Greetings from your team at Restwise!
After a few days of entering data, you likely have questions about what's "under the hood" and how we integrate your answers into a daily recovery score. To answer these questions, we'll spend the next several emails on an overview of the science and philosophy that supports Restwise. Since it will take a few weeks for your recovery score to be useful in terms of training decisions, we'll wait to talk about how to use it after we've covered the science that supports it.
The first thing to understand is that we aren't doing any original research. Every marker selected (with one notable exception: oxygen saturation) has been scientifically demonstrated to offer a variable correlation to stress and fatigue. Its weighting in the algorithm reflects the strength of that correlation. We relied on existing research to select each marker, and validated the algorithm in collaboration with some of the top sports science teams in the world.
In order to make a lengthy discussion tolerable, we've broken up the twelve questions into a series of emails. Our hope is that by reading them in stages, you'll develop a deeper understanding of why we've included each one. This understanding should help you tend to the factors that influence recovery. Alright... let's dive in!
Resting Heart Rate
Sports science has confirmed the link between variability in resting heart rate and stress levels in the body. But this link is not entirely understood, and the evidence can be confusing. The problem is that an elevated resting heart rate may indicate compromised recovery from training stress... but it may also simply mean that you had a rough day at work. To complicate matters, an elevated pulse may be a sign of sympathetic (over-training) stress, whereas a dramatically lowered pulse may indicate parasympathetic stress. Restwise analyzes resting heart rate variability within the context of both your heart rate history and your other daily inputs. Our algorithm then distills this complexity and adjusts the calculation.
Resting heart rate should ideally be monitored during sleep or first thing in the morning, before getting out of bed. Day-to-day variations in resting heart rate of approximately 5% are common and not usually associated with fatigue or stress. However, increases of greater than 5% are typically reported in fatigued or acutely over-reached (sympathetic) individuals.
Weight
Sport nutritionists agree that rapid weight loss compromises the body's ability to repair itself following training. Rapid reduction in body mass occurs as a result of fluid and/or substrate loss, both of which affect recovery and performance. Further, an acute body mass loss of 2% or greater can adversely affect cognitive and physical performance.
Regularly monitoring pre-breakfast body mass can aid in optimizing fluid and energy balance, and can lead to more robust recovery and performance. But simply weighing yourself every morning isn't enough. Why? Because hydration, type of food, regularity, etc. can all influence daily weight. Restwise analyzes the body weight input within the context of other variables and your historical trends. In so doing, it is able to interpret daily variability within your complete recovery profile.
Until the next email... Intelligent recovery - Superior performance!
Matthew and Jeff
PS If you missed an earlier email, would like to reread one, or want to jump ahead, they are all posted here
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