One of the biggest myths in the fitness and wearable space is this:

“Higher than average HRV = high recovery.”

That assumption is wrong — and it’s been repeated so often that it’s now taken as fact...like many things on social media, unfortunately.

HRV is not a recovery score.
It is a signal.

HRV reflects autonomic nervous system activity, not readiness by itself. Specifically, it reflects how your body is responding to current and recent stressors — not whether you are fully recovered and ready to perform.

Here’s where the confusion comes from

Many platforms:
• Measure HRV once
• Compare it to an average
• Label higher = “good” and lower = “bad”
• Call the result “recovery”

That’s not physiology. That’s marketing.

A higher-than-average HRV can occur when:
• Training load has dropped suddenly
• The body is compensating for accumulated fatigue
• Parasympathetic activity is elevated because the system is stressed
• You are under-recovered but not actively pushing load

In other words:
High HRV can coexist with poor readiness.

Likewise:
• Normal HRV does not guarantee readiness
• Slightly suppressed HRV does not automatically mean you should avoid training

Context matters.

Recovery is about state, not a single number

True recovery assessment requires understanding:
• Where HRV is relative to your personal baseline
• How HRV is trending over time
• Resting heart rate behavior
• Recent training load
• Sleep quality and consistency
• Non-training stressors

HRV is one input — not the verdict.

Why this misunderstanding persists

Because many systems:
• Don’t understand autonomic physiology
• Needed a “recovery metric” to stay competitive
• Treated HRV as a plug-and-play solution
• Never validated how HRV behaves under different stress states

So they wrapped a complex biological signal in a simple color code and called it science.

The reality

HRV tells you how your nervous system is responding, not whether you are “good to go.”

Recovery is about matching load to capacity, not chasing the highest HRV number possible.

If higher HRV automatically meant better recovery:
• Overreaching wouldn’t exist
• Deloads wouldn’t improve performance
• Athletes wouldn’t crash while “looking great” on paper

But we know that’s not how the body works.

HRV isn’t the answer.
It’s part of the conversation.

And treating it otherwise is exactly why so many people are confused — and frustrated — by their data.