Lower Extremity: Improve Performance‚ Prevent Overtraining

These instructions are for Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) patients to help them avoid overtraining.

Important information:

Overtraining happens from training too hard or too often without enough rest. This leads to decreased performance as well as physical issues and increased stress.

Warning signs of overtraining:

• Decline in performance. Difficulty keeping up at practice or finishing workouts.

• Increased soreness in joints or muscles that lasts longer than a day.

• Injuries taking longer than normal to heal or more frequent muscle strains or sprains.

• Feeling tired all the time but having trouble sleeping.

• Getting sick more often.

• Less motivation to go to practice and work out hard.

• Mood changes.

• Changes in school performance. Harder to concentrate.

• Higher or lower resting heart rate than normal.

• Missed periods for menstruating athletes.

how to avoid overtraining

Training

• Listen to your body. More intense training requires more rest.

• Take at least 1-2 days to rest from training per week.

• The recommended rest between seasons is 4-6 weeks. Use this time to recover, work on strength and flexibility, cross train, or just have fun.

• Track your training by keeping a record of the number of sets and repetitions (volume) and amount of weight (intensity).

• Maximum training hours per week should not exceed your age and never more than 16 hours.

Sleep

• Keep a consistent sleep schedule.

• Go to bed around the same time every night and wake up around the same time each morning.  This includes the weekends.

• Get enough sleep at night.  Those 12 and younger need 10-11 hours of sleep and teens need 9-9 ½ hours of sleep.

• Relax before going to bed.  Read, listen to music or meditate. Avoid television, phones, computers, and iPad. They can interfere with sleep.

• Avoid taking naps. This can interrupt your sleep schedule.

• Avoid caffeine.

Nutrition

• Athletes need 3000-6000 calories a day to achieve their best performance and recovery while supporting normal growth.

• Eat 3 meals and 2-3 snacks per day.

• Choose a wide variety of foods that include carbohydrates, protein and fat.

Hydration

• Drink 8-20 ounces of fluid an hour before exercise.

• Drink up to 16-24 ounces per hour during exercise. This works out to 4-6 ounces every 15 minutes.

• Consider a sports drink if exercising longer than an hour.

Contact your CHOP healthcare provider with questions or concerns.

Clinical Nutrition Department
215-590-3630

Reviewed on January 13, 2023, by Ken Knecht, PT, MS, SCS