HOW TO BALANCE TRAINING & FUN!

Yes, it’s time to be merry! But, says Prof Greg Whyte, it’s also time to take control of your personal ‘stress-recovery’ balance to avoid illness and start 2022 in fighting form!

- Prof Greg Whyte

The festive season is one of the most difficult periods in the year to optimise training and stay healthy. Progressive overload (a gradual increase in training volume) is central to improved performance. However, rest and recovery are crucial elements of progressive overload to ensure adequate time for adaptation and to avoid injury and illness.

Excessive training load combined with inadequate recovery can lead to a condition now termed ‘Unexplained Under-Performance Syndrome (UUPS)’. Formally, UUPS was termed over-training syndrome, but it’s now recognised that there are multiple stressors that can lead to maladaptation and a sustained reduction in performance, not solely ‘over-training’.

These additional stressors are particularly pertinent to the festive season. Without changing training volume, the increased stress associated with reduced/poor quality sleep/rest; multiple social gatherings; poor quality nutrition and hydration; increased travel; increased festive-related stress and anxiety; and increased circulating infections, can lead to ‘under-recovery’, maladaptation, and subsequent illness. So, taking control of your personal stress-recovery balance is critical to reduce the risk of illness, particularly across the festive period.

Importantly, I’m not saying ‘don’t have fun’ during the festive season. While I constantly emphasise the importance of planning, equally important is allowing yourself permission to alter plans in response to environmental stressors. Very little is gained from poor quality training. In fact, at this time of year, it could be deleterious to performance.