• Fitness & Health
• Sport & Exercise Science
• Physical Education
• Strength & Conditioning
• Sports Medicine
• Sport Management
• Dance

Underperformance and Its Relation to Overtraining and Overreaching

This is an excerpt from Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning 5th Edition With HKPropel Access by NSCA -National Strength & Conditioning Association,G. Gregory Haff,N. Travis Triplett.

By Andrew C. Fry, PhD, and Bradley C. Nindl, PhD

Despite the name of this chapter, all discussions regarding overtraining and overreaching must start with the concept of underperformance. Although all our efforts may go to creating training programs to optimize performance, achieving excellence can be very elusive. Seldom are all components of the training and competition processes in complete synchrony. The job of a strength and conditioning professional is to help navigate the athlete through the many hurdles standing in the way of achieving absolute peak performance. Although few, if any, may ever attain that level of performance perfection, the task of the strength and conditioning professional is to develop, prescribe, and apply the type of training program that gives the athlete the best opportunity to reach that goal. Therefore, it is not only necessary to know how to develop the appropriately challenging training program required to reach this level of performance but also to understand what is happening when performance is less than expected (i.e., underperformance). We will see that even though overtraining and overreaching can be contributors to underperformance, many other factors can contribute as well. Many may be beyond our control, but recognizing possible contributing factors will permit the strength and conditioning professional to determine what appropriate measures can be taken to help the athlete when, despite all the effort, he or she comes up short. In summary, not all cases of underperformance are due to overtraining or overreaching (figure 24.11). When looking closely at factors that can adversely influence performance, figure 24.12 lists a number of factors that can interfere with optimum performance. As with the stressors that contribute to allostatic load for OTS, many nontraining variables can contribute to underperformance.

---

Not all cases of underperformance are due to overtraining or overreaching.

---

One common training error that can be mistaken for overtraining is due to the timing of the training program with the competition schedule. Figure 24.13 shows how even a training program that is well designed to produce enhanced performance can be ineffective if the training peak does not coincide with when the athlete needs to perform (96). At first glance, overtraining may be blamed for the underperformance, but the reality is that inappropriate timing, not excessive training, was the cause.

More Excerpts From Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning 5th Edition With HKPropel Access

---