Wearable tech has become a staple in many of our lives, and that's no different for fitness enthusiasts.
As we strive to improve our health and challenge our mind and body – it's become the norm to monitor our health and activity on a daily basis through the use of wearable technology.
A focus on recovery has become popular as everyday athletes look to better themselves, from steady recovery runs to cold plunges in ice baths.
It's not different when it comes to wearable tech, either, with huge amounts fo health data being accessible on our wrists to help us optimize our health. We’re now seeing multiple third-party Apple Watch apps that can turn the swathe of health data collected into actionable metrics on our sleep, activity, and recovery.
We’ve scoured the app store and tested various Apple Watch recovery apps, and we've put together our top recommendations for the best Apple Watch apps that can help you optimize your health and recovery.
The Benefits Of Apple Watch Recovery Apps
If you're an Apple Watch owner, it's likely that you won't want to buy, or wear a separate device to help track and monitor your body's recovery levels.
Through clever algorithms and various health data collected by the Apple Watch, providing access to your Apple Health allows these apps to provide real-time feedback on how your body is reacting to current stresses, sleep, and exertion.
Went too hard on leg day? Didn't get enough sleep? – Through changes in our heart rate, HRV and more, data collected from the Apple watch allows these recovery apps to help determine how your body is dealing with stress, its recovery levels, and how prepared it is for more exercise. This is also be known as 'readiness to train (RTT)'.
The Best Apple Watch Recovery Apps
Athlytic
CHIPR
Training Today
When it comes to apple watch apps for recovery, and providing us with tangible information we can utilise to assess recovery levels and help determine how we optimize our body, there aren't too many to choose from.
After scouring the app store, and trying each app out for ourselves – we've put together three Apple Watch recovery apps that we feel are worth trying.
It's worth noting that some recovery apps for the iPhone require third-party devices to capture the data, however, these three Apple Watch apps require your watch, and an iPhone - that's it.
Athlytic App
"Athlytic is an app that works with both the iPhone and the Apple Watch to leverage the data in Apple Health, giving you daily, personalized insights into and coaching about your health and daily training." - Athlytic
Price: Free Trial Available (in-app purchases)
Apple Watch Complications: Yes
This is the most comprehensive Apple Watch recovery app on our list, with an incredible UI providing visibility across a wealth of data. It's worth taking advantage of the free trial on the Athlytic app, to ensure you'll make use of all the extra features before making the purchase.
Athlytic splits data across four main categories to provide insights into your overall recovery, exertion, sleep, and energy expenditure – allowing you to tailor your training and sleep to maintain optimal performance.
The information available in Athlytic is much more detailed than the other apps on this list, providing training and recovery trends, HRV levels, cardio fitness and much more.
A nice feature in this app is the ability to tweak the settings to align with your training phase. For example, 'peak training' will change the algorithm slightly to increase exertion limits and recovery thresholds.
CHIPR App
"The iOS and Apple Watch app that quantifies your activity, recovery, and sleep so that you can train smarter." - CHIPR
Price: FREE
Apple Watch Complications: Yes
If you're looking for something similar to the Whoop App for your Apple Watch, then CHIPR may be the one for you.
With a similar aesthetic and layout within the app, CHIPR provides an overview page of your activity, recovery, and sleep – providing a 'Training Zone' based on your recovery score, to help determine your target activity levels.
Although the data is less comprehensive than Athlytic, this is a great easy-to-use Apple Watch recovery app with easily digestible information.
A unique feature of the CHIPR app is the ability to create groups with training friends, partners or fellow gym members, adding a cool social element to how you train and recover.
Training Today App
"Training Today constantly monitors your Health Data from Apple Watch to determine your Readiness To Train (RTT) each day and throughout the day." - Training Today
Price: Free Trial Available (in-app purchases)
Apple Watch Complications: Yes
Training Today is Arguably one of the more simple recovery applications on our list, but that doesn't make it any less worthy. The simplicity of this app makes it extremely user-friendly, with great Apple Watch face complications too!
With simple, easy-to-digest information on your recovery and readiness to train, Training Today provides a simple approach to tracking your recovery on the Apple Watch and guiding you toward an appropriate training intensity.
Clear graphics and charts display all the crucial information needed, along with the ability to modify the app's algorithm for a more tailored, accurate experience when tracking recovery, making Training Today a great app for monitoring your recovery around training sessions.
Apple Watch vs Whoop
Can The Apple Watch Be A Whoop Alternative?
Technically, no. Whoop has its own individual wearable device designed to work with its own app and algorithm – both totally unique to Whoop.
The Apple Watch and Apple Health do track a swathe of health metrics, and with the above 3rd party apps – you can monitor your recovery and training intensity to optimize how you train and exert energy.
Does Apple Watch Track Recovery?
Although the Apple Watch collects huge amounts of health data, it doesn't offer the ability to monitor and determine your current recovery levels directly within Apple Health - other than heart rate recovery, following exercise.
Some third-party apps, such as those listed in this article, use the data collected by the Apple Watch to provide digestible information based on your exertion, sleep, and HRV. This gives a whole new use case to your wearable device.
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What do you use to help track and monitor recovery? Let us know in the comments below.
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WRITTEN BY: CHRIS BECK
Chris Beck is Senior Editor at Gymshark, with a passion for writing informative conditioning, health and fitness tech content. Chris is an avid gym-goer and sportsman, Personal Trainer, and also holds qualifications in Nutrition, Sports Performance, and is a certified Crossfit Level 1 Trainer.
