Wellness – What is it and Why Monitor it?

So, what is wellness?

Wellness has been defined as “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” by The World Health Organization. Wellness is multidimensional, meaning it has many different aspects and includes more than just ones physical health. These different dimensions include physical, emotional, spiritual, mental, social and environmental health.

How is this important in sport?

In recent years, the monitoring of athlete wellness has become more prevalent than ever with wellness questionnaires being one of the most common methods used to monitor wellness. Such questionnaires are mainly used to gain a subjective insight into an athletes perception of their wellness. This includes their response to training, readiness to play, sleep, mood state, recovery, stress and energy levels. The use of questionnaires allows for non-invasive, quick and sport-specific athlete wellness monitoring.

Research suggests that wellness measures can be used as a predictor for injury and illness among team-sport athletes. The key to effective wellness monitoring is education. It is important that the coach has the ability to make necessary adaptations to training programmes based on wellness measures provided by the athletes. By doing so coaches can have a major impact; reduce time and money lost due to injury, enhance recovery and optimise overall performance.

How Actimet is helping coaches do this.

Actimet allows athletes to log their wellness quickly and easily in as little as 15 seconds via the mobile app. Athletes are asked a series of questions regarding their sleep, energy, mood, stress and upper & lower body soreness, with a comments sections allowing for elaboration if desired. This information is then visible to coaches and additional support staff via an online coaches portal. The athlete data is displayed in a traffic light system which highlights athletes that may need attention. This allows for a conversation to be started between the coach and athlete that may otherwise not have happened. Actimet simplifies communication between coach and athlete and allows for a personalised team experience with player welfare being forefront.