Should I train hard today? Answering it without a $300 wearable

Every recovery wearable on the market is really selling the answer to a single daily question: is today a day to push, or a day to hold back? A green ring says train hard, a red one says take it easy. It is a genuinely useful signal — the problem is the price of admission. Reliable readiness scores lean heavily on overnight heart-rate variability and resting heart rate, which means a wrist or finger device you wear to bed, and most people simply do not have one.

The gap wearables leave behind

Misi does compute a full recovery status when the wearable-style data exists — but that composite needs a resting-HR trend, and resting HR comes from fields the roughly 90% of users without a Whoop or Oura never fill in. For all of those people, the fancy score is silently null. So there is a second readiness engine built specifically for the no-wearable case, using only inputs every user already produces just by using the app.

Three inputs you already generate

The score combines three components, each contributing a 0–100 sub-score. First, sleep: your daily self-report, weighted 60% to last night and 40% to a three-day rolling average, so a genuine recovery night shows up immediately while one bad night doesn't tank the score if the wider trend is fine. Second, RPE trend: the app compares your average session RPE over the last three days against the last seven — a rising trend (same load feeling harder) is a classic under-recovery signal, even when the weights on the bar haven't changed. Third, recent load: your acute training load relative to your chronic baseline, using the same Foster session-RPE math that drives the app's load panel, so a spike in recent work correctly drags readiness down.

Under-recovery rarely announces itself as a bad heart-rate number. More often it is the same workout feeling harder than it did last week — and that is something you tell the app every session.

An instruction, not just a colour

The three components combine into a 0–100 headline with a four-band verdict, and crucially each band comes with a specific action rather than a vague vibe. Above 85 is go-hard: push intensity, the body is primed. 65–84 is moderate: train as planned, hold your loads. 45–64 is caution: cap RPE at 7 and skip your top sets. Below 45 is rest: active recovery only — sleep, walk, mobility. The app also shows the per-component bars, so you can see whether it was sleep, a fatigue-signalling RPE creep, or a recent load spike that moved the number.

Forgiving by design

Because it runs on self-report, the score never breaks when data is thin. Missing today's sleep check-in falls back to a neutral baseline; no RPE history yet scores mildly favourable rather than punishing you for being new; no prior training load assumes no fatigue debt. That means a first-time user gets a sensible answer on day one, and the signal only sharpens as more check-ins and sessions accumulate — no device required.

Misi is a coaching and wellness platform, not a medical service. A readiness score is a training aid, not a diagnostic tool; persistent fatigue or poor sleep is worth raising with a qualified professional.