Mood, Recovery-Stress State, and Regeneration

Stressful high intensity training periods are necessary to obtain high performance in sports. However, the simple rule ‘the more — the better’ does not apply in this context. A lot of studies clearly showed that systematic recovery periods in the training process are necessary to prevent an overtraining syndrome or staleness, and to obtain overreaching for further performance improvement. Sportmedical assessment of athletes’ training states are used as valuable tools to determine the necessary amount of training and recovery in preparing an athlete for peak performance. In addition, authors using the Borg’s Rating of Perceived Exhaustion (RPE,or the Profile of Mood States (POMS,clearly showed that changes in training load are reflected in subjective states and in the mood of athletes,In particular, studies dealing with the POMS have demonstrated that the typical ‘Iceberg-Profile’ of the well-trained athlete changes during a phase of intensive training and deteriorates during overtraining.Morgan at al. reported mood changes in swimmers during the season. Early in the season, swimmers displayed the ‘Iceberg-Profile’, a profile indicative of positive mental health that is associated with successful athletic performance. During overtraining, however, mood disturbances significantly increased and were accompanied by a profile reflecting diminished mental health. After training stimulus was significantly reduced following a taper, the swimmers again exhibited the original ‘Iceberg-Profile’. More recently, the existence of a dose-response relationship was demonstrated between training volume and mood disturbances Increases in training volume parallel corresponding elevations in mood disturbance (e.g., greater anger, depression, tension, fatigue, and less vigor and well-being).