TRAINING STRESS

The spikes you see represent the magnitudes of training stress from each workout. Workouts are classified as follows: stimulating workouts, where the training stress exceeds 120% of your 30-day average stress; recovery workouts, defined as those below 80% of your typical average; and maintenance workouts, which fall between 80-120% of your typical training stress.

Stimulating workouts drive progress, while the others play important supporting roles. If approximately 25% of your workouts are classified as stimulating, you should feel a sense of accomplishment, as this is a sustainable level of stimulus. However, some months you might race ahead, and others you may pull back. This happens when the AI adjusts your training to sync with the rhythms of daily life. Whether you have a good day or week or not, the AI has your back.

ATHLETE READINESS

At first, it might sound odd, but if you examine these charts and think they resemble random movement (NOISE), that’s what we want to see most of the time. If you spot-check them and don’t notice anything special, that’s perfectly fine. When the movement in these charts starts forming a definable trend, something out of the ordinary is happening (SIGNAL). This could be good or bad news. Watch for periods with low readiness levels and wellness trending down, indicating a need for easy training days until wellness and readiness return to normal ranges. Alternatively, if readiness is above normal and wellness trends upward, it might be time for strength tests if it’s been a while since your last ones.

SBD READINESS

These indicators are particularly helpful when planning to test your 1RMs. Readiness decreases after training due to fatigue, but as time passes, fatigue dissipates and readiness increases. Eventually, it’ll peak before returning to baseline. Ideally, you’d test your 1RMs when your readiness peaks. Monitor these indicators to know when that happens. In general, 1RMs should be tested every eight weeks or so. About one week before you plan to test, ask the AI for easy/deload workouts during the pre-workout check-in to initiate the peaking process, which you can track with these indicators. Test when ready.

WORK DISTRIBUTION

This indicator shows how you’re currently allocating your training energy. Sometimes, you might want to devote more energy to building supporting systems with additional exercises, while other times you’ll want to focus on developing movement patterns with basic and competition exercises.

STRESS INDICATORS

Workload – This indicator compares your current workload to your historical workload. Above-average workloads boost performance but increase fatigue, while below-average workloads help dissipate fatigue but may hinder performance if sustained. Regular oscillation above and below normal is part of the process, and deviations too far from the norm should be monitored.

Load Variation – Successful programs must utilize overloading but also avoid excessive overloading combined with inadequate recovery. In practice, this means regularly alternating large, medium, and small loads. High monotony signifies insufficient variation in your training loads. Days off can help lower high monotony if it becomes problematic.

Strain – This indicator is useful for assessing injury risk. Higher training loads are tolerable as long as there is sufficient load variation (low monotony).