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Understanding Recovery Rates

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 Recovery Groups Work

Every movement in Limberjack is associated with one or more recovery groups. These groups represent muscle groups and movement patterns:

  • Primary groups: The main muscles doing the work (e.g., Quads for squats)
  • Secondary groups: Supporting muscles (e.g., Glutes for squats)
  • Tertiary groups: Stabilizing muscles (e.g., Core for squats)

When you program a movement, all its associated recovery groups get marked as "loaded" and begin recovering over time.

Visual Recovery Indicators

Limberjack uses a combination of color and symbols to ensure recovery status is clear to everyone.

● Ready Ready (Green): Fully recovered (< 55% fatigue). Safe to program.
⬟ Notice Notice (Yellow): Minor fatigue (55-65%). Generally safe.
◆ Caution Caution (Orange): Moderate fatigue (65-75%). Monitor volume.
▲ Warning Warning (Red): High fatigue (75-85%). Consider avoiding.
★ Danger Danger (Dark Red): Very high fatigue (85-95%). Do not program.
✖ Stop Stop (Black): Max fatigue (> 95%). Complete rest required.

These indicators 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:

  • Quads: ⬟ Notice (partially recovered from Monday)
  • Shoulders: ● Ready (fully recovered, only worked Tuesday)
  • Low Back: ⬟ Notice (still recovering from heavy squats)

This tells you that leg-dominant movements might be okay, but heavy posterior chain work should wait.

Customizing Recovery Groups

You can define recovery groups however makes sense for your programming:

Simple approach: Legs, Upper Body Push, Upper Body Pull, Core Detailed approach: Quads, Hamstrings, Glutes, Anterior Shoulders, Posterior Shoulders, etc.

The system works with whatever level of detail you prefer.

Recovery Timelines

Different movement types have different recovery timelines based on intensity and volume. Limberjack calculates this automatically, but you can adjust recovery rates if needed for your specific programming philosophy.

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

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