Acute and Chronic Monitoring Flashcards

Which heart rate variability (HRV) metric is most commonly used to reflect parasympathetic nervous system activity in athlete monitoring?

Answer: rMSSD

rMSSD (root mean square of successive differences) reflects parasympathetic (vagal) activity and is the most widely used HRV metric in daily athlete monitoring.

An athlete's acute:chronic workload ratio (ACWR) rises to 1.8 after a training spike. What does this indicate?

Answer: The athlete is at elevated injury risk due to excessive acute load

An ACWR above 1.5 is associated with significantly elevated injury risk, as it indicates the acute load greatly exceeds the chronic fitness base.

Which biomarker is most sensitive for detecting early-stage muscle damage following eccentric exercise?

Answer: Creatine kinase (CK)

Creatine kinase (CK) leaks from damaged muscle cells and is the most sensitive and specific early-stage marker of skeletal muscle damage.

In the context of session RPE (sRPE), how is training load calculated?

Answer: RPE × training duration in minutes

Session RPE training load is calculated by multiplying the RPE score (0–10 Borg CR10 scale) by the total session duration in minutes.

Which of the following best describes the 'fitness-fatigue' model in athlete monitoring?

Answer: Performance = fitness − fatigue, where both decay at different rates

The fitness-fatigue model states that performance equals the net difference between fitness (slow to develop, slow to decay) and fatigue (fast to accumulate, fast to decay).

A sport scientist notices an athlete's wellness questionnaire scores have declined for five consecutive days despite reduced training load. What should be investigated first?

Answer: Assess sleep quality, nutrition, and psychosocial stressors

Persistent wellness decline despite load reduction suggests non-training stressors (sleep disruption, poor nutrition, life stress) should be assessed before modifying training further.

Which accelerometry-based metric is most commonly used to quantify external training load in team sport athletes?

Answer: Player load

Player load (derived from tri-axial accelerometer data) quantifies the cumulative mechanical stress experienced by an athlete during a session and is the most common accelerometry-based external load metric.