Fitness and form
Fitness and form shows three things at once: how much training you're used to, how much you've done lately, and the gap between them. That gap tells you if you're fresh or carrying fatigue.
Where to find it
- On the Trends tab, tap the Fitness & form card.
- Or tap the round + button, then Fitness.
The Fitness page has three cards: Fitness and form, HRV stability and Are you getting better?. The back arrow takes you to the tab you came from.
The three lines
- Fitness: your training load averaged over about 6 weeks. It rises slowly when you train consistently and falls slowly when you stop.
- Fatigue: your load over about the last week. It jumps after hard days and drops fast with rest.
- Form: fitness minus fatigue. Above 0 you're fresher than your training would leave you. Below 0 you're carrying recent fatigue.
The number at the top of the card is today's form. Today's training isn't in it yet, because the day isn't finished.
The four states
Your form gets one of four states, based on how big it is next to your fitness:
| State | Form | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Fresh | more than 5% of your fitness above 0 | Rested, a good day to go hard |
| Ready | from 10% below 0 to 5% above | Balanced, train as planned |
| Building | from 30% to 10% below 0 | Carrying fatigue from recent training, normal in a hard block |
| Tired | more than 30% below 0 | A lot of recent load, ease off |
The card always says the state as Form: Fresh, Form: Ready and so on. Tap How to read this on the card for the short version.
Ranges
Pick 1M, 3M, 6M, Since (your program start month), 1Y or All. It opens on 3M. The range only changes what's drawn: your fitness and fatigue always count your whole history, so the start of a range never starts from zero. All leaves out your first 6 weeks, while the averages are still filling up.
Press and hold the chart and slide to see any day's state and form.
The Fitness & form card on Trends
The card on the Trends tab shows your form state with a gauge from Tired to Fresh, plus two arrows:
- Fitness, up or down, compared with 4 weeks ago.
- Fatigue, up or down, compared with a week ago.
A change under 3% shows as steady.
Where the numbers come from
They're built from your daily WHOOP strain. Strain runs on a curved 0 to 21 scale, so ZONAL turns each day into a load first, where a hard day counts as much more than an easy one. The numbers are on your own scale, so compare them only with yourself, not with anyone else.
It needs about 6 weeks of strain before it shows. Until then the card says how many days it has.
Questions
Why is my form high when I haven't trained much?
Form is fitness minus fatigue. After a few easy or sick days your fatigue drops fast while your fitness drops slowly, so form goes up. It's a good time for a hard day if you feel well, but fitness is slowly fading too.
Is Tired bad?
Not on its own. A hard training block puts most people in Building or Tired for a while. If it lasts and your recovery and HRV slide too, plan a few easier days.
Is this the same as Load balance?
They use the same strain, but Load balance is a ratio for this week. Fitness and form shows the trend over months and how fresh you are today.
Good to know. ZONAL is for training and wellness, not medical advice.