The Athlete’s Morning Check-In
So there’s varying degrees of frequency that coaches allow or respond to check-ins from an athlete, and here’s why daily or constant communication is amazing. I’m going to talk about a tool I’ve been using with Stu Locke that has helped me keep him updated on everything and given me the chance to take a daily temperature check. It’s resulted in a lot of instantaneous feedback, a better relationship, and improved training due to more effective quantified communication. Ever had a coach that just plain out doesn’t respond to what you say? We are slowly seeing a divide in coaches conducting themselves in one of three ways:
Winners - responsive, on time, communicator, available, accomplished
Pretenders - unqualified relative to their price, often guessing, inability to give constructive feedback
Scammers - unresponsive, consistently late, lack of accountability, appears accomplished but riding the coattails of their past
You’re more often than not going to be able weed out who is who on the surface. Social media is rough as we know, but if you think you have a winner, hit them with the check in and see how they feel about it. Fulfill your role as an athlete in properly communicating your side of your story to them. On the flip side let’s say you’re a coach just trying to get your people to communicate SOMETHING so you know what’s going on with them, boom hit em with the template, make it a requirement 4-5 times a week is reasonable.
The Template
Mental grade:
Sleep grade:
(previous day’s) Diet:
Soreness:
(current injury) pain:
Scoring: Weekly Total Average
<12
So you can score this however you want to this is just for your own tracking purposes but I want an overall score so I can see how primed we are for training and recovery, so I do it based on a golf score of 1-10, meaning that the lower the score, the better, 5 is the best score you can get. I like this because if were to add these up and get an overall of say <12 points I know the athlete’s barriers to success are almost non existent, we are all systems go and prime for great progress barring a huge setback or major life stressor incoming. A minority of people will exist in this area, maybe 20% if we were to go with a bell curve. If someone is constantly grading themselves in this area and not progressing I would suggest an audit of the nutrition/sleep practices and (a lack of) training intensity, or if the athlete is just unable to recognize what is a normal amount of soreness or mental strain.
As recent as 5 years ago I didn’t actually realize how bad my back was because I thought that particular level of stiffness was normal and “everyone gets stiff when lifting heavy ass weight.” Then I got unstiff and I was like OHHHHH THIS IS HOW I’M SUPPOSED TO FEEL?! So yeah if Grandma is more limber than you, check yourself and address that with a PT or ya know, schedule some time with a coach to get gooder programming.
13-22
This is going to be to most “normal” range we can expect people to be in given they don’t dedicate their existence to powerlifting, weightlifting, bodybuilding etc. They have families, jobs, debt, aspirations that exist outside of the realm of just picking things up. Most people just don’t possess the access to a stress free life. Along the way a lot of us get school, car, house, credit card debt. Kids gotta be taken to school, to soccer, gotta be fed, watered, bathed. Boss needs a report back by 8pm on a Friday and Nancy just quit because we’re underpaid and overworked as a society because corporations see employees and expendable labor, so now you’re taking on her deliverables too. Easy to see how mental grades can get worse now? One event can quickly turn us from a daily 2 to a daily 8 and cause diet and sleep to also fall off as well.
>22
HIIIGHWAY TO THE DANGER ZOOONE. Major adjustments need to be made when someone is in this area. We’re pretty much going to have to assume there is a major emotional/mental issue in the forefront of their life that is also causing a lack of good nutrition and sleep mixed with consistent soreness and injury. At this point we’re having to refer to clinician(s) for help as we are entering an area that is out of scope. What I can suggest though is pretty much going to be the same things guy’s like Andrew Huberman blanket suggests for mood elevation.
Managing Dopamine and Motivation - Early morning sunlight, red meat, scheduled and consistent sleep patterns.
45 min total per week Sauna - Body responds to heat with dynophins and endorphins, improved stress response, decreased cortisol.
11 min total per week Cold Plunge - Significant release of epinephrine (aka adrenaline) and norepinephrine (aka noradrenaline).
The Items:
Mental grade
This is going to be everything that affects us stress wise. Anxiety, depression, job, relationships, financial, everything that doesn’t have to do with how our body is being stressed out. What are you thinking about, are these good thoughts, are these bad thoughts, to what degree do they bum you out?
Sleep grade
Quantity and quality. Is it more than 8 hours? (Don’t @ me with some study about we should actually be getting X hours) Is it much less than 8 hours? How is it being tracked? via Whoop or another kind of watch, or just looking at the clock? Are you smoking/drinking within 2 hours of trying to sleep? How many times did you wake up, are you constantly having to pee, is it too bright, does your partner/dog wake you up?
(previous day’s) Diet:
Again quantity and quality. I can have 5000 Calories of steak rice and vegetables, I could also have 5000 Calories of Taco Bell. To make this a long story short, where your calories come from matters. Anyone that says different is probably natural, small, or named Layne Norton. You should be aiming to consume as many calories as possible in order to recover and grow BUT how that affects weight will vary. For me personally, I gain weight on higher fat but can remain almost weight neutral on high carb (700+) and somehow only lean out with no fat gain. Nutrition is weird, but eat your protein/carbs and eat a lot of them.
Here’s a link to the entire Vertical Diet eBook
Soreness:
Is systemic or localized. I personally experience consistent lower back soreness after lower sessions or rough training sessions, sometimes some chest soreness after a single session of a new block using the duffalo bar but not many other scenarios. This is a lagging metric to determine if diet is in order and/or not managing a lifter’s fatigue properly.
(current injury) pain:
Seems like everyone’s always dealing with something, and unless the coach is asking specifically about the injury we never come back around to it and often times the athlete won’t understand why the coach isn’t adjusting for this injury. The coach may often just think its not issue anymore since the athlete isn’t bringing it up! One big ol miscommunication from both sides. Give a grade so we’re all on the same page.
Practical Use:
You are obviously welcome to make whatever changes you want, but understand I made it short and general for a reason. Short because I want the athlete to fill it out consistently with minimal barriers to completion. Getting past 5 lines I feel starts to make it a little more of a mountain than a hill for some people, which then leads to non compliance.
I send this at about 10am, a few hours after I’ve woken up, had time to process how I am feeling and before I’ve started training, also giving coach time to audible or just acknowledge.
Example:
Mental grade: 5, Still feeling stress from X, things awkward around the house
Sleep grade: 2, 8 hours of sleep woke up once to pee
(previous day’s) Diet: 4, hit Protein and Carbs, low on fat
Soreness: 2, normal day to day soreness after a training day
Knee pain: 5, can get up stairs fine but still trouble with ROM last half squat
