WELLNESS & READINESS HISTORY

This might sound weird at first, but if you look at these charts and get the idea that it’s all just a bunch of random movement (NOISE), that’s actually what we want to see most of the time. So if you spot-check these and don’t notice anything special, that’s perfectly fine. It’s only when the movement in these charts starts materializing into some definable trend that something out of the ordinary is happening (SIGNAL). That might be good news or it could be bad news. Some trends to look out for are periods of time with low readiness levels and wellness that trend down. That’s a good signal for using a few easy training days until wellness and readiness revert back to normal ranges. Another scenario is readiness above normal and wellness trending upwards. This is a good signal for conducting strength tests if it has been a while since your last tests.

WORK DISTRIBUTION

This indicator tells you how you are currently dividing your training energy. Sometimes in training, you’ll want to devote more energy to building supporting systems with additional exercises while at other times you’ll want to focus on developing movement patterns with basic and competition exercises.

STRESS INDICATORS

Workload – This indicator tells you about your current level of work in comparison to your history of work. Above-average levels of work drive an increase in performance but at the cost of increased fatigue. Below-average workloads can help dissipate fatigue but at the cost of performance if it continues at low levels. Therefore, regular oscillation above and below normal is part of the process. It is only a concern when levels deviate too far from the norm.

Load Variation – Successful programs must utilize overloading, but also must avoid the combination of excessive overloading with inadequate recovery. In practice, this means a regular alternation of large, medium, and small loads. High monotony means there is not enough variation in your training loads. Days off help lower high monotony if that ever becomes a problem.

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