Bringing Your B Game
by Trevor Addison, MS, LAT, ATC, ASP
We’ve all been there. Usual start time. Usual tasks. But today, everything feels a little harder. Everything you lift feels a bit heavier, everything you push resists a bit more, and your typically precise movements are just a little clumsy. You accept the common refrain of “I guess I just don’t have it today,” but press on because the work still needs to get done.
The Variables
Your capacity isn’t identical every day. Hydration, nutrition, sleep, recovery, stress, heat, and even time away from a particular task can change how prepared your body is to meet the demands of your work.
Hydration: Stay hydrated. Human performance can be impacted even in the early stages of dehydration.
Nutrition: Nutrition is all about fueling your body. A wide variety of minimally processed foods gives your body the fuel it needs to perform and recover.
Sleep: Lack of quality sleep can decrease coordination and strength while increasing reaction time.
Recovery: Movement, rest, and time away from work all play a role in physical and mental recovery.
Acclimatization: A sudden change in your work environment can temporarily affect performance while your body adapts.
Making the Adjustment
Baseball pitchers talk about not having their best “stuff.” A fastball loses a little velocity. A breaking ball doesn’t break quite as sharply. Maybe it’s recovery or perhaps it’s fatigue from a long season. Sometimes, there isn’t an obvious explanation. But the hitters don’t get any easier.
Good pitchers will adjust. They’ll change how they attack hitters or lean more heavily on the pitches that are working, and trust the defense behind them. Trying to force a pitch that isn’t there can turn an off day into a short outing.
Industrial athletes have off days, too. Trying to force your usual performance when your capacity has changed can lead to fatigue, compensation, poor movement, and eventually overexertion.
Having a “B Game”
If setting yourself up for success is Plan A, starting your shift at less than 100% may require a Plan B. In sports, that’s sometimes called having a “B Game”: finding a way to be effective for your team even when you aren’t at your best.
At work, that might mean pacing yourself, using microbreaks, communicating with leadership, or buddy lifting something you might normally handle yourself. The task still needs to get done, but you don’t have to approach it the same way every day.
Once you get through that shift, the focus turns back to preparation. Tomorrow’s demand may look exactly the same, but the goal is to give yourself more capacity to meet it.
Trevor Addison, MS, LAT, ATC, ASP || Trevor earned his bachelor’s degree in Athletic Training from San Jose State University and completed his graduate education at A.T. Still University while working full time. After beginning his career in traditional athletics, he transitioned into industrial injury prevention in 2019. His work with Work Right has also included safety education and industry presentations.
Be sure to check out our other blogs for further injury prevention education and tips for the industrial athlete from Work Right!