Overtraining in high school athletics

As the spring sports season approaches, athletic trainers are working to prevent athletic injuries. Athletes who are injured as a result of overtraining are always a concern.

Overtraining commonly occurs as one season ends and another begins. Most likely, there is an imbalance between training and recovery, exercise and exercise capacity, and stress and stress tolerance.

Symptoms can include recurring illness (colds and flu), fatigue, lack of progress or a sudden drop in performance, insomnia, headaches, moodiness, depression, loss of enthusiasm for the sport, changes in hormonal levels, and increased incidence of injuries.


How does overtraining occur?

- Not being adequately prepared. When athletes who are not adequately prepared at the beginning of the season push themselves to do what their better prepared teammates do, they are setting themselves up for injury.
- Training too much without recovery time. Many multi-sport athletes go from one sport to the next with little to no time off to recover physically and mentally. They often are dedicated students who spend lots of energy on their school work, get little sleep, and may be playing club ball as well as being on the school team. They rarely have time to eat nutritious meals, and may rely on soft drinks loaded with sugar and caffeine for energy.
- Emotional Stress. Many athletes use sports as a healthy way of dealing with their stress, and may ignore the signs that they are over-doing it.

How do you prevent overtraining?

- Take advantage of off-season training programs at least six weeks prior to the start of a season in order to prevent overtraining and injury in the early part of the season. It takes four weeks for muscles to adapt to increased loads and six weeks for bones to adapt to increased loads. Athletes who show up for their sport in poor condition should be put on a remedial conditioning program and should have lower expectations as far as game time is concerned in the early part of the season.
- During intense training periods, alternate easy days with hard days and take one day off per week.
- Multi-sport athletes should be given time off between seasons to allow for physical and mental recovery. Together, coaches, trainers and the athlete should develop a year-long plan that includes conditioning and preparation for peak physical conditioning to coincide with important athletic events. Strength and conditioning exercises must be sports specific (for example, a soccer player trains with agility drills using a weighted ball on a soccer field as opposed to doing weighted squats in the weight room). An essential part of this plan is adequate rest and recovery time. Parents, coaches, athletic trainers, and teachers must watch for signs of overtraining and intervene quickly to prevent injuries and psychological problems from occurring.
- All athletes must eat a nutritionally balanced diet and drink adequate fluids on a regular basis.
- Everyone involved with an athlete must recognize when emotional stress is out of control and intervene to get psychological help for the athlete.

How do you treat overtraining?

- Rest. The amount of rest needed depends on the degree of overtraining. A few days may be adequate, if caught early with minimal symptoms. However, several weeks, or even months, may be necessary for more advanced cases with multiple symptoms.
- Get adequate sleep (Six to eight hours is minimal for adolescents).
- Eat well. The body will need lots of healthy foods to heal, including lean meats or beans for protein, fresh fruits and vegetables for vitamins and minerals, and complex carbohydrates for energy.
- Drink lots of water, juices, or sports drinks. Avoid drinks with sugar and caffeine.
- Develop long term training and conditioning plans.
- Get counseling to help reduce emotional stress.

Golden Rule:

You will get better results from a smart plan that emphasizes sports specific skills and includes adequate recovery time than from a program that emphasizes quantity over quality and neglects to include recovery time. Pre-season conditioning is essential. Coordinating training and conditioning schedules with all coaches across the three seasons will help everyone understand the big picture and prevent overtraining in multi- sport athletes.