The 21st century has graced us with a number of technological advances:
- High speed internet.
- Telescopes that now give us images of Black Holes
- Nanotechnology will help improve manufacturing, healthcare, climate change and agriculture.
- Cauliflower pizza crust.
The health/fitness sector has also benefited. Trainers have the ability to work with clients from around the world in real time. We also have the ability to measure things like line speed and heart rate variability through apps on our phone. All of this provides data to help us gauge our “readiness” to train each day.
But seriously, cauliflower is now used to make pizza crust! Even more miraculous is that it doesn’t taste like sawdust.
The technology sure is great.
However, when it comes to determining someone’s training readiness, I tend to lean more towards the anti-apps route and instead rely on what I call “SETS OF INDICATORS”.
What the heck is a clue set?
The easiest way to explain is through some anecdotal observations.
I was going to my gym to work out the other day, where the plan was to show up, warm up, blast some Mobb Deep over the stereo, get mad enough to want to fight a tornado, and work up to a heavy triple on my deadlift (535lb).
On paper it looked like a done deal.
But just as I started to warm up, things didn’t go as planned:
135 x 5
225 x 5
315 x 3
405 x 1 (didn’t feel awful, but didn’t feel great)
455 x 1 (SET OF INDICATORS)
A set of indicators basically tells me whether or not I have “it” that day.
For example, in the past two weeks, 455 lbs (which is ~70% of my 1RM) literally went up. Based on the “feel” of my line speed and how effortless the set was, I knew I could make a run for a high 500′ pull.
In other words, I gave myself the green light to do it, and I did.
In contrast, the 455 felt like absolute garbage the other day.
He felt slow off the ground. And it felt even slower on lockout, which I usually never have problems with. The sign read: “Tony, if you try to go any higher, you risk bursting your spine.”
Well, I did the smart thing and called it.
I realigned the slabs, turned the page, and did my accessory work: DB backflips, some corner pouting, and a few pull-ups.
Listen, it’s not a perfect system, nor is it remotely scientific. To be as transparent as possible: I am not anti-technology. But me a.m anti-technology to the point where many (not all) people tend to miss the forest for the trees when it comes to their training readiness.
If their Apple watch is showing a little weariness, they’ll shut it down faster than you can say, well, apple.
Just because your watch tells you to avoid training every day doesn’t necessarily mean you are have to. Besides, I’m not entirely sold on the reliability of these apps anyway. I’ve had clients come into a session feeling like a million bucks only to have the watch tell them DANGER, DANGER, DANGER and not even look at the bar.
On the other hand, I’ve also had clients show up feeling like they’ve made a petri dish, only to warm up, move around a bit, and then feel like Leonidas is leading the Spartans into battle.
Clues help you learn to TOUCH whether you have taken the juice on any given day or not. In short: It’s a form of automatic tuning that helps you avoid having to rely on an algorithm.
Plus it will save you a few hundred bucks…😙
At least in this scenario you will have some tangible, based on performance elements to help you measure things. Muscle fatigue is one thing and it tends to be easier for many people to use as a metric.
If you are in too much pain you can touch this and modify your programming accordingly. CNS (or nervous system) fatigue is a little more nebulous and harder to detect or even feel for that matter.
Clues help you with the latter.
To that end, I encourage you to start using cue sets as part of your warm-up on days you know you’re going to push the envelope.
Choose a weight during the warm-up that you can use to “gauge” where you are that day. This number should be heavy enough to be difficult, but one that you KNOW you can perform quickly and with perfect technique.
(this will probably be about 80% of your 1 rep max)
Trust me. The whole lift heavy or go home mentality – while admirable – isn’t always the best approach.
