Understanding your stats
Your analytics in plain English. Strathlon tracks a lot of numbers on the Progress tab and in your weekly review: this is the directory that explains each one. In the app, tap the (i) on any stat to jump straight to it here.
Numbers are only useful if you know what they mean. Understanding your stats turns a wall of charts into a set of honest feedback loops: it tells you what's working, what's just noise, and what to change, so you can trust a good trend and stop over-reacting to a single bad day. Each stat below has a one-line summary and a full guide behind it. The guides stick to well-established physiology, flag where the internet tends to over-claim, and are general education rather than medical advice.
How much work you do, how often, and whether you're getting stronger.
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Consistency
Your streaks and completion rate (the single strongest predictor of progress). Why showing up most weeks beats any one perfect week.
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Training volume
Total work done (roughly sets × reps × weight) and the science of progressive overload (the main driver of strength and muscle).
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Sessions per week
How many sessions you complete each week, the simplest lever on progress, and what advances you through your workout plan's phases.
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Strength progress
Per-exercise PRs and rep growth over time (the clearest, most scale-proof evidence that your training is working).
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Rest between sets
How your actual rest compares to what your workout plan prescribed, and why rest length quietly shapes strength versus conditioning results.
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Work-to-rest ratio
How dense your session is: how much of it you spent working versus resting, and how to match that density to your goal.
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Your activities
What it is. Every activity you repeat gets its own card — your walks, your rides, your cricket, your badminton — with the most frequent first. Inside each one, Strathlon compares the recent sessions with the ones from a month ago, and only ever with sessions of the same shape: the same distance where there is a distance, and the same length where there is not. Everything here comes from workouts recorded in Apple Health, by your watch, your phone or another app.
Why it matters. For anything with a distance — a walk, a run, a ride — it is the fairest fitness comparison you can make without a lab. If you cover the same distance at the same pace and your heart rate is lower than it was, your heart is doing the same job for less: that is aerobic fitness improving, and the scale cannot show it. The pace comparison is what makes it fair, because a lower heart rate on a slower walk means nothing. There is no normal range worth comparing yourself to here — heart rate depends on your age, your medication, the terrain and the weather — so this card only ever compares you with yourself. Read the direction over weeks.
For a sport with no distance — cricket, badminton, boxing, a climb — there is no pace to hold steady, so the comparison is your average heart rate across the session, against your own past sessions of a SIMILAR LENGTH. Two hours of badminton is never compared with one hour of it, and a long cricket game is never compared with a short one. This half is an observation and not a fitness result: you do not choose how hard a match is, so a lower average can be progress, an easier role on the day, or a cooler afternoon. The card says so every time.
When a card appears. A card appears only once you have 4 sessions of one shape — 2 recent and 2 earlier.
The levers on weight change, and how to read the scale without over-reacting.
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Energy balance
Calories in versus out (the biggest lever on weight change). The 7,700 kcal rule, water weight, plateaus and metabolic adaptation, honestly framed. Your targets and BMR are worked out from your latest weigh-in, the same number the app shows you.
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Weight trend
Your actual weigh-ins (solid line) versus the path your deficit predicts (dashed line): reading the real signal beneath daily water noise. You see your live weight, and that is also what sets your targets; only the chart's trend line and milestone celebrations use a smoothed average.
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Protein
Protein per kilogram of body weight (your nutrient shield for keeping muscle while you're in a deficit). What the 1.6–2.2 g/kg range really means.
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Active burn
The active calories recorded in Apple Health during your sessions: where the number comes from, when it beats a formula, and the honest truth about wearable accuracy.
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Daily steps
How many steps a day you averaged, from your iPhone or Apple Watch. Where the health benefit actually starts (far lower than the round numbers suggest), where the curve flattens and why your age moves it, and what the calories are really worth.
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What goes with what
What it is. Pick two things you track. The coach reads the numbers behind them and tells you what they do — and don't — say. It is answered in a conversation rather than on a chart, deliberately: a scatter plot with a correlation number on it is the easiest way in the world to believe one thing caused another.
Why it matters. Two things moving together is the most persuasive and most misleading thing a fitness app can show you. This one gives you the pairing and the numbers behind it and then answers in words, where "this could also be explained by…" fits — because a correlation on its own can never tell you which one caused the other, or whether something else caused both.
What it uses. Whatever you already track: your meals, your weigh-ins, your sessions, and sleep from Apple Health. A pair is only offered once at least 8 paired observations exist behind it.
When it unlocks. This unlocks as things you already track overlap for a few weeks. Meals and weigh-ins unlock eating vs weight. Meals and sessions unlock training days vs rest days. A watch worn at night unlocks both sleep questions.
Intensity, recovery and the context that explains how you feel and perform.
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Average heart rate
A quick gauge of training intensity from Apple Health, colour-keyed to the 50–85% zone. Why a falling trend at the same effort can mean you're fitter.
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Between-set recovery
How far your heart rate falls during a rest between sets (Strathlon's own figure, taken from your rest timer). A scale-independent read on whether you're ready for the next set.
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Resting heart rate
What your heart does at rest (the quietest and slowest-moving fitness signal you have). Why we draw one published adult band and not the age-and-sex ladder you find online, and why your own trend beats any comparison.
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Cardiovascular fitness
What it is. In Strathlon this card is called Cardiovascular fitness, and the measurement behind it is your 1-minute heart-rate recovery: how many beats your heart rate falls in the first minute after a hard workout, recorded by your watch. A bigger drop is better. This is Apple's figure rather than ours. It's a different number from Between-set recovery above, which is the drop during a rest between sets.
Why it matters. It's a real fitness marker the scale can't show: as your aerobic fitness improves, your heart rate comes down faster after hard work. Read it against your own past readings and watch the direction over weeks. There's no normal range worth comparing yourself to, because it depends on your age, your medication and how hard that particular session was.
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Blood pressure
What it is. The average of the blood-pressure readings in Apple Health — from a cuff that saves to Apple Health, or readings you add yourself. Apple Watch doesn't measure blood-pressure values.
Why it matters. It shows how your own readings move over weeks, alongside your training and weight. Strathlon never labels a reading as high or low and never diagnoses — a clinician is the right person to say what your numbers mean.
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Sleep
Nightly hours and deep sleep from Apple Health (when you actually recover, build muscle and regulate appetite).
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Cycle & energy
An on-device view* of what your cycle means for your training and your appetite this week, and why the scale can jump a kilo without a single thing going wrong.
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These guides are general educational information rather than medical advice, and any figures (such as calories and the ~7,700 kcal ≈ 1 kg rule) are estimates. Individual responses vary. Always apply your own judgement and consult a qualified professional where appropriate. See our Terms for more.
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