Overtraining is a common problem amongst combat sports athletes. Because of the intense demands of training and competition, fighters often find themselves failing to recover sufficiently between training sessions. Often health and performance suffers, in extreme cases leading to injury and illness. In many other cases, athletes suffer psychological effects, including a loss of enjoyment, increased anxiety and depression.
The book “Enhancing Recovery” is a multi-disciplinary collection of work by authors working in psychology, physiology and sports science. It describes research and interventions that are aimed at improving an athlete’s ability to cope with the demands of hard training, as well as tools for identifying overtraining at an early stage and improving recovery and performance.
It isn’t exactly light reading. However, most of the chapters don’t require a lot of technical background knowledge, and there are plenty of case studies throughout the book. Even a casual glance reveals a number of straightforward practical methods that can be easily adapted for use with either an individual fighter or a whole team.
If overtraining is a problem that you or your athletes struggle with, this book is well worth a look. Or to book a consultation, contact us via our Liverpool or Manchester clinics.
