What You'll Learn
This guide explains how Limberjack's recovery tracking system works and how to use it to make smarter programming decisions.
What Are Recovery Rates?
Recovery rates show you when movements and muscle groups are ready to be programmed again. Instead of guessing whether your athletes have recovered from yesterday's squats, you see clear visual indicators.
How Muscle Activations Work
Every movement in Limberjack has muscle activation data showing which muscle groups it works and to what degree:
- High activation: The primary muscles doing the work (e.g., Quads for squats)
- Moderate activation: Supporting muscles engaged during the movement (e.g., Glutes for squats)
- Low activation: Stabilizing muscles with lighter involvement (e.g., Core for squats)
When you program a movement, its muscle activations determine how much load each muscle group receives. This accumulates across workouts to show aggregate fatigue.
Visual Recovery Indicators
Each muscle group shows a bar and one of four fatigue levels in words, so the level reads clearly without relying on color.
These levels appear as you build workouts, giving you immediate feedback on whether you're about to overload a muscle group.
Example: Weekly Programming
Let's say you programmed these workouts:
Monday: Heavy back squats (loads Quads, Glutes, Low Back) Tuesday: Overhead press (loads Shoulders, Triceps, Core) Wednesday: You're planning the workout
When you open the builder on Wednesday, you'll see:
This tells you that pulling is wide open, legs can take moderate work, and heavy pressing should wait.
Muscle Groups
Limberjack tracks fatigue across standard muscle groups:
Examples: Quads, Hamstrings, Glutes, Shoulders, Chest, Back, Core, Triceps, Biceps, etc.
Each movement's muscle activation data determines which groups accumulate fatigue when programmed.
Recovery Timelines
All movements share the same default recovery rate. Limberjack calculates the recovery rank automatically using exponential decay over time: the longer since a movement was programmed, the more recovered it appears. You can override the recovery rate for specific elements within a training cycle if your programming philosophy calls for faster or slower recovery on particular movements.
Using Recovery Data to Program
The recovery system isn't meant to be rigid rules. It's information that helps you make better decisions:
- See patterns you might have missed
- Avoid accidental overload of specific muscle groups
- Balance variety with consistency
- Program with confidence knowing you're accounting for cumulative load
Next Steps
- Getting Started - Create your first workout
- Importing Workouts - Import existing programming to see patterns
- Managing Cycles - Organize training into cycles