Garmin Features: A Reference Guide for Runners and Athletes
Reference pages for every major Garmin metric — what each number means, how it is calculated, and how accurate it is. Select a category below.
- Physiological Measurements — metrics that estimate or track underlying biological capacity, including VO2 max, HRV Status, lactate threshold, respiration rate and Pulse Ox. These are the foundational numbers from which many of Garmin’s training and recovery features are derived.
- Training — features that analyse training load, stimulus and adaptation over days and weeks, including Training Readiness, Training Status, Training Load and race predictor.
- Performance — features that assess and predict athletic performance, including Race Predictor, Performance Condition, Pace Pro and Real-Time Stamina.
- Sleep and Recovery — features that assess recovery between training sessions, including Sleep Score, Body Battery, Recovery Time and Sleep Stages.
- Running Dynamics — metrics measured or calculated during a recorded running activity, including running power, ground contact time, vertical oscillation, cadence and grade-adjusted pace.
- Heart Rate and Stress — features that monitor cardiovascular and autonomic nervous system response throughout the day and during activity, including wrist heart rate, Stress Score and Intensity Minutes.
- Health and Wellness — long-term health markers including Fitness Age, daily steps and calorie estimation, intended to give context about overall health trends over weeks and months.
- Navigation and Safety — features that support route navigation, location sharing and emergency assistance, including LiveTrack, Incident Detection and Assistance Plus.
About This Section
Every page in this section is written to a consistent structure that covers: what the metric measures, how Garmin calculates it, what affects the reading, how accurate the published evidence suggests it is, which devices support it, and how it connects to other features in the ecosystem. Competitor equivalents on Polar, Apple, Coros, Suunto and Wahoo are documented where they exist.
Sources are weighted by tier. Garmin’s official documentation and Firstbeat Analytics white papers take precedence, followed by peer-reviewed research from journals including Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise and the Journal of Sports Sciences. Where evidence is limited or disputed, the pages say so.
Pages are updated when Garmin releases firmware changes that materially affect how a metric is calculated or displayed. The publication date and most recent update date are shown at the foot of each page.
