Idk, but I usually go and train anyways b/c from experience, I usually feel better after doing something and I usually don’t have a good excuse not to. Also, I’ve never regretted doing a workout, but have regretted skipping them
There’s ALWAYS something I could do, even if it’s just throwing 25lbs into a backpack and going for a not very fast walk
A few guys now have mentioned routines, or programs with set rest periods between workouts. After awhile, with a steady routine, you adjust your workout to fit the amount of rest. Like if you squat every Tuesday, after awhile you figure out how many squats you can do on Tuesday and still be ready for next Tuesday.
From there, it doesn’t matter how you’re “feeling.” You know you can handle that that workout, after that rest, because you’ve done it a bunch of times.
If your time between workouts is always changing because you just go when you’re ready, it’s hard to get consistent. Sometimes you’ll be less ready than you feel, and have a “bad” workout because you’re under recovered. Other times you’ll be more rested, more prepared and have a “good” workout.
And if you unconsciously do more during a good workout and less during a bad workout you change the amount of rest you’ll need between workouts.
You’d never know when you were recovered or not, you’d have a series of inconsistent workouts and end up either undertrained or overtrained.
There can’t just be Chaos bros!
== Scott ==
Sorry but I know all that , Iv’e done this for 50 years. I know there’s no easy answer to this but I’m looking for one anyway . Sets , reps , dead lifts, squats ,who cares, we’ve talked that to death 50 times, let’s find a solution to this problem!! How do we know we have recovered ?
Knowing if you are recovered is like pulling up a plant to see if it has roots.
It is, in a lot of ways!
“I feel pretty good, its been a couple days, I’m just gonna get a few sets in to see…”
However long you rested last time, rest 1 more day. Then train.
If performance is still down, you’re still not recovered. So rest one more additional day that time.
Keep doing that. At some point, performance Won’t be down any more. You’ll be rested enough to perform to your standard. At that point, you’ll know you’re Recovered. From then on,just rest that number of days.
You’d need to detail your workout split. What you train and how you train. People are answering based on how they train.
I have to ask.
Say you fail to answer this question, and you regularly train without “sufficient recovery”, however that may be defined.
What’s the problem with that? So you do fewer reps, or lighter weight, or hit failure sooner than the previous session; but won’t that painful experience just prompt your body to grow, to adapt?
What consequence is ine seeking to avoid?
And a huge +1 to the analogous question, “I ate 3 hours ago. How do I know if I should eat again yet?”
Not meant dickishly.
Did you miss my question or chose to ignore it?
The problem with training under recovered is that you risk Not prompting your body to grow and just accumulating damage. Like if you keep on you’ll get injured, jack up your hormones and go backwards.
And if it’s been 3 hours you know you have to eat again because you need to eat 6 times per day. And you can’t really go much more than 3 hours with eating if you’re gonna get 6 meals before bed.
I remember seeing it more, or more easily, with guys that were bad at running. They’d get emotional about wanting to be better, so they’d just run more and more. They were always beat up, so every run was slower and crappier. It’s easy to point out when I’m watching it happen, but hard to tell you “that’s too much” in advance.
On the flip-side, there were plenty (probably most) days I didn’t feel like running, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t time.
Over time I learned how much resulted in a trend toward improvement (not PRs every day) and that was the right amount.
This is the exact question that I was going to ask. I don’t always do better than last session… does that mean I am just spinning my wheels and digging myself further into a recovery hole?
Lately I’ve been of the opinion that training while fatigued builds resilience and is your body regulating workload for you. I always try to beat last session, but if I don’t, I continue accumulating volume, practicing form work, and learn to push myself.
When a session like that does happens, slam down more food than normal and create a new baseline for daily intake if the trend of underperformance continues beyond that one day/week. It seems to have been working for me. I’ve taken one deload week for my wedding since mid January and have run some pretty intense programs, all while making fairly linear progress. I just let my body tell me what to do.
Let’s forget what I do and try and think of a fool proof way that anyone can use to tell if they’ve recovered .
Scott
I have honestly found it more valuable to determine when I’m NOT recovered vs determine when I’m recovered.
I don’t know if this is universal or just a me thing, but my heartbeat gets odd when I’m not recovered. I know I’m truly recovered when I no longer feel my heartbeat in my lips or chest. Do I still train when I’m not recovered? Absolutely. But I do temper my expectations accordingly.
Elevated resting heart rate is definitely a sign of under recovery. Not just a you thing at all.
Of course, with pre-workout being such a thing at this point, dudes are so consistently stimmed out of their minds that it’s becoming tough to track.
The day after a hard workout, I usually feel like something is pressing hard on my chest and that my lungs can’t expand fully
Usually goes away after I get my HR up though
Now this might be something to look at! Thanks
Scott
I’ve told you it before Scott 
How come?
Dude, haha.