“Is It Overtraining or Just Work Ethic?”: Coaches’ Perceptions of Overtraining in High-Performance Strength Sports

Optimal physical performance is achieved through the careful manipulation of training and recovery. Short-term increases in demand can induce functional overreaching (FOR) that lead to improved capabilities, whereas nonfunctional (NFOR) or overtraining syndrome (OTS) occur when high training-demand applied for extensive periods with limited To date, little known about OTS strength sports, particularly from perspective sport coach. Fourteen high-performance coaches a range sports (weightlifting; n = 5, powerlifting; 4, sprinting; 2, throws; jumps; 1) participated semistructured interviews (mean duration 57; SD 10 min) discuss their experiences OTS. Reflexive thematic analysis resulted identification four higher order themes: definitions, symptoms, recovery observations. Additional subthemes were created facilitate organisation presentation data, aid both cohesiveness reporting publicising results. Participants provided varied sometimes dichotomous perceptions proposed multifactorial profile diagnostic symptoms. Prevalence within was considered low, majority participants not observing experiencing long-term reductions athletes.