Whilst it is common knowledge that volume and intensity need to be manipulated to avoid chronic and long term fatigue, strategies to assess how fatigued a client is are not common knowledge. Numerous strategies can be employed to constantly assess your client’s readiness to train:
Neuro-muscular function: Komi (2000) demonstrated that simple jump procedures can be used to evaluate muscle fatigue… however they need to be recorded regularly. If you see a client once every 4 weeks they are probably not going to be that helpful. It’s important to note that jump mats have been shown to have a 1-6% coefficients of variation. Simply record your client at the start of every session and over time plot mean values and norms. Deviations from the norms signify either fitness (i.e you can train them harder) or fatigue (i.e you need to improve their recovery or drop intensity).
Subjective assessments of fatigue: Subjective assessments of fatigue have been shown to detect changes due to training stress. Furthermore, mental fatigue can impair a client’s capacity to train. Many personal trainers will have experienced sessions with their clients, where their focus and intensity was simply not there. There are standardised questionnaires currently available, such as the sport wellness questionnaire, however there is nothing stopping you devising your own based on the type of clients you train.
Resting heart rate: A nice simple strategy to gauge fatigue is daily monitoring of resting heart rate; it sounds like it should be more complicated but that simply is it! Simply ask your client to record their heart rate within 5 minutes of waking. Graph this over a period of time and any significant deviations may help identify periods of over training.
Adjusting your training to meet the present fatigue state of your client will not only help them achieve their goals faster, but more likely they will enjoy the sessions more.