OVERTRAINING SYNDROME

Functional vs. non-functional overtraining

Overtraining Syndrome (OTS) is a serious clinical condition resulting from an imbalance between training load and recovery.

A distinction should be made between functional overtraining (FOR), a planned strategy where the athlete is temporarily fatigued to achieve supercompensation and subsequent improvement, and non-functional overtraining (NFOR), where fatigue persists for weeks or months without performance improvement, even after rest. NFOR is the prelude to OTS.

A road cyclist might undergo a three-week block of extremely high intensity mountain biking (FOR).

His performance is expected to drop temporarily due to acute fatigue, but after a week of unloading, his body adapts and improves his thresholds.

However, if that same rider continues to push without respecting the offload, ignoring his body's signals and sleeping poorly, he will enter a state of stagnation (NFOR) that, if not stopped, will lead to chronic systemic pathology (OTS) from which it could take months or years to recover.

Physical and psychological symptoms of OTS

OTS affects multiple physiological and psychological systems. Physically, it manifests with persistent muscle aches, frequent infections (immunosuppression), weight loss and alterations in basal heart rate.

Psychologically, the symptoms are similar to depression: apathy, irritability, inability to concentrate and anxiety. It is a state of collapse of the organism.

Think of a competitive rower who, obsessed with improving his times, adds extra sessions on the sly and restricts his diet.

Eventually, he begins to suffer from severe insomnia, becomes hostile to his teammates and his erg times worsen drastically. Upon consulting a doctor, his tests show severe hormonal imbalances.

This condition is not simply "fatigue"; it is a systemic illness caused by poor load and stress management, which requires a total interruption of training to heal.

Summary

Overtraining Syn