Overtraining Syndrome

Overtraining syndrome (OTS) is prolonged underperformance and maladaptation caused by a sustained imbalance between training and competition load and recovery.

Alongside the fall in performance, athletes describe fatigue that ordinary rest does not relieve, and mood disturbance is prominent. The syndrome belongs as much to athlete mental health as to physiology.

It sits on a continuum:

• •Functional overreaching (FOR): planned hard training, with recovery within days to weeks, often followed by improved performance
• •Non-functional overreaching (NFOR): stagnation or decline lasting weeks to months
• •Overtraining syndrome: the most severe form, which may take months or occasionally years to resolve

These states are told apart mainly by outcome and recovery time, not by an inevitable step-by-step progression. The diagnosis is often made in retrospect, once other causes have been excluded. The syndrome is uncommon, but missing it, or mislabelling another illness as it, both matter.