Estimate how demanding an Olympic weightlifting session was and how much recovery it may require. The model combines session tonnage, average intensity, hard working sets, recent sleep, and current soreness. It returns a recovery-demand score, an estimated time window, and the main factor driving the result. Use it to compare sessions and plan the next hard exposure—not as a medical readiness test.
Sleep factor is 1 + max(0, 7 − sleep) × 0.08. Soreness factor is 1 + soreness × 0.04.
A higher score means the session and current readiness indicators point to greater recovery demand. The time window is a planning estimate, not a guarantee that technique or tissue readiness has fully returned.
This tool does not diagnose overtraining or injury. Pain, unusual weakness, or persistent fatigue warrants qualified medical or coaching advice.
For 6,000 kg at 75% intensity, 12 hard sets, 7 hours of sleep, and soreness of 3/10, the normalized load is 108.0 and the capped recovery-demand score is 100. The planning window is 72 hours.
Include warm-ups only if you include them consistently. For session-to-session comparisons, many lifters track all loaded repetitions.
Heavier percentages generally increase neural and technical demand even when total tonnage is unchanged.
The model removes the sleep-deficit penalty but does not award a recovery bonus beyond seven hours.
No. It is a planning estimate to combine with bar speed, technique quality, pain, and coaching judgment.
Yes, but comparisons are most useful when you keep the same method for tonnage and hard-set classification.
| Measure | Definition | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| Tonnage | Total external load moved | kg |
| Average intensity | Mean working percentage of 1RM | % |
| Hard sets | Challenging working sets | count |
| Sleep | Previous night’s sleep | hours |
| Soreness | Current self-rating | 0–10 |