Kelsey HigginsonSports Nutrition Coach and Founder at Clutch Day Coaching

Athletes, you are this cupcake.

24 Aug 2025 · 1 min

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0:52

In this brief coaching video, the speaker likens an athlete’s development to a cupcake. The cake layer represents training and skill work, the essential foundation without which one is not an athlete. The frosting symbolizes nutrition, which completes and enhances performance. Sprinkles stand for supplements, which are optional enhancements that should only be considered after the cake and frosting are solid. The speaker warns that many athletes mistakenly prioritize supplements—often influenced by hype or influencers—over mastering training and nutrition, urging viewers to first “nail down” the core components before adding any supplemental extras.

Chapters

Athletes, your athletic development, athletic performance is just like this cupcake. The base of the cupcake, the cake, the actual thing that you need to build off of is your training and your skill work. Without those things, you're not an athlete. Then, no one likes a cupcake without frosting, or at least no sane person likes a cupcake without frosting. So the frosting is your nutrition. This is where it comes in and makes the cupcake worth it. It makes it all work. It puts it all together. So you need to dial in your nutrition in order to make this cupcake whole. You could end there and have an amazing cupcake, But sometimes people like to enhance it with some sprinkles, and that is where supplements come in. The number one mistake that I see athletes make is when they are trying to become a better athlete through taking some type of special pre-workout infused something, these supplements there, this, this influencer is talking about organ liver stuff over here. Like, the best thing that you can do is nail down the cake and the frosting and save the supplements for last.