Deload signals, pain flags & minimum-dose weeks

Recovery rules read your history, not your mood

Fatigue management in most apps is either absent or a wellness questionnaire. Flexbound's recovery rules run against the same confirmed history as everything else: top-set performance, volume trends, and the pain notes you write in your own words.

The deload signal, exactly

If top-set performance declines across two or more consecutive sessions on a key lift while accumulated volume is high, the app suggests one deload week: load reduced about40–50%, or volume reduced about 50%.

This rule is graded coach opinion, and we print that grade in the app. The research consensus is solid that planned fatigue reduction works; the exact trigger thresholds are practice, not settled science. Honest labeling beats borrowed authority.

Pain flags change the math

Write "knee felt cranky again" three sessions in a row and the progression engine reacts: aggravating movements get about a10% load reduction or a joint-friendlier substitution suggestion. Persistent, sharp, or worsening pain gets a different message entirely and see a qualified professional. An app that only ever says "add five pounds" isn't a coach; it's a metronome.

Busy weeks: do less, keep the signal

When time or recovery is constrained, the minimum-dose rule preserves consistency over completeness: shorter sessions built around the highest-priority compounds plus a few hard accessory sets. A 35-minute session that keeps the loop alive beats a skipped week every time.

The under-fueling guardrail

Hard training plus aggressive dieting plus fatigue, poor sleep, recurring illness, or bone-stress pain is a pattern the app treats as anunder-fueling risk, following the IOC's consensus on Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport. The response is never "restrict harder." It is a recommendation for professional support. Some coaching moments are referrals, and a responsible app knows which ones.

Limits, stated plainly

Session-to-session performance is noisy. Sleep, stress, and life all show up in the bar speed. Two data points can be a cold gym, not overreaching, which is why deload suggestions are suggestions: dismissible, explained, and never auto-applied. Pain detection depends on you writing pain down; the notebook can only coach what it can read.