Plain-language reference
What your Garmin metrics measure, and what they don’t
Seven concise guides to the numbers people use to change their training. Start with the metric on your screen, then learn where the estimate stops being evidence.
metric guides7
languagePlain
sourcesPublic
Choose a metric
Read the number before reacting to it.
- HRVHRVWhat the overnight number measures, how the baseline works, and what a low reading can actually tell you.
- BBBody BatteryHow Garmin combines stress and recovery into one score, plus the reasons it sometimes refuses to charge.
- TLTraining LoadAcute load, load focus and training status without treating the colored gauge as a diagnosis.
- NPPower AnalyticsNormalized Power, TSS, Intensity Factor and FTP: the useful distinctions and the common category errors.
- ZZZSleepDuration, stages and sleep score, including what consumer wearables estimate well and what they do not.
- VO2VO2 MaxHow Garmin estimates VO2 max, why the value drifts, and which changes are large enough to notice.
- HRHeart Rate ZonesThe competing zone methods, when defaults fail, and how to choose boundaries that match your training.
A useful reading order
First understand how the number is produced. Then check whether a change is larger than the metric’s normal noise. Only then decide whether it should alter today’s training.