Training load calculation for strength workouts

After a horrendous 8 months things have started to normalise again but I have lost about half my strength, so I have decided to go back into the gym and do some workouts there in addition to cycling in order to slowly build myself back up again.
I don’t have wrist watch that calculates load/TSS or anything so just wondered if there was a simple way to calculate the training load. I’ve seen on the internet all sorts of weird and wonderful ways of calculating it but they seem so complicated. Any thoughts?

Really, sorry to hear about that. Even though my life is smooth for a while, I can really relate to this.

I personally would think the accuracy of TSS related to gym work is so far off that it would not be helpful. Just to help you have some idea of where you are at you could just say “how did this feel compared to cycling”

You can see in our calculator. This could be 3 sets of 10 reps of legs + 3 sets of 10 reps of arms. But again I really don’t think there is any real accuracy to this but it could be a place holder to keep your PMC closer on track. This 300% / 200% is just a guess.

For strength, how you feel combined with HRV would be a much better way analyze training load/readiness.

Thanks for the input Alex. Yes, I was aware that it was probably not an exact science and what you say makes sense. I was just trying to find a way to not overdo things for a while, which I have a tendency to do. Probably best with the RPE/HRV method and hope I can be very honest with myself. :see_no_evil:

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Yes, also for me a dead give away that I am doing too much is excess cortisol which interrupts my sleep.

Yep, think I have an excess of cortisol as well.
Now that I feel like my old self again I’m perhaps overdoing it a bit too early. Jaja, “slowly slowly catchee monkey” as we used to say in the old days.

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TrainingPeaks (including the free version), makes a TSS estimate for strength workouts with a total time and average heart rate

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However, I agree with Alex on the limited accuracy of TSS related to strength training. Thirty minutes of HEAVY deadlifts and squats likely contribute to a higher level of central fatigue than, say an hour of arm & shoulder work. A semi-recent Fast Talk Labs podcast discussed the impact of lifting on cycling training. I believe they suggested rating workouts on an RPE scale, seeing how different RPEs affected your training, and then adjusting accordingly (e.g., scaling strength workouts to an appropriate RPE relative to your current cycling training/goals). Though I may be over-simplifying their recommendations.

That said, I still put my strength workouts into TP, but mostly as a reminder that the workouts happened (or some weeks, didn’t happen :man_shrugging:).

Thanks for the reply PZed. I’ve basically gone away from the idea of TSS and indeed RPE. Just going to try and make sure I don’t overdo things. :grinning: