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Body Battery Accuracy?

Former Member
Former Member over 5 years ago

I find the body battery function fascinating but I'm confused how it really works and/or if it's really accurate.  I'm just getting back into the swing of things with slow runs and elevation hiking after an 18 month recovery due to severe peroneal tendonitis.

Monday I went for a 7mile 2000ft hike and Garmin suggested 36 hours recovery - body battery 86 in morning, 16 when I went to bed.  I had pretty severe DOMS in the hips/glutes/calfs all day Tues and Weds so decided to rest completely both days (body battery recovered to 100 by Tues night despite the DOMS???).  So on Thursday I woke up with a 100 body battery and I was feeling good with just a hint of glute pain so I decided to go do the same hike again.  However, it was much hotter this day and a much more difficult effort as a result... the result was a higher overall training effect and an increased recovery time (Garmin suggested 48 hours recovery). So I went to bed Thursday with a 22 body battery and woke up Friday with a 59 body battery.  Now my body battery ready 38 as I type this.

Now here's the rub... I do not have any DOMS to speak of despite yesterdays effort and my energy levels feel HIGH. Prior to my peroneal tendon injury, my legs were conditioned for ultra distances, so I knew my DOMS would be short lived.  I feel better today than I felt yesterday before the hike. But my body battery is currently at 38 and dropping. So what gives?  Does my 945 need to get to know me better? 

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    There is a certain amount of learning that the watch needs to do before it is able to reliably report on your condition. Usually needs a couple of weeks of relatively consistent activities and measurements before it kicks in. How long have you had yours? How much activity have you recorded with it?

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    There issue, bug in body battery below 5 it can't go

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    I find it generally accurate once worn for a few days so it can settle in and normalize properly

    DOMS is generally accepted as not a good indicator of recovery, and you have to remember it is not actually what gets measured.

    what I do find is that usually a hard effort is not directly reflected linearly in Body Battery, but rather takes a day or two to go back to normal, which is more or less what the science says also (i.e. day 2 and later after a hard effort will carry some residual HRV impact, not only the same day/day after). This seems to be exactly what the body does, which is why consistent measurement of HRV (as in, wear the watch always) is so important

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to claude512

    To add to this, I find it amazing that the stress widget and body battery can reliably detect alcohol/rubbish food consumption, and the onset of sickness (which are much easier to validate against by an individual than activity impact) So it must do something right!

    as Always, it is but one metric, so it needs to be taken in context (which is more art form than science). But I think it is quite good, certainly body battery is the start of answering the question of “what does the data mean”. Not there yet, but a very good start

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to Jan502

    I'm not sure this is a bug. It might be intentional in the design to prevent users from seeing their Body Battery drop to zero and accidentally thinking they might be dead. Nobody wants to be the bearer of bad news. ;-)

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    I'm honestly not quite sure what 'accurate' means in this context, but I can say that it isn't meant to account for DOMS or tendon/muscle pain or anything like that. Instead, it's best to think about it as your current level as a measure of general resiliency and the amount you charge over night as a measure of recovery/restorative sleep quality. From your description, it sounds like it is working exactly as it should.

    After a day filled with a lot of stress or strenuous physical activity (like the one you described) it wouldn't be unusual for it to take longer than normal after you go to bed/sleep for your recovery to kick in fully. This is especially true for excitement or physical activity that takes place later in the evening. 

    If you haven't already read it, here's a good intro to Body Battery that I did a while back. 

    https://www.garmin.com/en-US/blog/fitness/body-battery-thrive/

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 5 years ago

    I'm still hearing the court radio fax leaks, if that's what they are.  Holly already called Me schizophrenic.  Think he's after My Ph.D., Esquire stuff?  Sincerely, Dr. Jason Aaron Scalmato.

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    Sounds about spot on to me.  Two longer hikes dropped your Battery significantly and it came back slowly.  Its not always going to respond quite the same or exact - relativity is key here.   Plus yes, specific tendon/joint/muscle pain is not really going to show up in HRV/respitory/sleep data i would imagine.  

    Since I have gotten my watch, one crazy accurate measure... how much I have had to drink (beer/wine/booze)!  Every morning that I have woken up slightly to solidly hungover... my Battery has went DOWN overnight for the most part.  Without fail! lol  amazes me every time. 

    For the most part for me if I have had a normal nights sleep, normal work day....Battery goes to 100% sometime overnight... then I workout in morning... and if flucuates in the 50-70% all day... then slowly rises as I sleep, back to 100%.    Late afternoon or evening hard workout...barely gets to 100% by wakeup.  Seems pretty legit to me.