Abstract:
The modern-day athlete participating in elite sports is
exposed to high training loads and increasingly saturated
competition calendar. Emerging evidence indicates that
inappropriate load management is a significant risk factor
for acute illness and the overtraining syndrome. The IOC
convened an expert group to review the scientific evidence
for the relationship of load—including rapid changes in
training and competition load, competition calendar
congestion, psychological load and travel—and health
outcomes in sport. This paper summarises the results linking
load to risk of illness and overtraining in athletes, and
provides athletes, coaches and support staff with practical
guidelines for appropriate load management to reduce
the risk of illness and overtraining in sport. These include
guidelines for prescription of training and competition
load, as well as for monitoring of training, competition
and psychological load, athlete well-being and illness. In
the process, urgent research priorities were identified.
