Readiness on any Apple Watch, built for competing with friends
Apple’s Readiness app only runs on the newest watches. Competo Readiness reads last night’s HRV, resting heart rate and sleep from Apple Health on any Apple Watch that records HRV while you sleep, compares them with your own normal, and tells you whether today is the day to push.
Needs an Apple Watch worn to sleep · Not medical advice
- Your own 60-night normal
- Primed, Steady or Take it easier
- Tied to your leaderboard
Can you get a readiness score on an older Apple Watch?
Not from Apple. The Readiness app that arrived with watchOS 27 runs only on Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4. On every other model there is no Readiness app, but the data a readiness read needs is usually already in Apple Health: heart rate variability (HRV) readings taken while you sleep, your resting heart rate, and how long you slept.
Competo Readiness reads those three each morning and compares them with your own normal range from the last 60 nights. Never with population averages: what is normal for you is the only fair yardstick. You get one of three bands, and with Premium, a plan for today’s competition: go after the person ahead of you, or bank the easy points and push later.
How Competo Readiness works
Reads last night
HRV (Apple Watch measures it as SDNN; Competo uses only the readings taken during sleep), resting heart rate and sleep duration, straight from Apple Health.
Compares with your normal
Your HRV normal range is the mean ± 0.5 standard deviations of ln(HRV) over your last 60 nights; for resting heart rate it is the mean ± 1 standard deviation. The 7-day HRV average is the main signal, so one noisy night does not swing the result.
Checks your sleep
Against at least 7 hours a night, the adult guideline from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society. It is the one fixed threshold; everything else is relative to you.
Gives you a band
Primed, Steady or Take it easier. No number to obsess over. It needs 14 nights to calibrate, and Competo reads 60 days of history the first time you open Insights, so most people skip the wait.
This is the approach HRV-guided training uses (Plews et al., Vesterinen et al., HRV4Training), not a made-up score. See your own HRV range now with the HRV normal range calculator, or read what a good HRV on Apple Watch really means.
Primed, Steady, Take it easier
Primed
A good day for your biggest effort. Your signals are at or above your normal. If you are chasing someone on the leaderboard, today is the day.
Steady
Business as usual. Nothing stands out either way: close your rings and keep the points coming.
Take it easier
Bank the cheap points (Stand hours, Exercise minutes from an easy walk) and save the big Move day for later in the week.
A worked example
Say your last 60 nights put your HRV at a typical 45 ms. With the usual night-to-night spread (0.151 on the log scale) your normal range is about 41.7–48.5 ms. Your resting heart rate averages 55 bpm with a normal range of 52–58 bpm. Three different mornings (example numbers):
| Morning | 7-day HRV | Resting HR | Sleep | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 49.6 ms, above | 53 bpm | 7 h 40 | Primed |
| B | 45.2 ms, inside | 56 bpm | 7 h 10 | Steady |
| C | 40.3 ms, below | 61 bpm, high | 5 h 50 | Take it easier |
Notice what does not matter: a single 49 ms night, above the range, does not make you Primed when the 7-day average is 47.5 ms, because one night is noise. And 45 ms is not “good” or “bad”: for someone else with a typical 70 ms it would be a low week, and for someone with a typical 30 ms a great one.
Today’s strategy: readiness meets the leaderboard
A band is only useful if it changes what you do. With Premium, Competo combines it with where you stand in your competition: “You’re primed today. A big effort could close the gap to Tom.” On a Take it easier day it points you at the points that cost little instead.
- Today’s strategy uses your rank and the gap to the next person.
- 60-day charts show your HRV, resting heart rate and sleep against your normal range.
- Readiness vs points finds your own patterns, for example “Your best scoring days came after 7 h+ sleep”.
Premium costs $1.99 a month or $12.99 a year (US prices). Competo is available in English, French, German, Japanese and Spanish. New to scoring? See how competition points work or start a group competition.
Competo Readiness vs Apple’s Readiness app
| Apple Readiness | Competo Readiness | |
|---|---|---|
| Watches | Series 12, Ultra 4 | Any Apple Watch that records HRV during sleep |
| Result | Score 0–10 in four classifications | Three bands, no number |
| Inputs | Activity and Training Load, daytime and overnight vitals, sleep score | Overnight HRV (7-day average), resting heart rate, sleep duration |
| Setup | 7 nights of overnight vitals and sleep | 14 nights, usually filled from 60 days of history |
| Method | Apple’s own model | Published HRV-guided approach, explained on this page |
| Competition | None | Today’s strategy uses your rank and gap (Premium) |
Apple’s details from Apple Support, October 2026. If you have a Series 12 or Ultra 4, you can use both; they will not always agree, because they weigh different things.
What Readiness is not
- Not medical advice, and not a health measurement. It is a training and competition aid for healthy adults.
- Not clinically validated. It applies a method from sports research to wrist data. Apple Watch reports HRV as SDNN, while most of that research used rMSSD measured in the morning. Trends in either tend to move together, but they are not the same number. More on SDNN vs rMSSD.
- Not a comparison with other people. Your bands come only from your own history. The 7-hour sleep guideline is the single fixed threshold.
Competo is independent and not affiliated with Apple.
Sources
- Apple Support: Understand your readiness score on Apple Watch (models, 0–10 scale).
- Plews et al. (2013). Training adaptation and heart rate variability in elite endurance athletes. Sports Medicine 43(9).
- Vesterinen et al. (2016). Individual endurance training prescription with heart rate variability. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 48(7).
- HRV4Training: daily score, baseline and normal range.
- Watson et al. (2015). Recommended amount of sleep for a healthy adult: AASM and SRS joint consensus statement. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine 11(6).
How Readiness changes a competition week
Primed on Tuesday, 300 points back
Your best day of the week to catch up. A long walk or a real workout now is worth more than spreading the effort out.
Take it easier on Wednesday
Close Stand, get Exercise minutes with an easy walk, keep the streak. You lose little ground and stay fresh for the weekend.
Steady all week
No tricks needed: close your rings every day and let the people who overdid it on Monday fade.
Short sleep before the final day
Readiness flags it in the morning. Bank what you need to hold your place instead of gambling on a big Move day.
Readiness on Apple Watch: common questions
Can you get a readiness score on an older Apple Watch?
Apple’s Readiness app runs only on Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4. On other models, an app can build a readiness read from the data your watch already saves to Apple Health. Competo Readiness works on any Apple Watch that records heart rate variability (HRV) while you sleep.
Is Competo Readiness the same as Apple’s Readiness app?
No. They are separate features that share a name. Apple’s app gives a 0–10 score from your activity, vitals and sleep score. Competo gives one of three bands from your overnight HRV, resting heart rate and sleep duration, compared only with your own last 60 nights, and ties it to your competition.
How do I know if my Apple Watch records HRV during sleep?
On iPhone, open Health, tap Browse, Heart, Heart Rate Variability, then Show All Data. If you see readings timed during the hours you were asleep, Competo can use them. Wear the watch to bed with Sleep set up.
How long does it take to work?
Readiness needs 14 nights to calibrate. Competo reads up to 60 days of Apple Health history the first time you open Insights, so if you already sleep with your watch on, you usually get a band on day one.
Why three bands and not a score?
Because the useful question each morning is “push, normal day, or take it easier?”, and a precise-looking number suggests more accuracy than wrist HRV can give. Three bands are honest about that.
What is a good HRV on Apple Watch?
There is no universal good number; healthy people differ widely. What matters is your value compared with your own normal range. Competo never compares you with population averages.
Do I need Premium?
Premium ($1.99 a month or $12.99 a year in the US) adds Today’s strategy, which uses your rank and the gap to the next person, plus 60-day charts and the Readiness vs points patterns.
Is this medical advice?
No. Readiness is a training and competition aid for healthy adults, not a health measurement, and it is not clinically validated. If you feel unwell, rest; if something worries you, talk to a doctor.
Not medical advice. Want the numbers behind it? Try the HRV normal range calculator or read Apple Watch HRV vs Recovery HRV.
Know when to push this week
Wear your Apple Watch to sleep, open Insights in Competo, and get your first Readiness band from the history you already have.