Training & Readiness Glossary
The metrics behind training smarter, in plain language. Each entry is self-contained.
- Heart Rate Variability (HRV) — Heart rate variability (HRV) is the variation in time between consecutive heartbeats, measured in milliseconds. Higher HRV generally reflects a more recovered, parasympathetically-driven state; lower HRV reflects accumulated fatigue or stress.
- Acute:Chronic Workload Ratio (ACWR) — The acute:chronic workload ratio (ACWR) compares the training load you did this week (acute) to your rolling average load over the last four weeks (chronic). A ratio around 0.8–1.3 is often described as a workload 'sweet spot'; ratios above ~1.5 represent a sharp spike in load.
- Autoregulation — Autoregulation is the practice of adjusting your training — load, volume, or intensity — day to day based on how prepared you are on that specific day, rather than rigidly following a pre-written plan.
- Deload — A deload is a planned, temporary reduction in training load — typically lower volume, intensity, or both for about a week — used to let accumulated fatigue dissipate so fitness can be expressed and built on.
- Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) — Rate of perceived exertion (RPE) is a subjective scale — most commonly 0–10 in strength training — that rates how hard a set or session felt. In lifting, RPE is often anchored to reps in reserve (RIR): an RPE of 8 means roughly two good reps were left in the tank.
- Training Readiness — Training readiness is an estimate of how prepared your body and nervous system are to handle hard training on a given day. It blends recovery signals — such as HRV, sleep, and subjective wellness — into guidance on whether to push, hold, or pull back.
- NeuroScore — NeuroScore is umo's daily training-readiness score (0–100). It combines five inputs — heart rate variability, sleep, reaction time, tremor, and subjective wellness — into one number that reflects how prepared your nervous system is to train hard today.