Read time: 5 minutes
Over the last several years I've gotten deep into wearables. Apple Watch, then Morpheus, now back to the Whoop band.
My wife, Yesica, wears one too. She's a mom of three, and I never wanted to push any of this on her. I wanted health to be part of the culture of our home, and this was one place she was already curious. Now we compare our numbers most mornings and hold each other accountable.
Last week I got my wisdom teeth out. The next morning I woke up and my recovery score was better than hers. One of the few times I've beaten her, and I enjoyed it more than I should have.
Then I actually thought about it. I'd just had surgery.
A good score today doesn't tell you what the last three months did.
Two weeks ago I gave you the attic. Last week I gave you the downstairs.
Some of you ran it. So here's the fair question:
How do I know any of this is working?
You don't need a lab. You don't need bloodwork. You don't need to spend a dollar. You need two numbers and about three months of patience.
First: Why Feel Is a Bad Measure
Most guys judge a session by whether it hurt.
That tells you how hard you worked on Tuesday. It doesn't tell you whether your engine got any bigger.
Feel is a report on today. These two numbers are a report on the season.
Then: The First Number, Your Resting Heart Rate
This is where your heart idles when nothing is being asked of it.
Take it in the morning, before you get out of bed. Read it off your watch, your ring, or your strap. Same time, same conditions, every time. No wearable? Two fingers on your wrist, count a full 60 seconds.
Over months, a lower number means your heart moves more blood with each beat and doesn't have to beat as often to do the same job. That's a bigger engine.
One caution: this number is personal. Medications, genetics, and thirty years of training history all move it. The guy next to you at the gym is not your benchmark. Your own number, 90 days from now, is.
Then: The Second Number, the 60-Second Drop
Steph Curry is my favorite player, and the thing I find most impressive about him isn't the shooting.
ESPN reported he can bring his heart rate under 80 beats per minute during a single 90-second timeout. Not down by 80. Down to under 80, in the middle of a game.
His trainer defines conditioning as being able to hold your mechanics and make good decisions when your legs are burning and you can't breathe.
That's what this number measures. Not how hard you can go. How fast you come back.
Run the 4x4 from issue #2. At the end of the last hard round, note your heart rate. Then stop and sit still. Don't walk it off, don't pace, don't talk. Sixty seconds later, look again and subtract:
Peak heart rate minus your 60-second reading equals your drop.
It has to come off a genuinely hard effort, which is why the 4x4 is the vehicle. An easy session won't tell you anything. Keep the conditions the same every time. Same machine, same effort, same posture. A guy who peaks at 175 has more room to fall than a guy who peaks at 150, so your drop isn't comparable to anyone else's.
So what's a good number?
These are rough field guidelines from years of testing with my own clients and with coaches I've learned from, using chest straps and watches. There is no published chart for this:
Under 20 beats in that first minute is low
20 to 40 is average
Over 40 is high
If your first number is 15, that's a starting line, not a grade. The only scale that matters is your own number three months from now.
There's a third number people will tell you to track, and that's HRV. It's useful, it needs a device, and most men are misreading what's on their wrist. It's getting its own issue later this year.
Then: What to Expect
It takes time. Give it 90 days.
I run most things on a 90-day sprint, because that's long enough to see something real. Six weeks is the earliest I'd expect this to move. Eight to twelve weeks is the sweet spot. Four weeks tells you nothing.
Anyone can make you sweat. Not anyone can make you better.
A workout is one good time. Training is a lifetime.
So if you're six weeks in and the number hasn't budged, here's what I'd ask before I'd let you quit:
Was the effort actually hard enough?
Are you testing the same way every time?
How's your sleep, your stress, your food?
Your heart rate answers to all of it. Stress from training, from work, from your family, from your business. It all shows up here.
That's why we watch the trend instead of the day.
It's the same as strength training. You put in the time, and one day the weight that used to be your warm-up is your work set. You didn't feel it happen. You just kept showing up until it did.
QUICK HITS
Bloodwork. Write both numbers down somewhere you'll actually find them in 90 days. A note on your phone is fine. The number is worthless without the one you took before it.
Training. Take your reading at the same point in the session every time. End of the last hard round, not whenever you remember.
Fatherhood. My youngest, Arlyn, is six months old. Up on his arms, almost crawling, about to eat real food for the first time. Edyn is headed to pre-K and Adelyna is turning into her own person. Recovering from the surgery, I couldn't do much, so I sat with them. A woman once told us at a restaurant, watching her own three kids: the days are long, but the years are short. I'll never get this version of them back.
Stress. One morning's number means nothing. Bad sleep, a late meal, a hard week, or a couple of drinks will all move it.
🧱 ON THE WALL
“If you’re not assessing, you’re guessing.”
That's one I say all the time on my gym floor.
I have a client who plays cricket. A few weeks ago he was telling me about a match, and he wasn't talking about his batting. He was talking about how fast he comes back between runs compared to the other guys on his team. Standing out there breathing easy while everyone around him is still bent over.
He told me it's the thing about his transformation that's impressed him most. Not the mirror. The way his heart handles work now, on the pitch and on the floor with me.
Nobody handed him that in a lab. He earned it in the boring stuff, and he found out about it in the middle of a game he loves.
He didn't measure it. He felt it. If he'd been tracking his 60-second drop this whole time, he'd have watched it coming months before that match.
1️⃣ THIS WEEK'S 1%
Run the Engine Check one time.
Take your resting heart rate tomorrow morning before you get out of bed. Then, on your next hard session, take your 60-second drop.
Write both down. Put them somewhere you'll find them in 90 days.
Then hit reply with your two numbers if you want. I'll read every one.
That closes out the engine. Four weeks on the heart, the attic, the downstairs, and now the proof.
If you know someone who's been training hard with nothing to show for it, forward them this one.
Next week we start on the frame. Muscle isn't a mirror. It's an organ, and it's doing more for you than you think.
Your body is worth stewarding.
Go become 1% better. 🔧
-Coach Joshua
Educational content, not medical advice. Partner with your physician, ideally one who believes in proactive care.