Garmin defends the accuracy of the new beer recovery algorithm.
In other news today, Garmin posted the image above showing an example of its Recovery Time algorithm, and a rather large 2-year recovery time.
The recovery time algorithm normally estimates the hours needed to fully recover for another workout of equal intensity to the one just completed. It prevents over-training by encouraging rest and recovery between hard workouts.
It’s a fairly old metric that Garmin acquired from Firstbeat Analytics, and its calculations are based on
- Training load: Measured by EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption) from heart rate data during activity.
- Existing recovery time: Adds to any prior recovery time at workout start.
- Physiological metrics: Heart rate variability (HRV), VO2 max, recent workout history, and fitness level.
- Additional factors (from newer devices): Sleep quality, stress, and daily activity.
You will usually see a range between a few hours and up to 4 days.
The two-year recovery time appears to be linked to overzealous use of the new Lifestyle Logging to log excessive alcohol consumption (liver recovery time) over a typical stag weekend, or it could be the amount of time it would take a first-time watcher of Friends to recover after binge-watching the entire series and realising that harmless comedy (that’s actually funny) ended with that series.
Or it could just be a bit of Monday-morning fun from Garmin’s Twitter handler.
A haunted house but it’s just this. pic.twitter.com/PlKxs5ba57
— Garmin Fitness (@GarminFitness) October 6, 2025
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