Training Smart: A Guide to Load Management

Training Smart: A Guide to Load Management

When it comes to improving your performance, more hard work isn’t always the answer, It’s about training smarter. Load management is one of the most underrated tools athletes can use to stay healthy, avoid burnout and consistently improve.

In this blog, we’ll break down a simple system which can help you avoid two of the most common training mistakes; training too much or too little.

It’s called the Acute to Chronic Workload Ratio (ACWR).

What is Load Management?

Load management is all about balancing how much your body is working over time. If you increase workload too quickly, you increase your risk of injury. If you don’t work hard enough, your fitness levels will decrease. The ACWR helps you find a semi-objective measure to find the sweet spot between the two.

Step by Step – How to Track Your Workload:

1. Calculate Daily Workload

Use this formula:
RPE (effort level of session 1-10) x Duration of session in minutes = Session Workload

Lets say today you did:
– Strength Training: 6 RPE x 30 minutes = 180
– Skills Session: 7 RPE x 60 minutes = 420
Total for the day = 600

Track everyday for the week.

2. Find Your Weekly Average
Add up each day’s total and divide by 7.

Example:
Weekly Total = 2450
Average = 2450 / 7 = 350

3. Calculate Acute Chronic Workloads
Acute: Your most recent weeks average
Chronic: The average of the previous 3 weeks

Chronic example:
Week 1 = 200, Week 2 = 300, Week 3 = 150
Chronic = (200 + 300 + 150) / 3 = 217

4. Get Your ACWR
Now divide your acute workload by your chronic workload:
Acute: 350
Chronic: 217
ACWR: 350 / 217 = 1.6

What Do These Numbers Mean?

Planning Your Week:

Even if you haven’t tracked in the past, you can start by estimating your past 3 weeks, then use that to plan your next week of training while increasing your workload by 10-30%.

If your chronic workload is 175,
your target acute workload = 175 x 1.1 to 1.3 = 193 – 228

Now you can schedule your workouts to hit this desired workload.

The Art of Load Management

Tracking is the science, adjusting is the art.

Here is what you should focus on:

Don’t change everything at once:

Pick a single variable to increase at a time.

• Intensity (RPE)
• Duration (Minutes)
• Frequency (Sessions per week)

Go Easy With New Exercises
New exercises place new stresses on the body. Instead of reducing other training around new gym phases, you should deload during the first week of a new block. This allows your body to adjust to the new exercises at a lower intensity.

Don’t Chase Soreness
You don’t need to wreck your body to get results. Slight muscle soreness is fine (1-5/10), but if you can’t walk, you’ve gone too far.

Too much soreness can increase the risk of muscle strains and increase the risk of tendon injuries.

Pain is a Red Flag
If something hurts you should stop. Don’t push through joint or tendon pain. Simply put, a healthy athlete is better than an injured one.

Recovery Isn’t a Hack, It’s a Habit
Most fancy recovery tools don’t make a massive difference if you don’t nail the basics.

1. Avoid overtraining
2. Listen to your body
3. Eat well
4. Sleep 8-10 hours a night
5. Manage stress
6. Stay active outside the gym (light walks, biking etc)
7. Be happy – your mood seriously affects your recovery

Final Thoughts

Don’t worry about tracking your ACWR perfectly, rough estimates are better than nothing at all.

Most athletes don’t track at all, until there is a problem. If you want to train smarter and harder, keep your workload between 0.8 and 1.3, build up gradually and adjust accordingly.

Train Smart. Stay Consistent. Recover Properly. Get Better. Simple.

Benjamin Galea
Senior High Performance Coach
SRA Sports Therapy