PHOTO: A man in a blue shirt and black pants doing one-arm dumbbell rows while wearing a Fitbit Charge 5.
At Fitbit, the way we think about fitness has evolved and expanded beyond mere physical strength. Today, many of us are far more eager to understand our wellness holistically, versus how many burpees we can do in a minute or comparing how much weight we can bench press. Sure, being physically strong is one depiction of strength, but this past year in particular has taught us that we need to be strong in other areas as well. Taking care of ourselves means knowing when to push ourselves to go to the next level, while also having the strength to know when to rest.
With this in mind, we will soon be launching several new features and tools in Fitbit Premium,1 along with the advanced insights and personalized, actionable guidance you already receive as a member, to help you reach your holistic health goals. When paired with any Fitbit device, including our new Charge 5, you’ll get a deeper analysis of your data to help you workout smarter, manage your stress, sleep better and eat well.
Coming soon to Premium is our new Daily Readiness Score, which will use insights from your body via your Fitbit device, including your activity, heart rate variability (HRV) and recent sleep, to help you assess when you’re ready to push yourself physically — in other words, if you should workout or prioritize recovery.2 By wearing your Fitbit device daily (including while you sleep), you’ll receive a personalized score each morning along with details on what impacted it, with suggestions like a recommended activity level and Premium content to help you make the best decisions for your body and make your workouts more efficient.
Daily Readiness is built on research that proves taking time to recover can generate stronger results in the long run versus pushing yourself all the time. Pushing yourself too hard could lead to overtraining or injury and can impact your mood, sleep, appetite and weight. Over time, the guidance you will get with Premium can help you build a smarter routine that is more in tune with your body. Daily Readiness will be available in the Fitbit app for Premium members with Fitbit Sense, Versa 3, Versa 2, Charge 5, Luxe and Inspire 2 devices.
How Daily Readiness Score works
These three components are measured against your baseline, and will continue to adapt and become more personalized overtime as your fitness level changes:
Activity (fitness-fatigue): By tracking your heart rate 24/7 from your wrist, we measure the impact of daily activity on your body. Every effort counts – from running a 10K to chasing after your kids. Depending on how hard you pushed yourself recently, your activity level will fluctuate and personalize your score based on your normal exertion levels. An intense boot camp session might be a challenge for you, but a relatively easy outing for someone else. To make the most of your experience, we recommend getting at least 30 minutes of Active Zone Minutes (AZM) with activities that get your heart rate up, three times a week.
HRV: Calculated during your deep sleep, HRV is a great measure of recovery. A higher HRV is better, meaning your body can easily transition from rest to activity, and back. Sometimes stress, overexertion or onset of an illness can lower your HRV and impact your readiness to exercise.
Sleep: Poor sleep over a few nights can make you feel fatigued today, since sleep has a cumulative effect on your body. That is why we factor in your sleep over the past several nights, not just the previous night.
A high score means your body is ready for action, while a low score indicates you should prioritize recovery. We optimize our algorithm to promote fitness improvement while minimizing fatigue. Your score is also accompanied by suggestions and associated Premium content — all in one place, delivered at the start of each day, just for you.
Work out smarter
Depending on what your fitness goals are and what your body needs, as a Premium member you get access to more than 200 audio and video workouts that you can play on your phone or play to your TV at anytime, anywhere — from certified trainers and popular brands like Aaptiv, barre3, Daily Burn, obé, Physique 57 and POPSUGAR.
On days when you get a high Daily Readiness Score, we will help motivate you to seize the day with a personalized AZM target paired with suggested Premium workouts. We are adding 25 new high-energy workouts from premier global fitness brand LES MILLS to our library to provide even more options for these days. Popularized in more than 21,000 gyms around the globe, LES MILLS is synonymous with high-energy and science-backed programs that can help you maximize results, presented by some of the world’s leading instructors. Workouts like BODYPUMP, BODYATTACK, BODYCOMBAT and more will transport you into a group workout and can help you get your heart pumping to meet your daily target.
Guidance to help you manage stress
But it’s not just about being physically fit: Mental strength is a major component of overall health. Get more out of our Stress Management Score by seeing a breakdown of how your responsiveness, exertion balance and sleep patterns impact your physiological stress and overall health, along with more than 300 mindfulness sessions from wellness experts Aaptiv, Aura, Breethe, Mindful Method by Deepak Chopra and Ten Percent Happier to help you take control of your emotional and physical health.
To further support your wellness and mental health, we are also partnering with Calm, the #1 App for Sleep, Meditation and Relaxation, which will soon provide Premium members with access to 30 pieces of Calm content in seven languages.3 Charge 5 and Sense users can start an EDA Scan on-wrist simultaneously when completing a mindfulness session in the Fitbit app to see how their heart rate and electrodermal activity changes and impacted their stress responses. Plus, Calm and any mindfulness session completed in the Fitbit app will count towards your weekly mindfulness goal.
All of this content can help support you on days when you have a low Daily Readiness Score. We will guide you to rest and rejuvenate with dynamic recommendations, ranging from active recovery sessions like yoga or stretching, to rest and relaxation ideas like meditation or mindfulness from our expansive Premium content library.
As a Premium member, you will be able to use Daily Readiness along with our Stress Management and Sleep scores for a holistic look at your health and wellness each day. Daily Readiness will serve as a powerful complement, whether you’re a fitness enthusiast looking to optimize your workouts, or you need a little extra motivation to push harder and achieve your best. By taking the time to recover instead of working out hard all the time, you can enhance your fitness while reducing your risk of injury over time.
To help you understand your body’s signs of stress, your Stress Management Score will help you gauge if you can better handle stress and take on more challenges, or if you should take it easy and recharge. Meanwhile, your Sleep Score can help you better understand your sleep quality and how you might improve. Premium uplevels your Fitbit experience by helping you better understand your readiness to exercise, how your body responds to stress, and your sleep patterns, all with additional guidance and insights to help you achieve your health, fitness and wellness goals.
Daily Readiness will be available soon in 18 languages to Premium members globally with compatible devices in the Fitbit app. LES MILLS workouts are available today to all Premium users, with Calm content becoming available next month.
[1] Premium content and features may change. Content may be in English only.
[2] Daily Readiness is coming soon and requires a Fitbit Premium membership. Premium content recommendations are not available in all locales and may be in English only.
[3] Up to 30 pieces of Calm content available in English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish only.
