Over Train; does it exist?

As I sat at a coaching session, one of the county coaches had just started their course to go for senior coach award.  One of the tasks was to write a 2000 word essay on the theory of over train.

This would be a good blog post idea.  What is it about and if it exists.

Overtraining is a simple concept; it is the total focus on training to a point that it damages your ability[1]. So by trying too hard we will almost loose our integrity and become worst at our sport. Now this can come in many forms and one of the examples is with injury.

This is a tragic case when he suddenly collapsed on the pitch during a football game.  The most excepted theory is that Fabrice Muamba went to an intense American fitness camp club in Feburary of the same year[2]. It was surmised that this had put an untold stress on his heart and turned it into time bomb just waiting for it to give up. This theory can never be proven, but if true it does indicate the risks of overtraining.

It is not just fitness the pressure and stress of training can also cause anxiety. The mental stress is similar to job stress and it is well known that a broker’s job is stressful[3].

These examples could be result of over training, with both the sportsman and brokers going for gold at all cost, with themselves being the ultimate sacrifice.  Yet training is not simply the number of hours shooting or working, it covers a number of areas like[4].

• Technique.
• Psychology.
• Fitness.
• Nutrition.

 With the case of Fabrice Muamba it could be argued that too much effort in fitness caused him to bow out from the game and too much stress with the brokers affects their Psychology/mental state with similar results.

So have these athlete’s/workers neglected parts of their training program by focusing too much on one section, thereby leading to under performance?

This is possible; Simon Needham discovered that by shooting less number of arrows the week before a major competition actually improved his performance[5]. So before this realisation was he overtraining and focusing too much on shooting?

It could be that he was neglecting the other aspects of your training program or it is possible that his previous training program was not entirely suited to him.

Fabrice Muamba and brokers is a clearer example of overtraining and Simon Needham is less so.  What can be gleamed from both examples is that regular review of an athletes training program is key to maintaining peak performance.

This leads back to the original question; does over training exist? Yes I feel it does; there are too many examples of professional and amateur athletes bowing out from the game due to overtraining.

The bigger question to answer is though can the effects of overtraining be nullified by a complete training program?

Maybe as a complete program should be reviewed regularly, tailored to the athlete and complete in such a manner to maximise performance and minimise risk. Training programs can often be far reaching as current thinking (particularly in cycling world) is all about marginal gains to edge victory. 

Reference

[5] the Art of Repetition Simon Needham pg 103