1. Familiarize yourself with the Daily Readiness Monitor

Scrolling down the monitor you will see a list of Bio-Markers such as the functional qualities of muscles and joints, as well as physical activity performance and body mass improvement. You will also see often overlooked but no less important fitness indicators such as digestion, hormonal rhythms, and limbic/emotional states. These are the parameters you will look at each day to measure how your body and mind are doing over the course of the month.

2. Begin Monitoring

To begin monitoring let’s start with musculoskeletal. At the beginning of each day, put your musculoskeletal rated status in the appropriate box if applicable.

Soreness is yes or no. If the soreness goes away after you have warmed up you are still a “yes” (choose your number). For the purposes of the Daily Readiness Monitor you are either sore or not- there is no in-between.

Next, calculate how your physical activity is hampered/limited (or not) as well as any change in your body mass in either direction depending on your desired results.

Assess your digestion after each snack and meal assigning points accordingly.

Notice your body’s daily hormonal signals and assign points accordingly.

Follow up by recording your emotional state over the course of the day (how do you feel about yourself? others?), as well as your motivation and appetite.

When you finish filling out the Daily Readiness Monitor, a TOTAL SCORE is generated for that day.

The lower the total number for each day, the better the DAILY TOTAL will be rated from Low Priority (green), Moderate Priority (yellow), to High Priority (red).

As you can see in the figures below the Daily Readiness Monitor, higher numbers indicate a lower capacity for training, and thus, training at the proper intensity level and with the right movements becomes even more important. (Don’t worry though! At Upright Movement we work hard to fine-tune your program so you can get the most benefit from appropriate volume and intensity.)

If totals fall in between priority levels, place the total within the higher level.

The recommended developmental phase and training intensity for each priority level is:

Low Priority: Functional: Lunging, Stepping, Squatting, Carrying, Gait, Skipping, Running, Deceleration, Acceleration, Jumping, and Hopping. 60-80% and or 40-60 min. training session duration.

Moderate Priority: Transitional: Quadruped, Rotary Stability, Trunk Stability, Crawling, Half Kneeling, Full Kneeling. 40-60% and or 20-40 min. training session duration.

High Priority: Fundamental: Breathing, Gripping, Head-Eye Tracking, Reaching, Leg Raising, Supine, Rolling, Prone, Hip Flexion/Extension, Short Foot Posture. 0-40% and or 1-20 min. training session duration.

 

*An Above Morning Heart Rate Average is the principle-determining factor to your level of readiness.

*Morning Resting Heart Rate Average

3 Beats + = Reduce Training By 50 %

4 Beats + = Active Recovery

5 Beats + = Total Rest (3 Beats + Incl. In Daily Totals):

Now you are ready to record today’s DAILY TOTAL in the companion Daily Readiness Monitor Totals chart, and begin to track your progress over time.

3. Establish a Baseline

When first using our Daily Readiness Monitor, establish a baseline after the first week of monitoring. Taking time to establish a personal baseline in the beginning will help you to accurately track your goals over time.

To calculate a personal baseline take the DAILY TOTALS from your first seven days and add them together. Divide this weekly total by seven (days) to find your Daily Baseline.

Once a baseline total has been established, focus on keeping your DAILY TOTALS as close to the green as possible. If you experience two days in a row where your DAILY TOTAL number increases above your WEEKLY Baseline number* (*based on the last 7 days) take at least one day of TOTAL rest.

4. Continue Monitoring

Now that you have established a personal baseline you have a way to measure how you are feeling from one day to the next and can track the trends in a positive or negative direction over the course of the month.

If you notice your score improving and the priority level lowering, great keep it up!

If your total score and priority level keep increasing, take a step back and correct whatever needs to be corrected. It may be: mindset, self-time, water consumption, sleep quantity, sleep quality, food quality or type, meal timing, movement (too little or too much). Keep the numbers as low as possible and soon you will be feeling consistently great. The Pillars of long lasting change are: Mindset, Recovery, Nutrition/Hydration, and Movement. For further assistance see UpRight Movement’s Regeneration Guidelines.

Stress

Definition:

Stress is the level of physiological tension in your body in response to physical or mental demands.

Prolonged and uncontrolled stress is a cause of excessive fatigue.

Both physical and mental pressures contribute to your overall stress level. It is important to distinguish between temporary fatigue caused by a hard workout and the physical stress of chronic fatigue caused by overtraining. 

What causes excessive stress?

1. Excessive physical and mental stress (activity)
2. Insufficient recovery
3. Unbalanced and/or irregular meals
4. Imbalance between work and rest
5. Poor environmental conditions

Risk of excessive stress:

1. Reducing the body’s reserves of adaptation
2. Losing control of the training effect
3. Reduced athletic performance
4. The emergence of chronic stress
5. Occurrence of overtraining
6. The occurrence of diseases

What reduces excessive stress?

1. Individualization and optimization of physical and mental exertion
2. Individualization and optimization of recovery process
3. Balanced and regular meals
4. Balanced work and rest
5. Improving the environmental situation

The benefits of managing stress:

1. Control of the training process (over the training effect)
2. Increased efficiency (result)
3. Reduced likelihood of overtraining
4. Reduced risk of illness and injury

 

Recovery

Definition:

How you recover reflects your body’s ability to maintain balance. An optimal level of health is needed to ensure effective recovery.

Recovery patterns show the variability in your parasympathetic state, or your body’s ability to recover from exercise. When your Daily Readiness Monitor Totals are within the green zone, your body has recovered from previous exercises.

If your Daily Readiness Monitor Totals are within the green zone, your parasympathetic is active, i.e. your body is in recovery mode. If your Daily Readiness Monitor Totals are outside the green zone, your sympathetic nervous system is still active. This means that your body is in fight-or-flight mode and this blocks the body’s natural recovery mechanisms.

Probable causes for abnormal Daily Readiness Monitor Totals:

1. Strenuous physical and/or mental stress
2. Imbalance between work/rest ratios
3. Diseases and intoxication
4. Unbalanced and/or irregular meals
5. Insufficient recovery

The risks of long-term totals above the norm Increase the likelihood of:

1. Disease
2. Overtraining
3. Injury
4. Poor performance
5. Inefficient recovery

What brings it back to the norm?

1. Optimized aerobic exercise
2. Individualization and optimization of recovery
3. Balanced and regular meals
4. Balance between work and rest

The risks of long-term totals above the norm Increase the likelihood of:

1. Injury
2. Poor performance
3. The occurrence of arrhythmias

Positive effects of optimal Daily Readiness Monitor Totals:

1. Increasing the speed of the recovery processes
2. Increase work capacity
3. Contributing to normal balance between excitation and inhibition in the nervous system
4. Can reduce the likelihood of excessive stress
5. Can reduce the risk of illness and injury

Adaptation

Definition:

It is a measure of the body’s ability to adapt to physical exercise and your environment’s external influences. Adaptation reserves are your cardiac system and your body’s ability to adapt to physical exercise. Reduced reserves are often linked to chronic physical or mental stress, a state of fatigue or overtraining, inadequate recovery, chronic diseases, and unbalanced or irregular meals.

Probable causes for reduced reserves:

1. Chronic physical, mental or emotional stress
2. Chronic training over-strain, fatigue/overtraining.
3. Inadequate recovery
4. Chronic diseases
5. Unbalanced and/or irregular meals

Risks of long-term low reserves:

The long-term high Daily Readiness Monitor Totals indicate the presence of chronic stress and chronic over-training, and also increase the risk of:

1. Sub-optimal performance
2. Likelihood of injury
3. Likelihood of disease

What increases reserves?

1. Optimal physical, mental/emotional stress
2. Optimum/individualized training load and controlled fatigue
3. Adequate recovery
4. The absence of disease
5. Balanced and regular meals

Positive effects of increased reserves over time: 

1. Increased ability to tolerate physical, psychological, mental, emotional stress (stress transfer)
2. Increased ability to tolerate high training load, reduced risk of overtraining, and exhaustion
3. Increased probability of success in competitions
4. Reduced likelihood of injury
5. Decreased likelihood of disease