Evaluate yourself for better results!
The Personal Assessment System
The goal is to do his own evaluation according to four criteria:
– Rate of perceived muscular exertion
– Rate of perceived cardiorespiratory exertion
– Rate of perceived recovery
– Rate of perceived technical control
For each session you will note the value that most closely matches your feelings. These evaluations are subjective by definition, but they can be very accurate according to both your concentration and your training experience.
Rate of perceived exertion: scale of 1 to 10, subjective assessment of the exertion the easiest to the hardest one you’ve ever done. To be more specific, we need to separate two different types of perception:
– Rate of perceived muscular exertion
– Rate of perceived cardiorespiratory exertion
When values fall below those indicated in the program, it is time to increase the difficulty.
Rate of perceived recovery: scale of 1 to 10, subjective assessment of the recovery from the more difficult (negative feelings, very elevated heart rate, excessive shortness of breath) to the easiest (easy breathing, heart rate going down quickly, excellent general feelings).
When values fall below those indicated in the program, it means the difficulty is too high and you should decrease the intensity of exercise.
Note: it may be useful and important to use a heart rate monitor in addition to the auto assessment system, this is essential if you are preparing for competitions.
Rate of perceived technical control: scale of 1 to 10, subjective assessment of technical control of the performed exercises. Technical mastery of the exercises is the body posture and alignment during the execution of movements, it is essential for best results: it is necessary to avoid muscular compensations due to bad postures that may arise when fatigue begins to increase, which can lead to poor results and injuries. You should get a value of 8 and above.
RPEm : Rate of perceived muscular exertion
RPEc : Rate of perceived cardiorespiratory exertion
RPR : Rate of perceived recovery
RPTC : Rate of perceived technical control
If this assessment model may be inaccurate since it refers to subjective feelings, it will still be refined and become more precise as and when you advance in the program. During training, you will gradually improve the sensorimotor system (quality of connections between the nervous system and muscular and cardio-respiratory systems). By focusing on the sensations and their assessment, listening to your body will become progressively more accurate: you will be able to manage and adjust the intensity more easily and accurately for best results.
Throughout the program these values should vary due to the physiological impact of training: the values of the perceived exertions are expected to fall for the same type of session, and the value of the perceived recovery should rise. This is a sign of positive physiological adaptation and therefore progress. Otherwise, the values will show a situation of poor physiological adaptation or overtraining.
Periodization
Workouts are organized in micro-cycles of 7 days: two options are possible. The first option is setting up three sessions progressively in intensity to be repeated for 6 days (see Table), the seventh day is a day of rest.
The second option is setting up three sessions in “wave” (see table), to be repeated for six days, the seventh day is a rest day.
Microcycle Option 1
RPEm : Rate of perceived muscular exertion
RPEc : Rate of perceived cardiorespiratory exertion
RPR : Rate of perceived recovery
RPTC : Rate of perceived technical control
Microcycle option 2
RPEm : Rate of perceived muscular exertion
RPEc : Rate of perceived cardiorespiratory exertion
RPR : Rate of perceived recovery
RPTC : Rate of perceived technical control
Session content : exercise choice, intensity, duration
Content can vary widely depending on each person, 20 squats and a 80 yards run will be just a warm-up for an athlete when it can be a challenge for someone who is completely out of shape. So it is important that you adjust the content of the sessions in reference to the perception assessment tool.
