lighter exercise and reducing stressful activity unless you have restful days coming up or if overdoing it is not a concern. Otherwise, you may be able to expect a small performance boost on this day (depending on your circumstances).
Yellow (Parasympathetic): indicates the body’s recovery systems are working overtime to recover from a large or accumulated stress. This state is correlated with overreaching in training, fighting off illness, or other overactive parasympathetic (recovery) systems.
Red (sympathetic): indicates the body is experiencing deeper levels of stress or fatigue. To avoid over training or over stressing it is highly recommended to prioritize rest.
Red (parasympathetic): indicates a deeper level of recovery activity in response to accumulated stress and very likely, illness. The body could also be reaching an over-trained state. It is strongly recommended to prioritize rest and recovery.