Athlete wellbeing

This chapter defines athlete ‘wellbeing’, ascertains why daily monitoring of an athlete’s wellbeing is important and provides information on what daily wellbeing markers can be monitored. A holistic approach to athlete wellbeing monitoring is recommended and should include physical, psychological, performance and medical markers. A broad variety of metrics which purport to measure athlete wellbeing have been discussed in the literature. Sleep is the physiological and psychological balance point for all, in that there is no system in the human body that is not significantly impaired by a lack of, or enhanced by, good sleep. Hydration can be monitored through urine colour charts or refractometry. Basic weighing pre- and post-training session with a comparison against fluid ingested will help provide a guide to hydration status. A good gauge of an athlete’s response to the training programme is through their body mass.