The 21st century has brought a lot of tech advances: high-speed internet, telescopes that show us images of black holes, nanotechnology helping manufacturing, healthcare, climate work, and agriculture, and even cauliflower crust for pizza. The health and fitness world has benefited too, with trainers able to work with clients from around the globe in real time. And yes, cauliflower crust pizza exists and it doesn’t taste like sawdust.
We can now measure bar speed and heart-rate variability with apps on our phones, all of which provide data to help gauge our readiness to train on any given day. Technology is great.
But when it comes to deciding if you’re ready to train, I lean toward what I call indicator sets.
What is an indicator set? Here’s a simple anecdote. I was walking to my studio with a plan to warm up, blast some music, get fired up, and work up to a heavy triple on my deadlift around 535 pounds. On paper, it looked doable. But during warmups things didn’t go as planned: 135 x 5, 225 x 5, 315 x 3, 405 x 1 felt okay, and 455 x 1 felt heavy.
An indicator set tells me whether I have “it” that day. In the previous two weeks, 455 pounds (about 80% of my 1RM) had flown up with ease. Based on the bar speed and how smooth the set felt, I knew I could go for a high-500s pull. So I gave myself the green light and went for it.
Conversely, one day 455 felt like garbage—slow off the ground and slow at lockout, which I rarely have issues with. The sign was clear: if I tried to go higher, I risked injuring my back, so I stopped.
I re-racked, did accessory work—dumbbell reverse lunges, a little venting in the corner, and some pull-throughs.
It’s not a perfect system, nor something scientific. I’m not anti-technology, but I believe many people miss the forest for the trees when judging readiness. If a watch indicates fatigue, some will shut training down too quickly. I’ve also seen the opposite: someone shows up feeling off, then warms up and finds they’re ready to go.
Indicator sets help you learn to feel what you’ve got on any given day. In short, they’re a form of auto-regulation that reduces dependence on an algorithm. They can also save you money.
If you’re going to use them, start incorporating indicator sets into your warm-up on days you plan to push hard. Pick a weight you can use to gauge your status that day—heavy enough to challenge you, but something you know you can lift with fast, flawless technique. This is likely around 80% of your 1RM.
Trust me: the idea of lifting heavy all the time is admirable, but it isn’t always the best approach.
