Overraching,Overtraining and Burnout in young athletes

What is overreaching?overtraining?Burnout?

There is no single definition on overtraining. Overtraining has been used as a term to describe both of the process of excessive training and the resulting of 'staleness' and 'Burnout'(Costill ,1986). Overreaching and overtraining arise when there is imbalance between training fatigue/ non-training stressor and recovery. According to Kreider and colleagues (1994), Overreaching is an accumulation of training and non-training stressor that resulting short term in performance from days to several weeks to recover. While Overtraining described as an accumulation of training and non-training stressor that has a determinal long term effects on performance and recovery period from several weeks to months. Burnout is a a negative motivational/emotional state/no motivation to keep training and participating in sports.

Why?

Many young athletes train too hard believing that more training will always produce more improvement( Wilmore & Costil. 1994). This is often the case when young athletes who may have poor understanding in training principles where the desire for young athletes to give 100% effort and time in motivates athletes can cause overtrained. This motivation can lead athletes to trying too hard and turning well planned training session into exhausting and possibly excessive amount of physical activity (Griffin et al, 1999). Also particularly relevant to the child athletes are academic pressure and parental pressure. The pressure of combining school works and competition in sports are higher for young athletes and may well contribute to the young athletes to shows symptoms of overtraining. Researcher has also suggested that one of the most important factors involved in overtraining is poor nutrition (Costill et al 1988). Too often athletes spend considerable time and effort perfecting skills and attaining top physical condition while ignoring the need of proper nutrition (Wilmore & Costill, 1994).

Many test for monitoring and diagnosing overtraining are time consuming, expensive and require laboratory equipment. However, there are many ways in which coaches and athletes can monitor overtraining. The most obvious signs of overtraining are a decline in physical performance, this may be seen in a weak performance at competition or continuous poor performance during a number of consecutive training session. An inability for the athletes to train in normal levels and the increase of resting time between sets of works are a good indicator that athletes is suffering a degree of overtraining.

Relevant Studies?

Very few investigation have been directed to young athletes and therefore, it is not know whether similar responses to chronic over exercising in adults are evidence in children. Recently, a study involving adolescent in swimmers ( aged 13-18 years old) looked at the prevalence of overtraining across different countries (Japan, Sweden, USA and Greece) and found that 35% had been over trained at least once (Raglin et al 2000). Kenta and colleagues(2001) observed higher incident rates for individual sports (48%) compared with team sports (30%) and less physically demanding sports (18%).


Symptoms and SIgns of Overreaching, Overtraining and Burnout?

Although few investigation have collected the data in young athletes regarding overtraining, there is some evidence suggesting the symptoms and signs in young athletes are typically the same in adult population. The cross-cultural study performed on swimmers found that the highest complaint from swimmers was primary the increase in perception on effort, followed by the feeling of heaviness (Raglin et al 2000) which resembles the result from other study on young elite athletes (Kenta et al 2001). All swimmers who reported to be unmotivated had higher level of mood disturbances at all assessments points compared with overtrained swimmers who retain their incentives to train (Raglin et al 2000). Raglin and colleagues (2000) further reported that more symptoms associated with overtraining like muscle soreness, sleep disturbances and loss of appetite.

POMS?

SInce 20 years of research of overtraining indicates that objectives physiological markers have generally not proven useful monitor training and performance. Therefore, the need to increase athletes self-awarness i.e making them more aware of physical and psychological stress has been highlighted( Kenta et al 2001). In regards to the psychological factors associated with overtraining in young athletes, the use of POMS (PROFILE OF MOOD STATE) that assesses relevant emotional shifts in tension, depression, anger, vigour,fatigue and confusion has proven useful. As overtraining progresses the deteriorating of positive moods and the increase in negative moods can be clearly tracked by POMS.