Workload Management Implementation Guide

Many injuries do occur when athletes are training or competing in a state of excessive fatigue. Optimum workload is a moving target. It’s different for each athlete and it fluctuates constantly based on fatigue, health and training status. Recovery needs are also individual and impacted by non-sport stressors such as poor sleep, exams, family issues, etc.

Managing workload related risk factors and making sure that daily and weekly workload are adjusted when athletes demonstrate unusual fatigue or poor adaptation to training plays a critical role in injury prevention. 

The 5 step wellness monitoring program presented in this article will help you keep the right balance between load and recovery, detect when athletes are doing too much, not enough, when the combination of sport and life stressors are overcoming the recovery ability of the athlete and increasing the risk of illness and injury.

Best of all you’ll learn how to use AthleteMonitoring.com to monitor wellness, workload and make workload adjustments to reduce the risk of injury, increase readiness and maximize performance.

Part 1 - Wellness & Readiness Monitoring

Wellness monitoring is the first brick of an effective workload management program. Monitoring wellness is important for 3 reasons: 1) it measures the impact of non-sport stressors on the ability to train and compete; 2) it identifies athletes who aren’t fully ready to train hard or at an increased risk of injury if they do and; 3) it guides daily load adjustments.

Follow the 4 steps below will to implement an effective wellness monitoring program and make the most of it.

Step #1 – Configure your app’s wellness questionnaire

Login into your AthleteMonitoring.com account, open the Team settings menu configure your wellness questionnaire’s questions, answers, custom fields, alerts and reminders (Wellness questionnaire, Alerts and Reminders sections) to match your needs and requirements. Configuring your questionnaire adequately will ensure a seamless experience for your athletes, as well as a quick and accurate data capture. 

Step #3 – Collect data

Ask athletes to complete their wellness questionnaire every morning, just before or after breakfast to it becomes a routine.

Step #3 – Identify issues

Once athletes have completed the questionnaire, open your team dashboard and look for the Wellness column. When wellness scores are displayed in yellow or red, issues have been detected and the athlete may not be ready for a hard training day. Workload adjustments are usually required.

To learn more about the issues found, click on the alert sign located next to the athlete’s name. To access individual data and graphs, click on the wellness score.

When an athlete reports a normal wellness score but his/her written feedback (accessible through the Comments tab), indicates potential stress/fatigue issues, make sure to take action. Quickly schedule a one-on-one meeting with him/her to discuss the question.

AthleteMonitoring.com includes evidence-based alerts and recommendations. Once you’ve clicked an alert, the list of wellness issues will automatically be displayed, along with suggestions for corrective actions.  

Step #4 – Adjust daily and weekly load

When an athlete demonstrates poor wellness scores (>60%), and particularly high fatigue and/or soreness you must adapt his/her program and reduce daily workload. When athlete reports a normal wellness score, he/she might be able to tolerate higher training workloads. If that’s the case, and if no workload-related alerts are displayed, you should be able to safely increase weekly load by 5-6 %.

To adjust training load based on wellness scores, you can use AthleteMonitoring.com built-in recommendations, your own experience, or the table below to adjust training loads appropriate to athlete’s injury risks.

Measure    Risk of injury    What it means    Suggested workload adjustment

     Fatigue    High    Athlete is tired and not ready for heavy training or competition today. Vigilance and concentration may be affected.    Allow the athlete to rest a few rest days and/or reduce the training volume for 1-2 weeks, or until his/her level of energy is back to normal. Also, verify with athlete that sport-related stressors (training and/or competition load, travel, etc.) and non-sport related stressors (school exams, pressure to perform from coach/parents, etc.) are not overwhelming the recovery ability.

     Soreness    High    Athlete has a high level of muscle soreness and is not ready for heavy training or competition today. Avoid intense solicitation of the sore area. High risk of muscle injury.    A high level of muscle soreness is a sign of poor muscle recovery and one of the most common symptoms and overtraining. If athlete hasn’t performed an unusual activity (one that uses muscles groups that you are not often used in his/her main sport), significantly reduce training volume and intensity (ask athlete to do easy sessions only) for the next 2-3 days or until soreness has leveled off. Remind athlete to sleep at least 9-10h /night as sleep plays a crucial role in the recovery process.

     Sleep    Medium    Athlete didn’t sleep well or enough last night. While this is generally not a problem on the short term, expect vigilance and concentration issues today.    Sleep requirement is highly individual but ensure athlete's has, at least, 8h of undisturbed per night. The more an athlete trains/competes, the more he/she need to sleep. Poor sleep during the night can be compensated by post-lunch naps, but only for a short period of time to avoid disruption of regular sleep patterns. A full night of undisturbed sleep allows sleep recovery from a period of sleep loss.

     Stress    Medium    Athlete has reported a high level of stress. While this is generally not a problem on the short term, stress is a huge source of fatigue.  Load reduction required.    Sport-related stressors (training and/or competition load, travel, etc.) and non-sport related stressors (school exams, pressure to perform from coach/parents, etc.) can overwhelm athletes’ recovery ability. If athletes are going through a period of high stress (sport and non-sport related), make sure to reduce training/competitive load by 30-40% for the next 7-10 days to reduce the risk of burnout.

    Mood    Medium    Athlete has reported a changing mood, which is usually a sign of excessive fatigue or unusual stress.    Mood changes are often symptoms of high stress periods or unusual fatigue. Reduce training/competitive load by 30-40% for the next 7-10 days to reduce the risk of burnout.

Part 2 - Workload Management

Step #1 – Configure the app -  Activities, data collection forms, alerts

Login into your AthleteMonitoring.com account, and configure the data capture forms, list of activities, alerts and reminders to match your needs and requirements. These items can be configured easily by opening the Team settings menu, and making changes in the Activities, Alerts, Reminders, Training Form sections. 

Step #2 – Create and share programs

Once you have set up your software and sent invite to your athletes so they can login, you’re ready to go.

First, you’ll need to plan and share sessions, so athletes can see their training program on their smartphone, and quickly record data after each session. Planning sessions is very easy:  Open the planning calendar, click on a white space to add the new session, set/select the various options and select more than one date if you want to plan a repetitive session. Once done, click Add session and your athletes will automatically see the session on their app.

Step #3 – Collect data

After each training session or competitive event, athletes must record their data and personal feedback using their smartphone (session duration, global difficulty of the session on a 1-10 point scale, level of enjoyment, and any other additional field that you have set up, such as heart rate, GPS distance, etc.

To standardize data collection and maximize compliance, ask athletes to complete the form within 30 minutes after each session. Athletes should also be encouraged to record any physical activity / training session they do on their own, even if it’s not a formally planned workout or a sport-related physical activity (e.g.: hike with friends). Such activities are affecting total workload and recovery. They should be taken into consideration when calculating total workload. 

Step #4 – Identifying issues 

Once data has been recorded, open your team dashboard to identify issues. The dashboard combines the wellness, health and workload metrics of your choice, and provides you with an immediate and holistic picture of athletes’ risk and readiness. To configure the dashboard and select which metric to use, go to Team settings->Readiness dashboard.

Identifying Readiness Issues

When an athlete’s name is displayed in yellow or red on the dashboard, issues have been detected. The athlete may need special attention and may not be ready for a hard training day. 

Overall readiness level can be evaluated by the colors of the wellness and health columns. If you are using pre-training neuromuscular testing (vertical jump, etc.) and added these measurements to the dashboard (they’ll be added at the right of the total Wellness score), a yellow or red color will indicate potential neuromuscular recovery issues. To access detailed alerts and data, tap on the alert icon, or on the score displayed on the dashboard.

Identifying training related issues

Risk is assessed by a combining multiple workload-related risk markers. First, look for acute:chronic workload ratio (ACWR), Weekly load change and Monotony alerts. Athlete with such alerts may be at risk of injury and you will have to adjust load and recovery for this week and the next. If you have added additional workload metrics to the dashboard (total distance, average heart rate, etc.), a yellow or red color will indicate potential issues as well. To view detailed alerts and data, tap on the alert icon or on the score displayed on the dashboard.

Identifying other issues

While the dashboard offers a quick overview of the indicators you want to focus on, AthleteMonitoring alert system also includes other important alerts (number of rest days, etc.). The alert level of each athlete is summarized by the color of the alert icon, located next to the athlete’s name. To view all alerts pertaining to a specific athlete, tap on the alert icon. To turn alerts on/off from, go to Team Settings-Alerts.

Identifying ‘invisible’ issues 

When no specific alerts are displayed, but the athlete’s written feedback (accessible through the Comments tab), indicates potential stress/fatigue/training issues, quickly schedule a one-on-one meeting to address the u.

Step #5 – Reviewing data to confirm alerts & make informed decisions 

To reviewing wellness or training data for a specific athlete, tap on the alert icon, tap the wellness or training or icon and select the daily, weekly or monthly graph option.

To reviewing wellness or training data for a team or several athletes at once, select the Team Graphs menu option and click on the wellness, training or combined graph options.

Step #6 – Adjust workload

When issues have been detected, risk of injury usually increases and which should lead to training program adjustment. Make sure to focus on the Wellness Score first as it will determine readiness for the current day. If Wellness Score is poor (>60%), reduce today’s workload first, and then focus on other alerts.

Acute:Chronic Load Ratio (ACWR) Alerts

When ACWR that is too low (< 0.8) or too high (>1.5), you must adapt the training program. To receive additional guidance, tap on the ACWR score from the dashboard, and the system will suggest changes to return to the optimal load zone.   Once you know by how much you need to increase / decrease workload, tap on the calendar icon to open the athlete’s program and make the appropriate changes. 

To interpret the ACWR ratio and adjust training loads appropriately, use your own experience or the table below.

ACWR    Injury risk    What it means    Suggested workload adjustment

     1.5    Very high    This week LOAD is very  high compared to the last 4 weeks. Very high level of fatigue is expected. Risk of injury is increased for the next 2 weeks.     Reduce LOAD  as soon as possible and aim to bring load back to the green zone (optimal zone). Also reduce next week’s planned LOAD a large proportion of injuries occurred 1 week after a spike in acute workload

     1.31-1.49    High    This week LOAD is high compared to the last 4 weeks. High level of fatigue expected    Acute workload is high in comparison to previous 4 weeks: DO NOT increase this week LOAD and  keep an eye on wellness markers to optimize load based on individual response

     0.1-0.79    Undertraining/medium risk    Acute workload is substantially lower than previous 4 weeks.

Very high level of freshness is expected    This is good if you are deliberately attempting to freshen up your players. However note this “light” week will lower your 4 week chronic load from next week Keep an eye on wellness markers to optimize load based on individual response

     0.8-1.3    Optimal load    Risk of injury is minimized    Keep an eye on wellness score and week to week load changes

Week-to-week load changes

Studies show that a large number of injuries are associated with a rapid change in weekly load, and that when load increase of 15 % from the preceding week, the risk of injury jumps by up to almost 50 %. 

To keep week-to-week load changes in the safe zone, and adjust training loads appropriately, use your own experience or the table below. To receive additional guidance, tap on the week to week load changes score from the dashboard, and the system will suggest changes to get into the optimal zone.  Once you know by how much you need to increase / decrease weekly, tap on the calendar icon, open the athlete’s program and make the appropriate changes. 

Weekly load increase    Injury risk    What it means    Suggested workload adjustment

     ≥15%    Very high     Increase in weekly Load is excessive and may overwhelm the athlete’s ability to adapt. Risk of injury is very high.    Reduce this week Load so it is increasing by less than 10% / week

     ≥10%    High     Increase in Load is greater than recommended. Risk is high.    Reduce this week Load so it doesn’t increase more than 10% from last week

    <10%    Low    Weekly Load change is in safe zone. Risk is minimal    Keep an eye on wellness score and ACWR

Monotony

A high Monotony (>1.5) means that daily loads aren’t fluctuating enough within the week and that the athlete may be at risk of illness and overtraining. To reduce risk, you’ll need to alternate hard and easy days better, and maybe adding an extra rest day.

Monotony    Injury risk    What it means    Suggested workload adjustment

     ≥2    Very high     Daily Load does not fluctuate enough within the week. Risk of overtraining is very high.    Modify training program immediately and alternate hard and easy days. Make sure to include 1-2 rest days every week.

     ≥1.5    High     Load does not fluctuate a lot between within the week. Risk of overtraining is high.    Increase the contrast between hard and easy days.

     <1.5    Low    Load seems to be properly distributed within the week.    Keep an eye on wellness scores, ACWR and week to week load changes

Part 4- Putting it all together –The Workload Management Workflow

Part 5- Overcoming common challenges

While implementing a workload management program can be very effective in optimizing readiness and performance, it demands some efforts from athletes, coaches and support staff. This often leads to two common challenges: data reporting compliance and honesty when answering questions. 

Here is how to overcome these issues.

1.    Tell athletes that their honest and regular data reporting is crucial, that you’ll use the information to optimize their program so they can recover faster, perform better and become less injured

2.    Make sure to have the monitoring program strongly endorsed by the team coach and all team leaders. They should adopt the monitoring program and present it to the athletes as being an extremely important tool for the success of the team. That data reporting shouldn’t be negotiable. 

3.    Make sure that coaches and staff know how to use the app and interpret data

4.    Make sure that athletes know how to report their data properly

Some coaches are taking a drastic approach to strongly encourage compliance (e.g.: if you don’t complete your questionnaire, you don’t train) but unless compliance becomes a real problem, compliance issues can be solved by educating athletes and adapting their program based on their wellness scores and feedback.

If you suspect that athletes are not completing the forms as honestly as possible, or if you found that some are always recording the same numbers, these athletes may not reporting their data as honestly as possible. In this case, schedule a one-on-one meeting with the athlete to address the issue.

Conclusion

Hard training is a pre-requisite to reach top performance. However, if workload, recovery and rest are not continually monitored adapted to each athlete’s fatigue, health and training status training hard will likely lead to injuries and underperformance.

Fortunately, optimizing workload to maximize readiness and performance, while minimizing the risk of injury, is relatively simple if you follow the principles and guidelines presented in this article. 

Monitor the key metrics, use athlete’s self-reported feedback and wellness data to guide daily load prescription, use workload metrics to make weekly and monthly load adjustments, plan for rest and recovery and finally, make sure athletes have a fun and enjoyable sport experience.

That’s all!

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Tim Gabbett, Stefani Webb, Andy Taylor and Dominique Richard for their helpful and constructive comments that greatly contributed to improving the final version of this article.

About the author

Francois Gazzano is a performance and athlete monitoring specialist who graduated from the Université de Montreal with a degree in Exercise Science. As a strength and conditioning coach and athlete monitoring consultant in both Europe and North America for more than 15 years, François has helped dozens of youth, elite and professional athletes across a wide range of sports reach their highest performance goals. Francois is the founder of AthleteMonitoring.com.