👋 Hey.
Welcome to issue #38 of The Everyday Athlete Newsletter. Thanks for being here.
Here are my 3 favourite ideas, learns and resources to help you improve your performance this week (4 min read):
🥱 Fatigue monitoring
🥊 Boxer and 👀 Everyday Athlete Newsletter reader Benoît, wrote in to ask about distinguishing between genuine fatigue and lack of motivation to train.
It’s a great question.
And the short answer is that it depends if the feeling of fatigue is ongoing.
If it's a single day, generally there's nothing to worry about.
You could do a lighter session if you’re feeling 10/10 shit. We all have those days.
But for a one-off, honestly, I'm rarely making that choice. I'll often find getting moving can turn my day around.
But if that feeling persists for a few days in a row. For weeks. It might be time to start thinking about making a change.
It can also depend what phase of training you're in.
Feeling a bit flat in a hard training phase is normal (even a good thing).
Because the hard work now means adaptation down the road (if your programming is done well).
But close to competition could mean alarm bells.
Regardless, it’s smart to monitor fatigue.
And we can do this by using a combo of subjective and objective measurements:
- ⏱ Performance – E.g. power (e.g. vertical jump), strength (e.g. hand grip dynamometer)
- ❤️ Physiological – E.g. resting heart rate, heart rate variability
- 🪫 Symptomatic – E.g. energy, mood, motivation (out of 10)
You could start to track one from each, every day (or every training day) e.g. hand grip, HRV, energy.
After a month or so, you'll learn more about your baseline for each. And how your numbers bounce around day-to-day (your standard deviation).
Then it can start to be a really useful tool.
When 2 or more of these numbers start to plot outside your usual standard deviation (for a few days in a row), it might be time to make changes.
It’s important to listen to multiple data points over multiple days because data is only feedback. Not the bible. Don’t be too reactive to a single outlier. Or a single day.
Tests like these are norms in pro sports environments.
And if you want to, are cheap and easy ways for everyday athletes to do the same.
For context, 🔍 Monitoring is only one part of fatigue management.
There are 3 key elements:
- ✍️ Programming – avoiding overtraining in the first place with appropriate intensity, volume, type, rest, recovery, periodisation etc.
- 🔍 Monitoring – using a combo of subjective and objective measurements to help flag symptoms of fatigue (as above)
- 🛠 Tools – managing overtraining by decreasing/changing training, or increasing recovery (see recovery matching)
But ✍️ Programming and 🛠 Tools are outside the scope of this article.
😴 Article: What's your sleep language?
If you're like me, you know sleep is a superpower.
But maybe don't where to start.
Because there's so many sleep tips, tricks and strategies coming at us.
Do this. Do that. Definitely don't do that!
Yeah, overwhelming...
Dr Shelby Harriss might have the answer.
She's a sleep psychologist. And sees people who often fall into 5 different categories (or what she called "sleep languages").
This article breaks down the 5 sleep languages:
- 🎁 The Gifted Sleeper
- 🤯 The Words of Worry Sleeper
- ⏰ The Routine Perfectionist Sleeper
- 🔥 The Too Hot To Handle Sleeper
- 🪶 The Light As A Feather Sleeper
Then, how to figure out which 1 or more categories you fall into.
And based on that, 2-3 specific actions you can take to help you sleep better.
I'm definitely in the ⏰ Routine Perfectionist basket. And the ideas on "flexibility" and "switching things up" make a heap of sense. I 100% need to do more of that.
I also dabble in the 🔥 Too Hot Too Handle basket too (sounds weird to say). So the ideas about investing in cooling sheets/tech would solve some problems (particularly considering my girlfriend runs cold).
I really like it. It cuts through the noise. It gives us the best couple things we can do to help us sleep better. Tailored specifically to you.
🐎 Be a racehorse
Racehorses have blinders put on the sides of their eyes.
It’s so they can’t see what the other horses are doing.
Because if they do, they get flustered, distracted and slow down.
They fall to the level of their competition.
This is a lesson shared by Michael Easter (author of The Comfort Crisis).
And a good one (whether you're for or against racing).
It’s to illustrate the importance of finding intrinsic motivation (e.g. enjoyment, purpose, curiosity).
Without the need for external reward, approval or punishment.
Because it’s been shown time and time again that intrinsically motivated people outperform extrinsically motivated people.
So take the same mindset.
Compete against yourself.
Be a racehorse.
That's it!
Have a great weekend 🤙
Matt
P.s.
- 😃 Enjoying the newsletter? Got a mate who would too? Mind forwarding it on? It only takes a few seconds. Writing this one took more than a few hours. Plus when you do, I'll send you my Elite Sleep guide (scroll down for more info).
- 📬 Did someone forward this to you? I send an email like it every week. Join free here.
- 👇 Thank you for trusting me with your time and attention. If it ever stops providing value, please unsubscribe below. No stress – it's not for everyone.
- 💬 Is there a specific topic you want to see in future issues? Got anything interesting to share? Hit reply and let me know.
Want more? Check out the Everday Athlete Toolbox
0 comments