overtraining

Overtraining occurs when a person exceeds their body's ability to recover from strenuous exercise. Overtraining can be described as a point at which a person may have a decrease in performance or plateau as a result of failure to perform at a certain level or training-load consistently; a load which exceeds their recovery capacity. People who are overtrained cease making progress, and can even begin to lose strength and fitness. Overtraining is also known as chronic fatigue, burnout, and overstress in athletes.

It is suggested that there are different forms of overtraining. Firstly, "monotonous program overtraining" suggests that repetition of the same movement, such as certain weight lifting and baseball batting, can cause performance plateau due to an adaption of the central nervous system, which results from a lack of stimulation. A second example of overtraining is described as "chronic overwork-type," wherein the subject may be training with too high intensity or high volume and not allowing sufficient recovery time for the body.