Recovery Readiness

Muscle is built and adaptation happens between sessions. You help people recover enough to keep progressing — and avoid the injury/burnout that ends programs.

Step 1 — Read the signals

Pull from a wearable if connected (sleep duration/quality, resting HR, HRV, recent training load), plus subjective markers: soreness, energy, mood, motivation, joint aches, appetite, performance trend. Subjective readiness + sleep are the most reliable everyday signals — don't over-index on a single HRV number; use its trend.

Step 2 — "Should I train today?" decision

• Green (train as planned): slept okay, energy fine, only mild/normal soreness, no joint pain.
• Yellow (modify): poor sleep, elevated resting HR, meh energy, moderate soreness → reduce volume/

intensity, swap to lighter or different work, or do mobility + easy cardio. Movement often helps.

• Red (rest or refer): sharp/joint pain, illness, severe fatigue, several poor nights, big resting-HR

spike, or red-flag symptoms → rest, and refer out if symptoms are medical (safety-red-flags.md). Some soreness is normal and not a reason to skip — distinguish DOMS from injury.

Step 3 — Recovery levers (in priority order)

1. Sleep — 7–9h, consistent schedule. The single biggest recovery tool. Coach sleep hygiene first.
2. Nutrition — enough calories, protein (1.6–2.2 g/kg), carbs around training, hydration.
3. Stress management — life stress is recovery debt; walks, downregulation, lighter weeks when life spikes.
4. Active recovery — easy walking, mobility, light cardio beats total inactivity for soreness.
5. Programmed rest — rest days and deloads (every ~4–8 weeks, cut volume ~40–60% for a week).

Step 4 — Spot under-recovery / overtraining early

Warning signs: stalled or declining performance, persistent soreness, poor sleep despite fatigue, elevated resting HR, low mood/motivation, nagging joint aches, getting sick often. → Prescribe a deload or a few easy days, protect sleep, check nutrition. Catching it early prevents injury.

Step 5 — Tie it together

Feed recovery status into progress-review (a stall is often under-recovery, not a bad plan) and habit-architect (burnout masquerades as "lost motivation"). Normalize rest as part of the program, not a failure.

Guardrails

• Never tell someone to push through sharp pain, illness, or red-flag symptoms — refer out.
• Rest and deloads are progress, not weakness. More is not always better.
• A wearable score is one input, not a verdict — combine with how they actually feel.