“I don’t know what to tell you,” a running friend once said. “I get up with every intention of getting out the door but then find myself staring at my shoes, unable to slip them on. I feel frozen despite the fire I had in me at the start of the season.” Although I didn’t know it at the time, I believe this friend was experiencing athlete burnout, otherwise known as overtraining syndrome.
What is Athlete Burnout/Overtraining Syndrome?
Athlete burnout and overtraining syndrome occur at the interface of psychology and physiology and involve:
- Physical or mental exhaustion
- Impaired performance or reduced productivity
- Low motivation and mood
- Increased frequency of illnesses or infections
- and Cynical feelings and thoughts toward your work
Fundamentally, burnout and overtraining syndrome are disorders of stress recovery. For instance, picture a balance scale with one side labeled Stress and the other labeled Rest/Recovery. Burnout occurs when the Stress side consistently outweighs the Rest/Recovery side, resulting in what feels like a literal and figurative lack of balance. People experiencing burnout might feel “out of whack,” “out of sync,” or “not themselves.”
What Factors Lead to Athlete Burnout and Overtraining Syndrome?
Serious athletes are at elevated risk because they often toe the line between adaptive and excessive stress. In other words, as Brad Stulberg and Steve Magness put it, “Growth = Stress + Rest,” and if stress outweighs rest, the risk of burnout increases. Because athletes aim to maximize their potential, they are vulnerable to overexerting and -extending themselves physically and psychologically. If stress outweighs rest for long enough, burnout becomes all but inevitable.
Specific risk factors include:
- Perfectionism
- Pressure from self, parents, teammates, and coaches
- A lack of diverse interests and activities
- Overtraining
- Participating in an endurance sport
- Low quality or low amounts of sleep
- Stress in multiple areas of life (e.g., work, school, family)
- Clinical depression and anxiety
- Low energy (or caloric) availability
- Eating disorders
- Weak interpersonal boundaries
- and Shame and isolation
This list is far from exhaustive. The fact is, anything that stresses your mental or physical systems can contribute to burnout, and anything that inhibits your recovery and rest can hinder your ability to maintain an intense lifestyle.
How to Overcome and Deal with Athlete Burnout and Overtraining Syndrome
The most effective way to mitigate and recover from burnout involves increasing the weight on the rest side of the stress–rest scale. Below are some methods for accomplishing this.
Sleep At Least 8 Hours Per Night
Sleep is probably the most important ingredient in the burnout recovery recipe. Some sports scientists have quipped that if sleep were a drug, it would be the most potent form of doping. And if you are experiencing burnout, you might need even more sleep than would otherwise be normal. If rest eludes you, consider these sleep hygiene tips:
- Limit screen time within an hour of going to sleep (yes, this one is tough)
- Time your workout sessions so that they are earlier in the day; working out in the evening can leave one feeling overly hyped
- Limit caffeine after noon, even if you are a prolific caffeine consumer
- Pair your bed and bedroom with sleepiness and rest
- The general rule: only use your bed for sleep and sex
- Discuss sleep quality with a medical provider who can offer nutritional or medication-based sleep assistance if needed
Some people need a more comprehensive sleep workup if they struggle with insomnia or other sleep disorders.
Slow Down
In many cases, it’s best for an athlete experiencing burnout to take planned time off. As college cross country and track runners, for example, my teammates and I took two weeks completely off between each season. This helped us recover and absorb the training we had done during the months prior. It also helped us start the next season feeling fresh and eager rather than beat down and done. Think of burnout like a psychological and cellular-level injury. As hard as it is for ambitious athletes, taking time off can be essential to recovery and long-term achievement.
Connect with or Reconnect with Your Values
Most Western societies emphasize becoming over being. Once you commit to the grind, it’s difficult to pause and reflect on why you’re doing what you’re doing. But if you’re serious about overcoming burnout, reflection might be critical. Consider the following:
- Journaling about what motivated you to pursue your sport or craft
- Consider moments and events that have moved you and look for patterns
- When have you felt most motivated? What has left you feeling thrilled and alive? Alternatively, what has left you feeling despondent or in pain? Pain, too, can point to your values. Losing, for example, wouldn’t hurt unless you valued competition.
- Confront the possibility that your relationship to your sport has changed since you started
- You might have different reasons for training and competing than you used to; allow yourself to change and mature—it’s the only way to grow.
Re-engineer Your Relationship with Stress
As an athlete, you probably know that stress can help you perform. With too little stress, you’ll feel bored. With too much, you’ll feel overwhelmed. It’s important to consider not just how much stress you feel but also how you interpret that stress. For example, if you start a game, race, or match feeling nervous, you can interpret that nervousness as an impediment or as a benefit. In the first case, you might be inclined to tell yourself, “This is bad. How am I supposed to focus when I feel this tense? I’m gonna suck today.” In the second, you might say, “I’m noticing some tension in my muscles and a flutter in my chest. These sensations are telling me this event is important and warrants my full concentration.”
How to Prevent Burnout and Overtraining Syndrome in Athletes
Perhaps you’re in a space where you would prefer to prevent burnout or where you’d like to prevent a burnout relapse. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of intervention.
Learn to Listen to Your Body and Mind
A professional can help you identify signs that you are trending toward burnout. These might include:
- Feeling dread about ordinary tasks
- Increased irritability
- Poor workout performance or dropping out of workouts
- Changes in weight or appetite
- Changes in sleep habits
- or Social withdrawal
Your body and mind are unique and will work in different ways. Working with a professional can help identify patterns that would otherwise elude your awareness. The main point here is to make a habit of looking inward and asking tough questions, like: How am I really doing right now? Is my current lifestyle sustainable? What’s my body trying to tell me? Building awareness will help you intervene and prioritize rest and recovery before it’s too late.
Take Proactive Steps Toward Improving Your Recovery
- Prioritize getting quality sleep
- Eat enough
- To quote the trail runner and writer David Roche: “Eating enough is one of the most important parts of an athletic life.”
- Many athletes believe they are eating enough when they aren’t; asking a lot from your body means needing to give it a lot in return, which can be challenging and far exceed energy consumption recommendations for the general population
- To quote the trail runner and writer David Roche: “Eating enough is one of the most important parts of an athletic life.”
- Diversify your interests and activities
- Seek social support
- Prioritize fun
- Prioritize meaning
This last bullet point deserves extra attention. It’s important to focus on why your pursuits matter to you. Without that, even moderately difficult days are likely to feel intolerable. Focus on your why and make a consistent habit of doing so. After all, your why will be a moving target, and your chances of finding success, within and outside of your sport, will depend on hitting it.
Why is it Important to Seek Professional Help for Athlete Burnout?
A mental health professional can (1) provide guidance as you brainstorm ways to rest or manage stress and (2) can assess and provide treatment for the possible comorbid mental health issues that might accompany your burnout.
Depression, anxiety, OCD, eating disorders, and perfectionism often lead to or coincide with symptoms of burnout. These disorders tend to increase in severity without professional intervention. Your friends, family, teammates, and coaches are ill-positioned to treat these issues. Moreover, getting to the bottom of what caused the burnout is essential to prevent relapse.
How Full Color Psychology Can Help
Full Color Psychology offers specialized services in sport and performance psychology. We provide treatment for anxiety and its related disorders, which often lead to and result from athlete burnout.
Dr. Ghelfi specializes in sport and performance issues as well as eating disorders, which frequently co-occur with performance issues like burnout and overtraining syndrome.
If you believe we could help you recover and get back on track, reach out today. We’d look forward to meeting you!
