In the literature you find also the terms short-term overtraining instead of overreaching. This may perhaps the better term, because it implies that they are both species of the same kind, that differ only quantitatively. Overtraining is often going along with a shift from an autonomic parasympathetic condition towards a sympathetic predominance. Balanced training overload is characterized by a balance between a sympathetic and a parasympathetic state. Status shifts and imbalance in either direction can be indicators for the development of an overtraining state. Data suggest that heart rate variability* is a good surrogate marker to indicate an autonomic balance or imbalance due to training overload respectively. Overtraining is characterized by a decrease in flexibility to adapt to demands be it in a race or in training. The result is decreased performance.
Heart Rate Variability
I raise this topic today, because I am amazed how many professional endurance athlete have to retire due to heart problems or other health hazards. Heart condition in young athletes like cardiomyopathies, myocarditis or disturbances of the conduction system of the heart are in my opinion a consequence of a chronic training overload, a consequence of a lack of recovery over many years. Stress, a dysfunctional immune system and hormone imbalances induce a broad variety of specific and unspecific symptoms due to regulatory disturbances within the nervous system, the immune system and hormones. The more unspecific the symptoms (loss of appetite, sleep disturbances, unstable mood, drop in performance, injuries that won’t heal etc.) are the more they are ignored by the athlete and put into a misleading cause-effect relation. Continue Reading →