Don’t let the water spill over! This is load management in a nutshell. Every practice, game, flight, lift, rehab session, poor night’s sleep, stressful day, or personal challenge adds heat. If you leave it there long enough, eventually it boils over & that’s often when injuries, illness, or performance drops show up. The mistake is thinking load management means simply taking the pot off the stove for a game. In reality, that’s only one tool. The goal is to reduce the total amount of heat you’re adding in the first place. That’s where strength & conditioning, athletic training, rehab, nutrition, sleep, recovery strategies, mental health support, sports science, and communication all work together. Every department has a role in managing the stress an athlete experiences over an 82-game season and even the off season. People forget how much athletes do in the offseason and how coaches love SSGs, but they don’t realize how many decels happen in an individual workout/SSG compared to ju...