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Overtraining

The bottom line in sports conditioning and fitness training is stress, not mental stress, but adaptive body stress. Athletes must put their bodies under a certain amount of stress to increase physical capabilities. If the stress loads are appropriate, the athlete's performance will improve, but if the stress loads are inappropriate, then a state of overtraining/burnout could come about for the athlete. Training principles identify the need for rest to allow the body to recover and adapt to the training loads. Failure to allow the body to recover can lead to a state of overtraining.

Signs of Overtraining

Symptoms indicating overexertion can be classified in the following way:

  • Movement coordination symptoms:
    • Increased incidence of disturbances in movement (the re-appearance of faults that seemed to have been overcome, cramp, inhibitions, insecurity)
    • Disturbances in rhythm and flow of movement
    • Lack of ability to concentrate
    • Reduced power of differentiation and correction
  • Condition symptoms:
    • Diminished powers of endurance, strength, and speed. Increase in recovery time, loss of 'sparkle' (competitive qualities)
    • Reduced readiness for action, fear of competition, giving up in the face of difficult situations, especially at the finish
    • Confusion in competition, a departure from usual tactics
    • Susceptibility to demoralising influences before and during competition
    • Increasing tendency to abandon the struggle
  • Psychological symptoms:
    • Increased irritability, stubbornness, a tendency to hysteria, grumbling, defiance, increased quarrelsomeness, avoidance of contact with coach and colleagues
    • Oversensitivity to criticism, or increasing indolence, reduced incentive, dullness, hallucination, anxiety, depression, melancholy, insecurity

Close observation can help eliminate the possibility of severe effects of over-stressing. As soon as symptoms are noticed, loading should be reduced, and recovery pursued. All performance checks and competition pressures must be removed, and active recovery put in their place.

Causes of Overtraining

It is possible to categorise certain factors, if permitted to accumulate, which will bring about a state of overtraining. They are as follows:

  • Recovery is neglected (mistakes in the build-up of training cycles, inadequate use of general exercise sessions for recovery)
  • Inappropriate increase in the frequency of training or extent of loading or density of loading
  • Demands are increased too quickly, so that adaptation cannot be consolidated
  • A too rapid increase of loading after forced breaks (injuries, illness)
  • Too high an extent of loadings of maximum and sub-maximum intensity
  • Too high an intensity of duration loadings in endurance training
  • Excessive and forced technical schooling in complicated courses of movement without adequate recovery
  • Excess of competitions with maximum demands, combined with frequent disturbance of the daily routine and insufficient training
  • The excessive bias of training methods and units

Factors Reducing Performance

Performance can also be affected by the following factors:

  • LifeStyle:
    • Inadequate sleep, irregular routine by day
    • Use of alcohol and nicotine
    • Excess of caffeine
    • Bad living conditions (noise, overcrowding, inadequate light, etc.)
    • Overstimulating company
    • Lack of free time or inability to make good use of free time (no relaxation)
    • Nutritional deficiencies (lack of vitamins)
    • Rush and hurry
    • Frequent necessity to adjust body-weight
    • Taking on more stresses when already at capacity
  • Environment:
    • Overburdening with family duties
    • Tensions within the family (parents, husband, wife)
    • Difficulties in personal relationships
    • Dissatisfaction with career, studies, school
    • Bad assessment and marks in school, in studies, etc.
    • Conflict of attitudes to a sport (family, superiors)
    • Excess of stimuli (TV, cinema)
    • An increased burden in one area of the environment (e.g. final exams, A levels)
  • Health Upsets:
    • Feverish colds, stomach or intestinal upsets
    • Chronic illnesses
    • After the effect of infectious illness

Assessment

McNair, Lorr and Doppleman (1971)[3] developed the Profile of Mood States (POMS) Questionnaire for people undergoing counselling or psychotherapy. The POMS was popularised in the area of sport and exercise through the research Morgan & Pollock (1977)[4] and Morgan & Johnson (1978)[5]. POMS, which contains 65 questions, has subsequently demonstrated that it can be used successfully to assess performance status in athletes.

Six mood states are used in POMS: tension, depression, anger, vigour, fatigue and confusion. Subjects are given a score for each trait according to their responses to certain statements, which include keywords such as unhappy, tense, careless, and cheerful. For each statement, subjects indicate how they feel at that moment, or how they felt over the previous day, a few days, or a week, by choosing one of the following responses: not at all, a little, moderately, quite a lot or extremely.

Anderson (2002)[1] uses a shorter questionnaire to monitor the performance status of the athletes he coaches. Each morning the athletes assess themselves against the following six questions:

  • I slept well last night
  • I am looking forward to today's workout
  • I am optimistic about my future performance
  • I feel vigorous and energetic
  • My appetite is great
  • I have little muscle soreness

They rate each statement on the following scale:

  • 1 - Strongly disagree
  • 2 - Disagree
  • 3 - Neutral
  • 4 - Agree
  • 5 - Strongly agree

If your score is 20 or above, you have probably recovered enough to continue the training program. If the score is below 20, you must consider rest or an easy workout until the score rises again.

Total Quality Recovery (TQR)

Total Quality Recovery (TQR) is a method that assesses an athlete's recovery as a combination of recovery actions and the athlete's perceptions of recovery (Kenntta 1998)[2]. It is a simple test requiring no invasive tests.

Ratings of Perceived Exertion (RPE's)

RPE's are a qualitative and straightforward way of measuring the training intensity. It considers mental and physical factors that provide the stresses of training. RPE's are often measured on a scale of 10, but if you use a scale of 20, you can relate them to TQR or recovery to training. The main advantage is that anyone can use them, and they can be done daily with minimal effort.

Score Ratings of Perceived Exertion Total Quality Recovery
6 No exertion at all No recovery at all
7 Extremely light Extremely poor recovery
8
9 Very light Very poor recovery
11 Light Poor recovery
13 Slightly hard Reasonable recovery
15 Hard/Heavy Good recovery
17 Very hard Very good recovery
19 Extremely hard Extremely good recovery
20 Maximum exertion Maximum recovery

TQR Assessment Process

Determine your score for the nutrition, sleep and rest, relaxation and emotional support, stretching and cool-down sections below. The assessment is conducted for 24 hours. Twenty points are available, and a score of fewer than 13 indicates that recovery from training is incomplete.

Nutrition (10 points)

  • Breakfast - 1 point
  • Lunch - 2 point
  • Supper - 2 points
  • Snacks between meals - 1 point
  • Carbohydrate reloading after practice - 2 points. (This assumes quality, healthy balanced meals)
  • Adequate hydration
    • throughout the day - 1 point
    • during/post workouts - 1 point
  • Environmental factors will affect how much is an adequate intake of fluids

Sleep and Rest (4 points)

  • A good night of quality sleep - 3 points
  • Daily nap (20-60min) - 1 point

Quality of sleep would be measured using individual perception.

Relaxation and Emotional Support (3 points)

  • Full mental and muscular relaxation after training - 2 point
  • Maintaining a relaxed state throughout the day - 1 point

Here the goal is to use various relaxation techniques (breathing, massage, etc.).

Stretching and Cool Down (3 points)

  • Proper cool down after each training period - 2 points
  • Stretching all the exercised muscle groups - 1 point

References

  1. ANDERSON, O. (2002) How do you know when you are at risk of overtraining? It's a simple matter of well you feel, sleep and eat. Peak Performance, 163, p.1-4
  2. KENNTTA, G. and HASSMEN, P. (1998) Overtraining and Recovery: A Conceptual Model. Sports Medicine, 26(1), p. 1-16
  3. McNAIR, D.M. and, LORR, M. and DROPPLEMAN, L. F. (1971) Profile of Mood States. Educational and Industrial Testing Service, San Diego
  4. MORGAN, W.P. and POLLOCK, M.L. (1977), Psychologic Characterization of the elite distance runner. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 301, p. 382–403
  5. MORGAN, W.P. and JOHNSON, R.W. (1978) Personality characteristics of successful and unsuccessful oarsmen. International Journal of Sport Psychology, 9, p. 119-133

Page Reference

If you quote information from this page in your work, then the reference for this page is:

  • MACKENZIE, B. (2000) Over Training [WWW] Available from: https://www.brianmac.co.uk/overtrn.htm [Accessed