Knowing when to hit the gas or pump the breaks during training can be the difference between continual growth and improvement or re-injury/burnout. This is even more prevalent when returning to training and ramping up volume and intensity is a fine balance. When returning to training a general recommendation is to build that volume before ramping up intensity. In application, this means a little more zone 2 cardio and a little more RPE 5-6 for the first few weeks as we increase sets, reps, mileage, rounds, etc. But the question arises how do we determine when we are pushing too fast too quickly or under recovering? The simplest metric for many of us is often soreness. Having excessive delayed onset muscle soreness that may prevent follow-on training or intensity of training is not what we are seeking when returning to training. This is going to be an individual gauge of what "excessive" means in terms of soreness but this will often tell us we are increasing volume or intensity too quickly or not eating or recovering properly. Returning to training is a pivotal stage and the last thing we want is a re-injury or lack of ability to adhere to training due to soreness. Some other practical tips for you guys or markers of lacking recovery are as follows:
1. Monitoring resting heart rate over days if you see a trend of increasing resting heart rate it may be a sign of increased stress on the body and the body is responding.
2. Grip strength is another tool if you have access to a dynamometer test your grip strength in the morning if you see a drop off in grip strength this may be a sign of a lack of recovery.
3. Another simple tool is blood pressure similar to resting heart rate if we see a trend of increased blood pressure we may be under recovered.
These are all tools and not full proof methods but are some great guides I use to gauge individual recovery particularly when returning to training.