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Burn - Out In Sport, Over Training and Problem Behaviours

07-07-2009

When I was working as a GP with an interest in sports medicine, I saw several examples of so-called “over training”. It was usually a child who was gifted at a particular sport, aged anywhere from 11 years to their mid teens. They would be involved in training and competition for their school, local club, the district and the state.

These kids would be chronically tired and disinterested in life. Their white cell counts would fall. Their athletic performance would suffer. They were also under pressure to please every entity for whom they played and to produce their usual high level of athletic performance. They were often driven by parents who basked in the reflected glory of their children’s athletic prowess. It was usually difficult to convince the parents and the child to reduce the physical workload. However, when this was achieved there was a dramatic improvement in the child’s wellbeing and also in their athletic performance.

The Body’s Responses to Training

The essence of training in sports is that placing a physical demand on the body results in a response by that body. It adapts in a way which allows it to respond to that physical demand more efficiently. At a physiological level our hearts and lungs learn to transfer oxygen to the exercising muscles more efficiently. The muscles, for their part, not only increase in size and strength, they also produce more of the enzymes needed to work the biochemical engine of exercise. Add to this specific work in increasing skills and you have the essence of training.

What we haven’t mentioned is that these adaptations to training occur during recovery from exercise. Gifted athletes tend to be very active, optimistic people. When they see positive results from training there is an understandable conclusion that more would be even better. As they become physically fitter they can withstand heavier training loads. This is where the problems begin.

Overtraining and the Elite Athlete

Over time, if enough attention isn’t paid to the recovery phase of training, they eventually hit a wall. During exercise, especially intense (anaerobic) exercise, so-called micro-trauma occurs. This effects the moving parts of the body (tendons, muscles, cartilage). There is also a build up of the by-product of intense exercise (lactic acid). The “repair” of this damage takes time and occurs during recovery. One of the early signs of over training (too much training, not enough recovery) is a minor, niggling injury which becomes persistent. The other early sign is a fall off of performance.

Several psychological factors are at play here. I had already mentioned the notion of athletes being active people. A demanding training program has much more appeal than the notion of “not doing as much”. They fear “losing ground”. They need the regular buzz (endorphins) and reassurance of a difficult and demanding training session.

We would be kidding ourselves to underestimate the fiercely competitive nature of elite athletes. It is no surprise that training can be just as competitive as the actual event.

Sporting contests provide immediate results. The words triumph, champion, underdog, overcoming adversity, determination and courage spring to mind. There is a fine line between descriptions of athletic prowess and notions of human virtue and worth. In the case of professional sport the rhetoric is part of the entertainment. It is also part of the big sell (advertising).

When all these factors focus on the individual elite athlete, things start getting complicated. There is enormous pressure to be successful and therefore attract rewards associated with this. This is occurring during the athletes physical peak ie. in their 20’s.

Age Groupers

However, there has been an explosion in “age group sport” over the past 3 decades. This is partly a reflection of awareness of the benefits of exercise for general health. I recently participated in a half marathon in Sydney with no less than 8,500 people. This would have been unthinkable 40 years ago. The same issues of over training effect older amateur athletes, especially as recovery rates are slower with increasing age. Age group contests have also produced their own “elite” performers. They are quite distinct from other participants in that they are vastly superior, performance wise. Their sport often occupies a very central position in their sense of self-worth and usually healthily so.

Burn-out

Back to burn-out. This is simply overtraining in the elite athlete. Their athlete’s work is their sport. In a work context we talk about burn-out resulting from an increasing focus on work, at the expense of non-work activity and relationships. The similarities with overtraining are chilling; lack of interest in life, lack of interest in work, reduced work efficiency (performance) and often intercurrent minor physical ailments. These people are not attending to the “recovery” aspects of their work.

Binge Drinking as Self Treatment

A lot has been said about the relationship between binge drinking and recent misdemeanours by rugby league players. I wonder whether binge drinking might be an acceptable way for young male athletes to manage the personal stress associated with their sport. This begs the question of what can be done about this. Even professional rugby league players could not train for more than a couple of hours per day. Add recovery sessions, physio and tactical sessions and there is still a fair bit of the week left. This is their version of non-work time. How this time is used would seem to be the key to a solution of other off field problems. There are no easy rules here. However, there are some ideas:

Some time spent on a “career after sport”. This would probably involve the acquisition of skills in some area and might be related to sport eg. coaching, sports management. It could be some modified “apprenticeship” in a trade or other occupation eg. media work. Inevitably this would involve contact with some senior figure, ideally also with a connection to the sport.
Some time spent on something creative. Imagination is required here, but music or any of the arts are some options.
Some time spent with a mentor figure or career coach, to help with the week to week management of work-related issues eg. interpersonal problems, personal goal setting, work-life balance, career issues and relationships.
Some time spent doing something for someone less fortunate. This could be helping junior players or other charitable type work.

Significant planning and energy applied to the non-work aspects of an elite athlete’s life has some pay-off. Firstly, a more balanced, less stressful existence will result in a decreased requirement for the use of alcohol as a stress management tool. This would likely result in less maladaptive behaviours, which are usually fuelled by bingeing on alcohol. As a result of more effective recovery, athletic performance will in fact improve.

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