Recovery, Part 3: A Methodical and Minimalist Approach to Tracking Your Recovery
My prior posts on how to build a validated and manageable recovery assessment strategy discussed possible metrics for determining recovery status and then my thoughts on the best metrics and how to track them at appropriate intervals. In this third and final post about building a recovery assessment strategy, let’s sift through some of the best tools available to capture and display this data such that it is accurate and actionable.
To begin let’s start with best tools to assess Daily Physiological and Psychological Metrics for recovery. Some of these measures are obvious with a quick check-in and aided by supportive tools that provide a helpful framework. Other metrics—like sleep and heart rate variability (HRV)—do require biosensors. The key is remembering to track these metrics frequently and systematically such that you can observe trends over time. Here are my favorite tools based on accuracy, precision, ease of use, and cost.
POMS: The POMS questionnaire is a standard validated psychological test used in research. The first Profile of Mood States was developed in 1971 by Douglas M. McNair along with Maurice Lorr and Leo F. Droppleman. The questionnaire contains 65 words/statements that describe the feelings people have. The test requires you to indicate for each word or statement how you have been feeling in the past week, including today. Here is a helpful resource to assess your POMS score and to compare it with norms of other athletes. If you do not want to fill out this questionnaire regularly due to length, consider using a shortened version introduced in 1983 by S. Shacham which reduced the number of questions down to 37 from the original long-form's 65.
Restwise: This easy-to-use web-based tool takes research-based markers that relate to recovery (resting HR, body mass, sleep, hydration, appetite, muscle soreness, energy level, mood, wellbeing, previous day’s performance) and overtraining and combines them into a weighted algorithm. The final score from the algorithm tells an athlete how prepared their body is for intense training and can be viewed graphically over time.
Sleep: many wearable fitness trackers and non-wearable devices offer sleep tracking using modalities like movement, sound detection, sonar, and heart rate monitoring to measure how long you spend in each stage of sleep (deep, REM and light) plus any periods awake. There are many sleep trackers out there on the market. The best ones are not only accurate, but are also easy to use, easily interpretable to see trends over time, and provide actionable advice. My favorite apps are SleepScore and SleepCycle. Wearables like the Apple Watch, the Whoop strap, and the Oura ring are all improving their sleep tracking technology and have the benefit of tracking sleep automatically and allowing you to leave your phone in a separate room (a good habit for overall sleep hygiene).
HRV sensors: The most accurate way to measure heart rate variability (HRV) is with a monitor that you strap around your chest—such as Polar or Garmin heart rate sensors. Most watches, armbands, or other fitness wearables are designed for heart rate only. This means that they do not accurately measure R-R intervals—the exact time measurement in milliseconds between each heartbeat that are needed for truly accurate HRV calculations. That said, as long as the device is precise (meaning consistent measurement), you can still pick up on important trends and take action from less accurate HRV readings. Make sure that your heart rate monitor is compatible with an HRV apps such as Elite HRV, which is free for personal use and compatible with ten different heart rate monitors.
Your Weekly Performance Metrics should be specifically tailored to your fitness goals. My current training program, for example, is designed to create a balance between strength/power, aerobic capacity, and mobility for generalized fitness. My benchmark performance metrics reflect this:
Strength/power: I have a certain volume (sets x reps) of work that I do with compound movements—bench press, squat, deadlift. I keep track of the weights I use each week and the reps I can do at a given weight. As long as I hit the same target volume each week, I know that I am at least staying steady. Ideally, I try to increase the volume each week, which tells me that I am progressing. This affirms that I am allowing my muscles enough time for recovery to assimilate the training stress each week.
Aerobic capacity: I am more of a sprinter and enjoy sports with quick movements and fast-paced intervals. While I have run further distances, I have no marathon or IronMan ambitions at this time. So every other week I hit the track to do a timed 1-mile run. This distance is tests a good combination of speed and cardiorespiratory endurance.
Mobility: Multiple mornings each week I do a yoga sequence with poses that gauge my mobility across major joints including my ankles, hips, hamstrings and lower back, thoracic spine, and shoulders. I know the major landmarks on my body that indicate how lose versus tight I am. This provides a helpful diagnostic assessment before I train to know where I need to spend more time doing myofascial release.
Consider setting some of your own Weekly Performance Metrics based on your unique training goals. And a knowledgeable performance specialist should be able to help you select and refine the best metrics for you.
Finally, Biomarker Metrics should be performed with a trusted and knowledgeable health professional who knows the proper tests and how to evaluate these tests in your unique context. At VIM Medicine we have a battery of biomarkers that we track and trend over time for our clients, plus additional testing that we conduct if symptoms suggest impaired recovery or overtraining. Again, the trend relative to your unique baseline is what matters most.
Recovery is a critical variable that is often overlooked in a training plan because it is challenging to assess. Proper recovery requires a careful balance. Too little recovery and it is easy to wind up in perpetual state of over-reaching and veer into over-training. Too much recovery and you never introduce enough stimulus to trigger the adaptive stress needed to come back stronger, faster, and fitter. The same can be said for how you manage the balance of recovery and stress in life more broadly. You need to push your limits to become a new and improved version of yourself. But you also need to hit the brakes to internalize these gains. Hopefully by having a strategy to gauge your physical recovery from training, you learn to bring this approach into all aspects of your life.