When it comes to helping athletes perform their best, we often picture their individual effort and characteristics… grit, discipline, and drive. But when it comes to REDS (Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport), performance and recovery aren’t individual acts, they’re team efforts. REDS impacts every system of the body and every aspect of athlete care, physical, mental, and emotional. And that means no single professional can solve it alone. That’s why we need a bigger table, filled with capable, dedicated athlete providers working together.
Why Interdisciplinary Athlete Care Is Essential for REDS
As a sports dietitian, I’ve seen firsthand how easily REDS can go unnoticed. An athlete may come in for nutrition advice, but what’s truly affecting their performance could involve training load, medical factors, mental health challenges, or recovery, areas far beyond one provider’s reach.
That’s where interdisciplinary teamwork changes everything.
When a dietitian, physician, athletic trainer, mental health provider, and coach come together, even for a single conversation, we begin to see the whole picture of an athlete’s health and performance.
Each professional brings a vital piece to the athlete care puzzle:
- The dietitian identifies energy balance, fueling gaps, and recovery needs.
- The medical provider monitors hormones, labs, and physiological health.
- The athletic trainer or PT tracks injury patterns and movement quality.
- The mental health provider supports mindset and sustainable habits.
- The coach ensures that training loads and team culture support recovery.
Together, this collaboration transforms fragmented care into integrated athlete care.
A Story from the Table
I remember working with a collegiate athlete who came to me for nutrition guidance after experiencing recurring injuries and declining performance. At first glance, it seemed like a fueling issue, but as we connected the dots with her athletic trainer and physician, we uncovered a pattern of overtraining, under-recovery, and hidden stress that had been building for months.
Once we expanded the table, bringing in her coach, athletic trainer, and a psychologist, the conversation shifted from “what’s wrong with her diet?” to “how do we create the conditions for her to thrive?”
Her healing didn’t happen in isolation. It happened in collaboration.
That’s the heart of REDS-informed athlete care, recognizing that each of us holds a piece of the puzzle, but the full picture only emerges when we sit together.
How to Start Building Your Own REDS-Informed Team
Even if you don’t have a large interdisciplinary team, you can still think like one.
Here are simple ways to start:
- Connect with professionals who share your values and serve athletes.
- Communicate across disciplines, even short updates can change outcomes.
- Collaborate through co-education, case consults, or shared referrals.
- Continue learning through REDS research and education, community discussions, and mentorship.
The more we work together, the better we can protect and empower athletes.
Ready to Strengthen Your REDS-Informed Athlete Care?
If you’re passionate about helping athletes recover, perform, and stay healthy, I’ve created a free resource to help you start the conversation, the REDS Provider Toolkit.
It’s designed to help you:
- Recognize signs of REDS.
- Dive into labs to get the full picture of health.
- Support athlete health.
Because when we gather our gifts, we amplify our impact. And if you’re ready to take the next step in developing your REDS-informed practice and network, the REDS Informed Provider Mastermind is where we deepen these conversations and build the kind of tables that change lives.