A reserve is a useful way to calibrate a metric to each individual's response to training between the resting and max values of that specific metric. Live BR, for example, can be treated as a live gauge of perceived effort and what better way to view it than on a scale of 0-100%. This can be done by calculating the reserve following the formula below.

Formula: BRreserve% = (Live BR - BRresting)/(BRmax - BRresting)

This can be done for all metrics with a known resting and max value. The 2 metrics with the best case for translating to a reserve percentage are the HR and BR since they can have well defined resting and max values.

Resting values can be collected in the exact way you think, sit at rest for 1 minute and take the average of your breathing and heart rate signals over that time. Things to watch our for when collecting resting values is your current state as time of day, prior activity, caffeine intake, temperature, etc. could mean you’re not truly in a rested state. The gold standard data collection for resting values is first thing in the morning after a good night’s sleep. These values can also be manually edited on the Tymewewar web dashboard.

Maximal values are a simple but obviously harder to acquire. It is important that the values you select for your maxes are sport specific and truly applicable to future workouts. It’s hard to cheat heart rate so just go all out in the sport you want to apply the values to but breathing rate can be consciously altered so it’s important that the values selected are as authentic as possible to be applicable to future workouts. The best way is to go to a high enough of an effort you forget you’re looking for the max value and it happens subconsciously. Out of the box, max heart rate and max breathing rate have estimated values that can then be overwritten manually or updated through a maximal workout whereas max VE needs to come from a workout or a threshold test.