WhatWouldHulkDo
Level 8 Valued Member
Brett Jones' article about recovery (Cultivating Recovery | StrongFirst) got me wondering - how can a person who trains reasonably seriously - particularly someone who trains alone - objectively determine if they are recovering effectively? How good can you reasonably expect to feel and still make progress in physical goals?
Maybe the answer is, you should always feel awesome, and it's ridiculous to even wonder that... I've just never trained in the mindset that I will always feel 100%. I expect some occasional soreness.
I'm not the data analysis sort, but thinking through the rules of thumb that I've relied on over the years:
Other rules of thumb?
Other philosophies on how good you should feel on any given day?
Maybe the answer is, you should always feel awesome, and it's ridiculous to even wonder that... I've just never trained in the mindset that I will always feel 100%. I expect some occasional soreness.
I'm not the data analysis sort, but thinking through the rules of thumb that I've relied on over the years:
- Health: obviously, training must never sacrifice health. Don't try to tough it out through getting physically sick.
- Amusing side story; one of the best "fun run" style sessions I can remember having years ago was right before getting nailed with the flu. One day, I felt like I could have kept running and doing pushups all day. Next day, I could barely crawl out of bed to go throw up.
- Range of motion: if pain/soreness is taking away from range of motion, back off until it comes back.
- Of course, problem with this for somebody who trains alone, is that "proper" ROM might be subjective; I might not really understand what ROM you should have in the first place.
- Locomotion: if I can't run, walk, go up/down stairs or jump like I think I should, time to back off.
- Psychology: everybody has a day here or there were they just don't want to get in a session. But if it becomes persistent (a whole week where I really just don't want to do it), time to assess what's going wrong.
- Fortunately I haven't had one of those weeks in a long time, knock on wood, but the times I can recall feeling like this, it was because of stagnation. "Why am I doing this, I'm not improving."
Other rules of thumb?
Other philosophies on how good you should feel on any given day?