Tag: psychology

Athletic Fatigue: Part 2

3 September 2017

A degree of athletic fatigue following a training session, as described in part 1, is required to set in motion mechanisms to drive beneficial adaptations to exercise. At what point does this process of functional over-reaching tip into non-functional over-reaching denoted by failure to improve sports performance? Or further still along the spectrum and time scale, the chronic situation of overtraining and decrease in performance? Is this a matter of time scale, or degree, or both?

Slide1
Integrated Periodisation of Training Load, Nutrition and Recovery keeps an individual on the green plateau, avoiding descent into the red zone, due to an excess or deficiency

Determining the tipping point between these fatigue situations is important for health and performance. A first step is always to exclude underlying organic disease states, be these of Endocrine, systemic inflammatory or infective aetiologies. Thereafter the crucial step is to assess whether the periodisation of training, nutrition and recovery are integrated over a training block and in the longer term over a training season.

What about the application of Endocrine markers to monitor training load? Although the recent studies described below are more applicable to research scenarios, they give some interesting insights into the interactive networks effects of the Endocrine system and the multifactorial nature of fatigue amongst individual athletes.

In the short term, during a 2 day rowing competition, increases in wakening salivary cortisol were noted followed by return towards baseline in subsequent 2 day recovery. Despite individual variability with salivary cortisol measurement, this does at least offer a noninvasive way to adjust training loads around competition time for elite athletes.

Over an 11 day stimulated training camp and recovery during the sport specific preparatory phase of the training season, blood metabolic and Endocrine markers were measured. In the case of an endurance based training camp in cyclists, a significant increase in urea (due to protein breakdown associated with high energy demand training) and decrease in insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) from baseline were noted. Whereas for the strength-based athletes for ball sports, an increase in creatine kinase (CK) was seen, as a result of muscle damage. This study demonstrates how different markers of fatigue are specific to sport discipline and mode of training. Large inter-individual variability existed between the degree of change in markers and degree of fatigue.

In the longer term, for the case of overtraining syndrome potential Endocrine markers have been reviewed. Whilst basal levels of most measured hormones remained stable, a blunted submaximal exercise response of growth hormone (GH), prolactin and ACTH could be indicative of developing overtraining syndrome. Whilst this review is interesting, dynamic testing is not a practical approach and these findings are not specific to over training. Rather this blunted dynamic exercise response would indicate relative suppression of the neuroendocrine hypothalamic-pituitary axis which could potentially involve other stressors such as inadequate sleep or poor nutrition. Although basal levels may lie “within the normal range”, if both pituitary derived stimulating hormone and end endocrine gland hormone concentrations fall in the lower end of the normal ranges (eg low end of range TSH and T4) this is consistent with mild hypothalamic suppression observed over the range of training and fatigue conditions (functional/non-functional and overtraining) and/or Relative Energy Deficiency in Sports (RED-S).

Although the studies above are of research interest, non invasive monitoring, specific to an athlete is more practical for monitoring the effects of training. Several useful easily measurable metrics can give clues: resting heart rate, heart rate variability, power output. Tools on Strava and Training Peaks provide practical insights in monitoring training effectiveness via these metrics. A range of mobile apps makes it ever easier to augment a personal training log to include these training metrics, along with feel, sleep and nutrition. Such a log provides feedback on health and fitness for the individual athlete, in order to personalise training plans. Certainly adding the results from any standard basal blood tests will also help add to the picture, along the lines of building a longitudinal personal biological passport. After all, “normal ranges” are based on the general population, of which top level athletes may represent a subgroup. The more personalised the metics recorded over a long time scale, the more sensitive and useful the process to guide improvement in sport performance.

Context is key when considering athletic fatigue: temporal considerations and individual variation. Certainly the interactive network effects of the Endocrine system are important in determining the degree of adaptation to exercise and therefore sports performance. However the Endocrine system acts in conjunction with many other systems (metabolic, immune and inflammatory), in determining the effectiveness of training in improving sports performance. So it is not surprising that one metric or marker in isolation is not predictive of fatigue status in individual athletes.

For more discussion on Health, Hormones and Human Performance come to the British Association of Sport and Exercise Medicine annual conference

Presentations

References

Athletic Fatigue: Part 1

Endocrine system: balance and interplay in response to exercise training

Temporal considerations in Endocrine/Metabolic interactions Part 1

Fatigue, sport performance and hormones..more on the endocrine system Dr N Keay, British Journal of Sports Medicine 2017

Sport Performance and RED-S, insights from recent Annual Sport and Exercise Medicine and Innovations in Sport and Exercise Nutrition Conferences Dr N Keay, British Journal of Sports Medicine 2017

Capturing effort and recovery: reactive and recuperative cortisol responses to competition in well-trained rowers British Journal of Sports Medicine

Blood-Borne Markers of Fatigue in Competitive Athletes – Results from Simulated Training Camps Plos One

Hormonal aspects of overtraining syndrome: a systematic review BMC Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation 2017

Clusters of Athletes – A follow on from RED-S blog series to put forward impact of RED-S on athlete underperformance Dr N Keay, British Association of Sport and Exercise Medicine 2017

Strava Fitness and Freshness Science4Performance 2017

From population based norms to personalised medicine: Health, Fitness, Sports Performance Dr N Keay, British Journal of Sports Medicine 2017

Sports Endocrinology – what does it have to do with performance? Dr N Keay, British Journal of Sports Medicine 2017

Addiction to Exercise

17 May 2017

ExerciseAddiction

Health is not just the absence of illness, but rather the optimisation of all components of health: physical, mental and social. Exercise has numerous benefits on all these aspects. However, a recent article in the British Medical Journal described how exercise addiction can have detrimental physical, mental and social effects.

Dedication and determination are valuable qualities required to be successful in life, including achieving sporting prowess. Yet, there is a fine line between dedication and addiction.

To improve sports performance, cumulative training load has to be increased in a quantified fashion, to produce an overload and hence the desired physiological and Endocrine adaptive responses. Integrated periodisation of training, recovery and nutrition is required to ensure effective adaptation. Sufficient energy availability and quality of nutrition are essential to support health and desired adaptations. On the graph above the solid blue line represents a situation of energy balance, where the demands of increased training load are matched by a corresponding rise in energy availability. This can be challenging in sports where low body weight confers a performance or aesthetic advantage, where the risk of developing relative energy deficiency in sport (RED-S) has implications for Endocrine dysfunction, impacting all aspects of health and sports performance.

Among those participating in high volumes of exercise, what distinguishes a healthy level of commitment from exercise addiction? Physical factors alone are insufficient: all those engaging in high levels of training can experience overuse injuries and disruption in Endocrine, metabolic and immune systems. Equally, in all these exercising individuals, overtraining can result in underperformance.

Psychological factors are the key distinguishing features between the motivated athlete and the exercise addict. In exercise addiction unhealthy motivators and emotional connection to exercise can be identified as risk factors. In exercise addiction the motivation to exercise is driven by the obsession to comply with an exercise schedule, above all else. This can result in negative effects and conflict in social interactions, as well as negative emotional manifestations, such as anxiety and irritability if unable to exercise, including the perceived necessity to exercise even if fatigued or injured.

Two categories of exercise addiction have been described. Primary exercise addiction is the compulsion to follow an excessive training schedule. Without balancing energy intake, the physical consequence may be a relative energy deficiency, as indicated on the graph by the dashed blue line. In secondary exercise addiction, the situation is compounded by a desire specifically to control body weight. These individuals consciously limit energy intake, almost inevitably developing the full clinical syndrome described in RED-S, dragging them down to the position indicated by the dotted blue line on the chart. These situations of exercise addiction can lead to varying risk categories of RED-S.

As described at the start of this blog, there is a blurred boundary between the dedicated athlete and the exercise addict. In practice there is most likely a cross over. For example, an athlete may start with healthy motivators and positive emotional connection to exercise, which can become a primary addiction to adhere rigidly to a training schedule, rather than putting the emphasis on the outcome of such training. In the case of an athlete where low body weight is an advantage, it is easy to appreciate how this could become a secondary exercise addiction, where the motivation for exercising becomes more driven by the desire to control weight, rather than performance.

In order to support those with exercise addiction, discussion needs to focus on adopting a more flexible approach to exercise, by recognising that exercise addiction has detrimental effects on all aspects of current and long term health. Furthermore, in the case of athletes, a multi-disciplinary approach is desirable to help the individual refocus on the primary objective of training: to improve performance. In all situations, discussion should explore modifications to exercise and nutrition, in order to prevent the negative effects of RED-S on health and performance.

Exercise has numerous health benefits and is usually viewed as positive behaviour. However, the outcome of exercise is related to the amount of training, appropriate nutrition and motivation for exercising.

For further discussion on Endocrine and Metabolic aspects of SEM come to the BASEM annual conference 22/3/18: Health, Hormones and Human Performance

References

Addiction to Exercise British Medical Journal 2017

Clusters of Athletes British Association of Sport and Exercise Medicine 2017

Sport performance and relative energy deficiency in sport British Journal of Sport Medicine 2017

Balance of recovery and adaptation for sports performance British Association of Sport and Exercise Medicine 2017

Optimal Health for all athletes Part 4 Mechanisms of RED-S British Journal of Sport Medicine 2017

Sports Endocrinology – what does it have to do with performance? British Journal of Sport Medicine 2017

Inflammation: Why and How Much? British Association of Sport and Exercise Medicine 2017