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 in a step-loading fashion for 5 sets of 5.
I went to do my first work set and it felt like I was lifting a tank! I did 2 reps and stopped. From experience, I knew that 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 as good as yesterday, but there was a big difference in performance.
If I was 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 various diagnostics to try and gauge your readiness for a workout, but your performance on the day trumps them all. I talk about it in detail in my upcoming book, Invincible: Injury Prevention for Weight Lifters.
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