CPSS Acute and Chronic Monitoring 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A basketball player's CMJ flight time drops 8% below their 4-week rolling average on game-day morning. According to best practice, what is the recommended response?
- Sit the athlete out of the game entirely
- Flag to coaching staff, adjust warm-up, and monitor during pre-game activation (Correct answer)
- Ignore the result as game-day adrenaline will compensate
- Immediately administer creatine supplementation
Correct answer: Flag to coaching staff, adjust warm-up, and monitor during pre-game activation
A meaningful CMJ decrement should trigger a communication with coaching staff, a modified warm-up strategy, and continued monitoring — not automatic exclusion without further context.
Question 2: Which of the following is the primary reason practitioners advocate for 'athlete-reported outcome measures' (AROMs) in daily monitoring?
- AROMs are cheaper than blood biomarker panels
- AROMs capture subjective well-being domains that objective sensors cannot detect (Correct answer)
- AROMs have higher test-retest reliability than HRV
- AROMs eliminate the need for physical performance testing
Correct answer: AROMs capture subjective well-being domains that objective sensors cannot detect
AROMs such as wellness questionnaires capture psychological and perceptual domains (mood, stress, sleep quality) that cannot be directly measured by wearable sensors or blood markers.
Question 3: In the context of load monitoring periodization, what is the purpose of a 'deload' or recovery microcycle?
- To maximize acute training stress before competition
- To reduce accumulated fatigue so fitness gains can be expressed (Correct answer)
- To test maximum strength and power capabilities
- To introduce new technical skills without physical demand
Correct answer: To reduce accumulated fatigue so fitness gains can be expressed
A deload microcycle reduces training load to allow fatigue dissipation, enabling the athlete to express the fitness adaptations built during prior loading phases.
Question 4: Which statistical approach is recommended to establish an individual athlete's 'meaningful change' threshold for HRV monitoring?
- Group-level p-value from a t-test
- Coefficient of variation (CV) of the athlete's own baseline data (Correct answer)
- Standard error of measurement from a population cohort
- Minimal detectable change from published normative tables
Correct answer: Coefficient of variation (CV) of the athlete's own baseline data
Using the individual athlete's own coefficient of variation (CV) to establish a meaningful change threshold accounts for their personal measurement variability and avoids applying population-level statistics to individual monitoring.
Question 5: Which of the following scenarios best illustrates the 'acute:chronic workload ratio spike' problem in a pre-season camp context?
- An athlete maintains consistent daily loads throughout a 4-week camp
- An athlete returns from a 3-week off-season break and immediately completes high-volume sessions (Correct answer)
- An athlete reduces training load two weeks before a major competition
- An athlete gradually increases weekly mileage by 10% over 8 weeks
Correct answer: An athlete returns from a 3-week off-season break and immediately completes high-volume sessions
Returning from a prolonged break reduces chronic load (fitness base), so immediately resuming high acute loads produces a dangerously elevated ACWR and increases injury risk.
Question 6: Which of the following best explains why resting heart rate (RHR) is considered a less sensitive daily monitoring marker than HRV?
- RHR requires laboratory equipment to measure accurately
- RHR changes are too large to detect day-to-day
- HRV captures autonomic nervous system complexity that RHR cannot reflect (Correct answer)
- RHR is only valid in endurance athletes
Correct answer: HRV captures autonomic nervous system complexity that RHR cannot reflect
HRV captures subtle, real-time fluctuations in autonomic balance that RHR cannot resolve, making HRV a more sensitive indicator of fatigue, illness, and readiness.
Question 7: Which monitoring approach involves measuring performance readiness at a fixed time each morning under standardized conditions before training begins?
- Reactive monitoring
- Prospective daily readiness assessment (Correct answer)
- Post-session recovery monitoring
- Intra-session intensity tracking
Correct answer: Prospective daily readiness assessment
Prospective daily readiness assessment involves standardized morning measurements (HRV, CMJ, wellness questionnaire) collected before training to inform same-day load decisions.
CPSS Acute and Chronic Monitoring 5
A basketball player's CMJ flight time drops 8% below their 4-week rolling average on game-day morning.
According to best practice, what is the recommended response?