Overtraining In Athletes

Just as our current food environment, consisting of hyperpalatable foods that are easily accessed everywhere, can predispose us to steady weight gain over time, our current sports environment can predispose us to overtraining in athletes. With year round sports training dominating the lives of young athletes, parents and coaches need to be aware of how overtraining can occur and what signs and symptoms to be on the lookout for. Let’s dive in.

In order to increase athletic performance, coaches and trainers will systematically (hopefully) increase various training factors, whether that be the volume of training, duration of training, intensity of training, etc. This is a process known as overreaching. Pushing the body this way produces favorable adaptations over time. It can result in decreases in performance temporarily, but after a few days to a week or two, the athlete recovers and you can see the increase in performance. But what if the overreaching goes on for too long? What if the training outpaces the recovery for a sustained period of time and the decreased performance isn’t going away after a few days or weeks? Now we have entered the realm of overtraining. This study does a good job of summing up this phenomenon.

In the land of overtraining, the athlete is having decreases in performance that are not clearing up in a few weeks. However, there are other signs/symptoms to be on the lookout for. These include: feeling fatigued, losing weight, having sleep problems, feeling depressed, frequently getting sick, or having frequent injuries.

So what can we do about this? The best tool we have is prevention. Be sure to have scheduled deload periods within training programs. Make sure the nutrition and sleep protocols are on point for the athlete. Also, monitor the psychological health of the athlete and be on the lookout for changes in mood that seems to be persistent.

To hear us discuss this topic more at length, listen here:

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Simplified Takeaways…

1. If your performance is suffering, and it is not resolving with a short rest from training (2-3 weeks), then overtraining should be suspected.

2. Signs of overtraining (other than prolonged decreased performance) include: frequent injuries/illnesses, feeling depressed, fatigue, sleep problems, and losing weight/loss of hunger.

3. Prevention is the best tool we have because once overtraining sets in, it can be a process to unravel. Be sure to prioritize recovery.

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