Have you ever heard the following phrase?

It's usually stated firmly by personal trainers / serious trainees with reference to either certain exercise / nutrition variables or health markers. At the surface, it's not a bad message by any means, however, it tends to get translated in practice into an obsessive focus on minutiae for those who simply don't need to worry about them.

Some of the things people might measure include bodyweight, body fat, blood glucose, blood pressure, heart rate variability, daily steps, calorie intake, specific macro- and micronutrients, etc..

Before you mistake me, note that I am not saying you shouldn't track any of the above, obviously. I would simply modify the statement to:

"YOU SHOULD MEASURE AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE TO MANAGE WHAT NEEDS TO BE MANAGED"

I know, I know, it's not as catchy, but here me out nonetheless.....

If someone has just been to their doctor recently for health screening and they find they have a blood pressure of 120/80, fasting blood glucose of 4mmol/l, and resting heart rate of 50bpm, those things become less of a focal point in terms of tracking, since there is a low likelihood of them somehow deteriorating, unless there are lifestyle variables that change. 

If that person proceeds to tell me that they want to lose a little bit of weight, just to tone up, as they've recently started snacking a little more on top of their standard healthful diet, then I needn't necessarily be overly concerned with the scales, body fat testing or even tracking calorie intake, since there's a specific aesthetic goal that can be attained through simple dietary adjustments (less snacking).

The point is not to discredit you from tracking. Rather, the point is that you should aim to track those metrics that are most meaningful to you and that you feel will give you control over your progress. Don't get me wrong, most of my clients track calories and bodyweight, a little less track steps (but still most), quite a few track resting heart rate, a handful track heart rate variability and few regularly track blood glucose and blood pressure. It's not because those things are useless, it's because we can be confident that once those metrics were in check the last time they were tested, the lifestyle changes we will be making will be sufficient to maintain or improve them further.

Therefore, in order to "manage" something, what you need is:

So, ask yourself what your goal really is and whether or not you are tracking things just for the sake of it. Tracking should inform decisions. If your blood pressure is the same every morning, then it's informing very little. I have plenty of clients who are "numbers" people, that love living from a spreadsheet and tracking everything. I have others who don't enjoy that and prefer to keep tracking to a minimum. Both approaches are fine.

Finally, personal training is a competitive market these days. There are a LOT of personal trainers both on and offline. In order to differentiate oneself, it is easy to just totally overcomplicate the process, as it gives the illusion of doing "more" for your client. However, investing in a coach should be getting the greatest return on investment, therefore, for every increase you make in your investment, you should expect that to be reflected in the return. If you spend a few hundred euro on some blood test for your trainer to analyse and it informs little that is meaningful, then that is a poor return on investment. Therefore, keep the RETURN and the INVESTMENT in mind when you are making decisions as to what approach you should take, what you should track, what you should spend money on etc..

NOTE: Obviously, if you are an Olympic athlete reading this (hello there), then just forget about me and track everything that can give you the 0.1%, as it may very well matter to you.

Kind Regards,