Author(s): Nithin Nazarudeen, Dr. Jayasingh Albert Chandrasekar and Ahamed Faiz PA

Abstract:
The paper will lead to provide an in-depth account of athletes experiences of, and experts’ perspectives on, overtraining and its negative outcomes. I referred interviews with athletes and sports experts, including coaches, sport doctors, scientists, and psychologists across a variety of sports. The interviews were focussed on identifying personal and situational risk factors for overtraining behaviours and outcomes. When an athlete pushes the body beyond limits for a specific period of time, it will adapt to the situation—and fitness improves. This is known as functional overreaching. When an athlete overreaches for too long without sufficient rest, adaptation can stall and damage can occur. At this point, the longer an athlete continues to push beyond limits, the worse the damage and the longer it will take to recover. Beyond this, definitions of the various degrees of overtraining shift from study to study. Many experts consider overtraining a continuum while others question the link between overreaching and overtraining (Halson &Jeukendrup, 2004). In reviewing a wide range of literature, it appears the most widely accepted theory is best explained by the European College of Sports Medicine, who break the process down into two stages (Kreher & Schwartz, 2012).Non-functional Overreaching (NFO) is the first stage. This level of training overload that can be recovered from in weeks to months. Complete recovery is possible Overtraining Syndrome (OTS) – if NFO is ignored, it can evolve into OTS, which entails worse symptoms and performance decrement in excess of 2 months. This can take months or years to recover from—if recovery is achieved at all.

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