Green, yellow, red — and the four physiological inputs behind each. How Whoop weights HRV against sleep and respiratory rate to produce its morning recovery number.
Whoop calculates Recovery as a percentage (0–100%) each morning based on physiological data collected during sleep. The score reflects how well your body has recovered from the previous day's strain relative to your personal baselines.
| Input | Approximate Weight | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| HRV (RMSSD) | ~50% | Highest weighted input. Compared to 30-day rolling baseline. |
| Resting heart rate | ~25% | Overnight lowest HR. Lower = better recovery. |
| Sleep performance | ~15% | Duration + consistency + disturbances vs need |
| Respiratory rate | ~10% | Deviation from personal baseline. Illness marker. |
Note: Whoop does not publicly publish exact weightings. Estimates based on reverse-engineering and published research analysis.
Whoop deliberately measures HRV during the final sleep stage rather than as an overnight average. The rationale: HRV at the end of sleep reflects how well the autonomic nervous system has recovered, after the body has had maximal opportunity to restore parasympathetic tone. This differs from Oura's overnight average approach.
Whoop tracks daily Strain (0–21 scale reflecting cardiovascular load). Recovery informs how much Strain is appropriate on a given day. This bidirectional feedback loop — strain vs recovery — is the core of Whoop's training load management model.