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The Endocrine System in Overtraining

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Book cover Endocrinology of Physical Activity and Sport

Part of the book series: Contemporary Endocrinology ((COE))

Abstract

Athletes typically train to enhance performance and competition goals; however, too much training with insufficient recovery can result in the athlete becoming overtrained. When the overtraining syndrome occurs, decrements in performance are the most prominent symptom, but others include fatigue, changes in mood state, competitive incompetence, and changes in sleep patterns, just to name a few. As the endocrine system is very involved in physiological adaptations and recovery to stress, two hypothesized mechanisms by which endocrine function affects exercise performance and may lead to the overtraining syndrome have been proposed, the sympathetic/parasympathetic imbalance and neuroendocrine dysfunction. The sympathetic/parasympathetic imbalance hypothesis states that during the early stages of overtraining, the sympathetic system is activated, while in the later stages of overtraining, the sympathetic system is inhibited and the parasympathetic system predominates. In the neuroendocrine dysfunction hypothesis, a disruption occurs in the anabolic (i.e., testosterone) to catabolic (i.e., cortisol) balance which affects performance and prolongs recovery. However, due to the difficulty in studying overtrained athletes, neither of these hypotheses has been supported well by the literature. Since the primary symptom of overtraining is a decrement in performance, proper exercise training planning is important which includes sufficient recovery such that overtraining does not occur as few markers of its progression have been shown to be of value.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Kinesiology, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, USA

    Ann C. Snyder PHD

  2. Applied Physiology Laboratory, Department of Exercise and Sport Science, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Anthony C. Hackney PHD, DSC

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  1. Ann C. Snyder PHD
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Correspondence to Ann C. Snyder PHD .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Hadassah-Hebrew UMC, 4 Ha'razim St, Jerusalem, 91120, Jerusalem, Israel

    Naama Constantini

  2. , Applied Physiology Laboratory, UNC at Chapel Hill, 203 Fezter Hall, Chapel Hill, 27599, North Carolina, USA

    Anthony C. Hackney

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Snyder, A.C., Hackney, A.C. (2013). The Endocrine System in Overtraining. In: Constantini, N., Hackney, A. (eds) Endocrinology of Physical Activity and Sport. Contemporary Endocrinology. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-62703-314-5_27

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-62703-314-5_27

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