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1.
Work to keep your Recovery Score above 80% most of the time.
a.
The single most important element of managing intensity is to avoid becoming chronically
under-recovered.
The best way to do this is to ensure you’re consistently keeping
your recovery score above 80%.
b.
If you’re seeing it frequently drop below this level, more than once or twice a week at most,
then you need to evaluate what’s causing it and
take the necessary steps to reduce stress and
improve your recovery.
2.
Avoid training in the Overload Zone when Recovery Score drops below 80%.
a.
When your recovery drops below 80%, it’s a sign that your body
is under stress that it still needs to recover from. This doesn’t
mean that you should avoid training altogether by any means,
but it does mean adding too much intensity on top of this will
slow down recovery even further.
b.
With Morpheus, making sure not using too much intensity is
easier than ever with the personalized heart rate zones.
When
your recovery is below 80%, it’s best to avoid training in
the red (overload) zone.
If you’re lifting weights, you should
also keep the weight below 90% of your 1 rep max.
c.
Remember that doing a 20-30 minute cardio workout in the
Recovery Zone can actually increase your recovery score.
3.
Focus on rest and recovery when Recovery Score drops below 60%.
a.
Any time your recovery drops below 60%, it’s important to take proactive steps to increase it
back to normal levels as quickly as possible.
If it drops all the way down to 40%, your
recovery score will turn red to warn you that your body is becoming more and more
fatigued.
b.
While the goal is certainly to keep from falling below 60% recovery, we all know that life
happens.
Everything from poor sleep, to chronic mental stress, excessive training
and drinking, etc., can quickly add up to sabotage your recovery, and this will be
reflected in your HRV after each recovery test.
c.
When this happens, the best strategy is to focus on pushing your recovery back up through
whatever means necessary.
Get some additional sleep, train in the middle to higher
end of the blue zone to stimulate recovery (HPRT), and work to reduce or eliminate
whatever other stress may be at the heart of your low recovery.
The less time you can
spend in the low ranges of the blue zone, the better. Getting stuck in a chronic state of being
under-recovered is a surefire recipe for overtraining, fatigue and injuries. This is something
that happens far too often and it’s one of the main reasons why people ultimately fail to reach
their goals.
PLEASE NOTE
: Sometimes taking a complete rest day or two can actually
lower recovery
score. It’s often better to do something rather than nothing, but
have that something focused on active recovery.
