TrainingLoad

TrainingLoad for iPhone and iPod Touch allows anyone to record and track the 'dose' of exercise for a single person with two common methods used by sport and exercise scientists - Session-RPE and the Training Impulse (TRIMP).

The TRIMP integrates training intensity and training duration into a single overall measure of training dose. The TRIMP uses the exponential relationship between fractional elevation in heart rate and blood lactate concentration, as observed during incremental exercise, to ‘weight’ exercise at a particular intensity. This method provides an exponentially higher weighting for higher intensity sessions.

Session-RPE is a subjective method of calculating the training load that uses a modified 0-10 scale version of the Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE). Approximately 30 minutes after a training session the exerciser or athlete rates how hard their session was based on a list of descriptors, like 'easy' or 'hard'. Each descriptor is associated with a number on the RPE scale such that harder sessions are linked to a higher number. The RPE is then multiplied by the duration of the session to produce a value in arbitrary units (AU).

About 30 minutes after the training session, enter the mean heart rate, the session duration and the RPE by using the sliders. You should record resting heart rate prior to each session. The app allows you to enter a short (22 characters) description of each training session in order to keep track of what was done. After you have entered all of the data via the sliders, and provided a short description of the training session, simply tap on 'Calculate Load' and the TRIMP and Session-RPE will be calculated for you. Then hit the 'Save' button.

Tapping on 'View Data' presents a table listing all individual sessions including the date, the description, the TRIMP value and the Session-RPE value. You can share the data here by email or twitter. Tapping on 'View Graph' will display the data as both individual sessions (labelled DAILY) and as weekly totals (labelled WEEKLY). The weekly graph for TRIMP also displays the percentage change from the previous week. The weekly graph for Session-RPE also displays the monotony, percentage change from the previous week, and strain. Monotony is a value that describes the variation in the training load, with higher values representing less variation. Low variation in the training load has been shown to increase the likelihood of abnormal training adaptations and possibly injury or illness. Therefore, high variation in the training load is advised, which would result in low monotony. It is advised that values above 2 are avoided. Strain is calculated as load x monotony and displayed on the weekly graph as a black circle connected with lines. Strain represents the combined value of load and monotony, so if the load is high and there is little variation in that load then the strain will be high. Consequently, it is advised that strain be lower than load. The monotony values are colour-coded green (good), orange (caution), or red (danger). As for monotony, the percentage change in weekly loads are colour-coded to show the magnitude of change - green (optimal), orange (high), and red (too high). From here you can also save a screenshot of either graph.