Yesterday, my Oura readiness score was 94. I should have had a good workout—but I didn’t!

The first exercise was bent-knee deadlifts, and my goal was to work up from 305 to 335 pounds in a step-loading fashion for five sets of five.

I went to do my first work set, and it felt like I was lifting a tank! I did two reps and stopped. From experience, I knew I was not “ready” to train heavy that day, no matter what my Oura Ring said. I needed an extra day to recover, so I packed it up and went for a walk instead.

This morning, I went at it again—and this time, the weight felt light. (Below is my last set of deadlifts.) I got through the workout with ease.

My readiness score today was 93—almost the same as yesterday—but there was a big difference in performance.

If I had been stubborn and tried to grind through the workout yesterday, the outcome would not have been as positive as it was today. In fact, I’m sure I would have regretted that choice.

The take-home message is this: You can use all sorts of diagnostic tools to try and gauge your readiness for a workout, but your actual performance on the day trumps them all. I talk about this in more detail in my upcoming book, Invincible: Injury Prevention for Weight Lifters.

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