CPSS - Certified Performance and Sport Scientist Acute and Chronic Monitoring Questions and Answers — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A sport scientist is monitoring a soccer player's workload. Which of the following represents a combination of an acute internal load measure and a chronic external load measure?
- Session RPE for today's practice and total distance covered over the last 4 weeks. (Correct answer)
- Average heart rate during this week's training and total sprint distance this week.
- Daily wellness questionnaire score and average power output over the last 7 days.
- Heart rate variability (HRV) this morning and the acute:chronic workload ratio (ACWR).
Correct answer: Session RPE for today's practice and total distance covered over the last 4 weeks.
Session Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) is a subjective measure of an athlete's physiological and psychological stress during a specific session, making it an acute internal load measure. [1, 9] Total distance covered, measured via GPS or other tracking technologies, is an objective measure of the work performed by the athlete, and when averaged over four weeks, it represents a chronic external load. [2, 3]
Question 2: When calculating the acute:chronic workload ratio (ACWR), what are the most commonly used time frames for the 'acute' and 'chronic' periods, respectively?
- 3 days and 14 days
- 10 days and 30 days
- 7 days and 28 days (Correct answer)
- 14 days and 42 days
Correct answer: 7 days and 28 days
The most widely accepted and utilized method for calculating the ACWR involves using a 7-day period for the acute workload and a 28-day (or 4-week) rolling average for the chronic workload. [2, 19] This allows practitioners to compare the most recent week's training stress to the athlete's accustomed load over the past month.
Question 3: A performance scientist observes that an athlete's Heart Rate Variability (HRV) has been consistently decreasing over the past 10 days, despite the external training load remaining stable. This trend most likely indicates:
- A positive adaptation to the training program.
- An impending improvement in performance.
- The athlete is likely in a state of functional overreaching.
- Accumulated fatigue and a potential state of non-functional overreaching. (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Accumulated fatigue and a potential state of non-functional overreaching.
A consistently decreasing trend in HRV, particularly when training load is stable or increasing, is a common indicator of increased autonomic nervous system stress and accumulated fatigue. [5, 10] This suggests the athlete is not recovering adequately from the training stimulus and may be progressing towards non-functional overreaching or overtraining syndrome. [10, 14]
Question 4: Which of the following monitoring tools is considered a subjective measure of an athlete's internal training load?
- GPS tracking of high-speed running distance.
- Lactate concentration measured from a blood sample post-exercise.
- Barbell velocity during a back squat.
- Wellness questionnaires assessing fatigue, sleep quality, and mood. (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Wellness questionnaires assessing fatigue, sleep quality, and mood.
Wellness questionnaires rely on the athlete's self-reported perceptions of their physical and mental state. [9, 29] This makes them a subjective tool for assessing the internal response (e.g., fatigue, stress, mood) to training and life stressors. [4, 12] The other options are all objective measures of external load (GPS, velocity) or internal physiological response (lactate).
Question 5: A basketball coach dramatically increases the team's training volume and intensity for one week in preparation for a major tournament. According to the ACWR model, this sudden spike will most likely place the athletes in which zone, increasing their short-term injury risk?
- The 'sweet spot' (0.8 - 1.3)
- The 'danger zone' (>1.5) (Correct answer)
- The 'undertraining zone' (<0.8)
- The 'maintenance zone' (1.0)
Correct answer: The 'danger zone' (>1.5)
A rapid increase in acute workload that significantly surpasses the chronic workload will result in a high ACWR, typically defined as a value greater than 1.5. [2, 27] This 'danger zone' indicates a spike in fatigue relative to the athlete's fitness base and has been associated with a significantly increased risk of injury. [27]
Question 6: A Certified Performance and Sport Scientist is implementing a monitoring system for a collegiate swimming team on a limited budget. Which method provides a valid, reliable, and cost-effective way to quantify internal training load for each athlete?
- Daily blood lactate analysis.
- Continuous heart rate monitoring for every session.
- The session-Rating of Perceived Exertion (sRPE) method. (Correct answer)
- Countermovement jump testing before and after every practice.
Correct answer: The session-Rating of Perceived Exertion (sRPE) method.
The session-RPE method, which involves multiplying the session duration in minutes by the athlete's RPE score (on a 1-10 scale), is a scientifically validated, reliable, and extremely cost-effective tool for quantifying internal training load. [9, 15] It requires minimal equipment and provides a single, simple number to represent the load of a given session across various training modalities. [15]
CPSS - Certified Performance and Sport Scientist Acute and Chronic Monitoring Questions and Answers
A sport scientist is monitoring a soccer player's workload.
Which of the following represents a combination of an acute internal load measure and a chronic external load measure?