AthleteMonitoring.com combined graphs are great ways to visualize and compare all important workload management metrics on a single graph.


To view combined graphs, click the  icon from the team dashboard or select the Team charts option from the team menu. Then select the combined graph option.


To display daily, weekly or monthly data for the period and athlete(s) of your choice, select the team/athlete, click on the data grouping button (1=daily, 7=weekly, 31=monthly), select the time frame, and click Refresh.  To add/remove information from the graph, click on the variable's name under the graph.


Important: due to the large amount of information processed, the chart creation process may take up to 20-30 seconds.


Example 1

Team daily load for each activity, planned load, injuries, acute and chronic load, acute:chronic workload ratio (ACWR), freshness and monotony for 21 days. Daily Wellness score has been removed from the graph.


Example 2

Individual daily, acute and chronic load and ACWR, during a 2.5 month period


Example 3

Individual weekly total for each activity during a 2.5 month period

Example 4

Team acute:chronic workload ratio, chronic and acute load and freshness index



The workload management metrics


Chronic Load (CL)

This is the average weekly load (Load=duration x sRPE), typically over the previous 4 weeks. Usually, the higher the chronic load, the fitter the athlete. In some situations, chronic load can also be calculated using exponentially weighted average, and for periods longer than 4 weeks.


Acute Load (AL)

The Acute Load represents the cumulative load of the current week. Usually, the higher the acute load (compared to chronic load), the more tired is the athlete. In some situations, AL can also be calculated using shorter periods (eg: 3 days).

Figure 5 – Daily, acute and chronic load and ACWR visualized over a 2-months period. ©AthleteMonitoring.com


Acute:Chronic Workload Ratio (ACWR)

The ACWR measures the relationship between acute load (current week load) and chronic load (last 4-weeks average load). Monitoring ACWR helps to keep player’s load in the ‘high-load, low-risk zone’ (0.8-1.3). When ACWR is too low (less than 0.8) or too high (1.5 or more), risk increases and workload must be adjusted.


Freshness Index (FI)

This is the difference between chronic and acute load (CL-AL) or between ‘fitness’ and ‘fatigue’. A positive Freshness Index indicates an unloading phase where low fatigue and good performance levels are to be expected.

 

Weekly Load Increase

This is the percentage of load increase from one week to the next. Studies shows that up to 40 % of injuries are associated with a rapid change in load from the preceding week and that when load increase of 15 % from the preceding week, the risk of injury jumps by up to almost 50 %. Monitoring week-to-week changes in load helps detecting such spikes in load and plays a crucial role in injury prevention.

 

Monotony

The Monotony Index (mean daily load/standard deviation of weekly load) detects when daily loads are not fluctuating enough within the week. A Monotony Index above 2 is an important risk factor for illness and overtraining. When this happens, modify your program to ensure that hard and easy days are alternating within the week. If athlete reports more than 3 ‘hard’ days per week, make sure to add an extra 1-2 easy or rest day.