By: Bambi Sweeney, BAS Sports Management | March, 2023

You finish your run and look down at your watch and your status could indicate that you were unproductive.  You then begin to question your fitness level based on what your watch is telling you.  Ignore what this says.  Your body is not a machine and your watch doesn’t know what your body has gone through while exercising.  

According to Garmin, the training status utilizes your average from the last 7 days. The more information your Garmin collects, the better.  When data is collected, it is based off how you are using your watch rather it is for an activity or regular use.  With this data it may show several input overviews that may not always be accurate. 

When you see one of the many training statuses as unproductive or overreaching, it is not taking into account on what your body was actually doing.  When you slow down on a run due to the heat or humidity it may indicate you are unproductive.  That is not the case; you are productive because you are performing the same level of effort even if you go more slowly. 

When your watch shows you that you are overreaching after taking off a week from your usual routine, this is not overreaching, your watch just sees it as a big jump coming back.  A status that you can be happier to see is productive, maintaining, and possibly peaking.  

The bottom line is, we are all productive and the training status just gives off a calculation of overview.  Keep in mind that your watch does not know whether you are sick, taking extra days off or taking your watch off for a while. If the statuses are bothering you, you can always turn it off, take a break from it for a while and then you won’t be able to see it and worry about what it is telling you.