Other strength modalities (e.g., Clubs), mixed strength modalities (e.g., combined kettlebell and barbell), other goals (flexibility)
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Hi everyone,
Does anyone have any experience using these purely as a means for assessing recovery and readiness for a session?
I know they're not overly expensive, but wanted some thoughts from people who may have used them in the past to see whether or not they're worth buying.
Thanks.
I bought a cheap digital one awhile back (Camry EH101) but it’s actually very accurate. I hung a 24kg KB from it and it was right on the money. I originally bought it for the very reason you spoke of but I just didn’t feel it was accurately reflecting my state of recovery or readiness. Sometimes it seemed to line up with how I felt that day and other times it didn’t so I looked for another method. Now I just use it to occasionally check my grip strength maybe once a month.
I now use a free heart rate variability app (Elite HRV) along with a TICKR HR monitor and I’m pleased with that setup. But I’ve used it so much now that I can usually predict what the readings are going to be just by how I feel. S&S in an A+A fashion pretty much allows me to workout as often as I want with no problems. The only times I really have to be careful is when I don’t get enough sleep or experience a lot of stress.
Research on over training has shown that one of the best predictors is a simple questionnaire that assesses motivation and mood
(
Monitoring the athlete training response: subjective self-reported measures trump commonly used objective measures: a systematic review).
In other words, you can tell subjectively when you need some recovery if you pay attention objectively to how you feel. The heart rate variability apps are getting better and provide a more objective measure of the balance between sympathetic (stress) and parasympathetic (recovery) systems but it is not perfectly predictive. Really good, experienced coaches can tell when an athlete needs some rest by simple observation of their mood, motivation, how they interact with their teammates etc. Hand grip dynamometry is unlikely to represent whole body stress balance with enough accuracy to modify your program effectively. You would be better off just taking some extra rest when you feel really shelled.
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