What is the Garmin Performance Condition? | Garmin Performance Condition Explained

How do you know how well you are performing in your current exercise session compared to your previous sessions?
Garmin provide their answer with the Garmin Performance Condition score. The Garmin Performance Condition provides an indication of how well your body is performing in its current exercise session compared to your historically stored data.
Whether you're running or cycling, the performance condition will provide you with a score on how well you are tracking.
But how does Garmin actually calculate this score?
Enter this video!
In this video, Rob goes through how the Garmin Performance Condition score is determined, including the key variables of pace, heart rate and heart rate variability. Rob then goes through how these variables impact upon your Garmin Performance Condition score and why VO2 max is used as the reference on the scoring scale for the performance condition.
The performance condition score can give you some good feedback on how your body is handling your exercise program (including any improvements in VO2 max) and where you may need to change up your running, cycling or swimming sessions to maintain or improve your fitness status.
There's also some pretty funny bloopers at the end to watch out for!!
Rob discusses the following:
- Brief overview and definition of the Garmin Performance Condition and what the measure means for your health.
- What your Garmin Performance Condition score means and how that impacts your VO2 max
- Factors impacting your performance condition score
- Tips to ensure accuracy in your Garmin Performance Condition score
- Why you need a Garmin Heart Rate Strap (HRM-Pro) to complete the test
- The high levels of variability experienced in the performance condition score when you're first starting out with your Garmin watch
For further reading you can view some information sheets here:
Performance Condition Info:
support.garmin.com/en-AU/?faq=A28UA4k16v1qjjGuvSFgo8
Garmin Video: (Forerunner 935 Infosheet)
kzbin.info/www/bejne/jIvPhYyCisqjo5I
01:00 HRV Background Info
01:50 Running a HRV Test
03:00 What your score means
03:40 Tips to improve your accuracy
06:30 Final Important Tips
08:20 Video Bloopers
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#PerformanceCondition

[@alfromtx245]

Very interesting. On hard interval runs, I've noticed that the performance condition is pretty high until the cool down. Then it drops considerably. Sometimes it stays positive, but it sometimes goes negative. Generally depending on the intensity of the intervals, the temperature, and the humidity. Hopefully there will be less of a drop as training progresses. Thanks for posting this.

[@TRIAXPerformance]

Thanks for the feedback, we are glad you enjoyed the video!

[@radumun9192]

Hello and thanks for your presentation! Do you have any suggestion on how to use the information provided by the Performance Condition in a marathon race? Thank you!

[@TRIAXPerformance]

Thanks for your comment radu mun! The performance condition metric is a great tool to use in your marathon preparation as it provides an approximate measure of how "fresh" or fatigued you are. However, on the day of your marathon we would recommend monitoring the live metrics that are used to calculate your Performance Condition: Heart Rate (beats per minute) and Pace (minutes per kilometer/mile). Throughout your training/preparation take note of what your average Heart Rate is when running at your planned race pace. Then come race day, you can monitor for any increases in Heart Rate and adjust your pace as required to ensure you do not burn out before the finish line. Note - Your race day Heart Rate may be slightly elevated due to anxiety/excitement, so don't be too concerned if it is higher at the start of the race, focus more on fluctuations once you have started running.

[@alexcordero6672]

Really good video... So, I created a widget screen that displays PF. If I consistently see it in the minus, should I slow down?

[@TRIAXPerformance]

Hi Alex, really glad you enjoyed the video. The Performance Condition metric is a gauge of your level of fatigue in relation to your VO2max (HR and running speed) calculated by your Garmin. The most likely cause for a consistent decline in Performance Condition is fatigue. Fatigue is generally a result of a number of other external factors (ie. sleep, diet, stress levels, weather etc.) which can't be measured on your watch. However, if you can see a consistent increase in your heart rate when running at your normal pace across multiple runs, this may be a good indication that you are fatigued or deconditioned. You therefore may need to reduce your running pace in the short term or if it continues to decline taper your training (ie. reduce running speed or running volume) for 1-2 weeks before returning to normal training intensities and volumes which will hopefully result in an improved/consistent performance condition result. Hope that answers your question

[@ericb7937]

They should use weather and temporature using gps data as a variable too. Why? When it was 12c I ran amazing but at 22c my heart had to work harder. Was my conditioning worse? Or was the environment worse?

[@TRIAXPerformance]

Yes, this is a great point Eric. Training environment (ie. weather, particularly heat) does play a part in performance capacity. You’ll have to pass this great feedback on to Garmin and see if they have this on their radar for future models.

[@ocularmigraine2007]

Thanks for explaining what Garmin is using to determine the performance condition metric. How is it best used during the course of a run as the value decreases over time? Right now I keep track of the aerobic training effect during a run and usually try to keep running until I at least get a 3, but could the performance condition give a sense of when to stop as well (I'm thinking in terms of avoiding overtraining)? Often it's reduced into negative numbers a lot sooner than I actually feel tired and ready to stop running. I do use a heart rate chest strap as well.

[@TRIAXPerformance]

That's a really interesting question. To be honest, I don't think you really need to worry too much about it during the run and I personally wouldn't use it to that level of analysis. I'd more focus on what the goal of the run actually is. If you're running for time, distance etc. That's worth more value than what the metric says. I would use the performance condition as a way to compliment how you're feeling just after the run, because with any level of tech there's going to be some error and variability that leads to a disparity between how you feel and what the tech says. What do you think?

[@ocularmigraine2007]

@@TRIAXPerformance Yeah, I think it could be hard to interpret the change in performance over time during a run. Looking over my past graphs of running stats in the app, it looks like it could be true that the drop in performance happens at a faster rate if a run was done the day after a harder run (although the starting value didn't necessarily start lower than normal), so possibly that could be taken into account during a run. If it drops fast, maybe have a shorter or less intense run, as it could be that you need more recovery time. It could also maybe be used to make sure you're training hard enough, causing a beneficial level of fatigue. You could set different goals, like on a hard training day, run until your performance drops by 10 points, and on a recovery day, aim for no more than 3, for example. I'm going to keep it on my data screen for a while and see if I find it helpful or not.

[@essaalansari9508]

Hey loved the content here mate, just bought the 945 lte version just to get better analytics View, do i really need a chest strap? All i do i cross fit? Coz wht i heard from another youtuber who did a deep review on the new garmin venu 2 and 945lte those have a new sensor and they are 93 accurate? Should i really invest in strap since i already paid alot for the watch itself? All i need is the most accurate battery life where and when and best time to hit the gym again???

[@TRIAXPerformance]

Hey mate!! Thanks for the comment, appreciate you watching. It’s really up to you mate!! My main focus personally is running so I really need accurate HR information - so I need the strap. But if you’re doing CrossFit and just want a gauge of where your intensity is at then the sensor in the watch should be fine mate. It all depends on how much emphasis you place on your heart rate data. Heart rate data is important for the recovery stats but I think you’d be ok with the watch. You can save the $100 from not buying the strap 😂.

[@essaalansari9508]

@@TRIAXPerformance woow thaks buddy cant wait to receive mine on 15th of this month it cost me 666.76 dollars 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@kars48]

Hello. I run in two areas because i partialy live in poland where terrain is completely flat and partialy in sweden when terrain is all up and downs. Obviously in second area I have slower pace and higher HR. If garmin doesn't take into consideration elevation does it mean that these metrics are basically useless for me? When I'm in the area with many hills I always get performance condition -4, -8 and training status unproductive. No matter how long the run or how hard is the run. Could it be that garmin evaluates it by comparing the values from flat area where i can get better pace with lower hr? I hope you understand my question. Thanks for reply.

[@TRIAXPerformance]

Hi Kars, thank you for your question. The performance condition metric is calculated using the following 3 variables: pace, heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV). While elevation is not directly involved in the calculation of your performance condition as your heart rate likely increases in the up hill sections and your pace decreases, the fluctuation in these metrics in your run will impact your overall performance condition. Some ways to get a more accurate performance condition result are: 1. wear a heart rate strap, 2. collect regular HRV samples, 3. try running the same route 1-2 times a week, by collecting data (HR & pace) over the same course with the same amount of rises and drops in elevation - this will allow you to see from the session to session data if your HR and pace were higher, lower or the same from one run to another. We hope this helps answer your question.

[@no79way]

Good video

[@TRIAXPerformance]

Thanks Hadi we are glad you enjoyed the video.

[@benc3po]

Normally, the first 6-20 minutes of my runs are spent warming up. I find my HR to pace ratio is worse as I'm warming up, as opposed to when primed and ready to go. Is the calculation under-valuing my performance because of this, or is it all just relative? I run with custom workouts built on Garmin Connect, and I'm always receiving these Perfect Performance alerts during the warm-up portion. You'd think they would take that into consideration and measure your performance from the actual run start onwards. Am I overthinking this or is there a method to the madness? Thanks, -Ben

[@TRIAXPerformance]

From our research the Garmin watch/performance condition metric is not intuitive enough to distinguish your warm up portion from your main session. Therefore, it is possible that your warm up portion is having a significant influence on your performance condition metric. This would be a good one to raise with the Garmin Customer Support team.

[@benc3po]

@@TRIAXPerformance I also looked into it, turns out it's tacking your Performance Condition through the entire activity, and you can view this per activity in the Garmin app once the activity get uploaded - from the individual activity click "charts" and then scroll down to "performance condition." It calculates the whole run towards changing your VO2 max, but the perfect condition notification you get during the run is simply a gauge of how hard you should try. If your conditioning is bad that day (in the negatives) maybe don't go for the PR! Hope this helps others and thank you for your videos. For reference, I am using the Instinct 2

[@danielGonzalez-my1et]

Once I was +11

[@TRIAXPerformance]

must have been flying!