Evidence map›Paper›PMID 11817995›Full record

ReviewSports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.)2002

Diagnosis of overtraining: what tools do we have?

Axel Urhausen, Wilfried Kindermann

Abstract readReview
PubMed Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.), 2002. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 107 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
107citing papers in PubMed, 6 pooled it
9.6field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

107 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 401 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
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  7. Trial
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  9. Monitoring for overreaching in rugby league players.European journal of applied physiology · 2007
    Trial
  10. Hormonal responses to three training protocols in rowing.European journal of applied physiology · 2004
    Trial
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  13. Review
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47 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Axel UrhausenInstitute of Sports and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Clinical Medicine, University of Saarland, Saarbruecken, Germany.
Wilfried Kindermann
Saarland University · DE

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The multitude of publications regarding overtraining syndrome (OTS or 'staleness') or the short-term 'over-reaching' and the severity of consequences for the athlete are in sharp contrast with the limited availability of valid diagnostic tools. Ergometric tests may reveal a decrement in sport-specific performance if they are maximal tests until exhaustion. Overtrained athletes usually present an impaired anaerobic lactacid performance and a reduced time-to-exhaustion in standardised high-intensity endurance exercise accompanied by a small decrease in the maximum heart rate. Lactate levels are also slightly lowered during submaximal performance and this results in a slightly increased anaerobic threshold. A reduced respiratory exchange ratio during exercise still deserves further investigation. A deterioration of the mood state and typical subjective complaints ('heavy legs', sleep disorders) represent sensitive markers, however, they may be manipulated. Although measurements at rest of selected blood markers such as urea, uric acid, ammonia, enzymes (creatine kinase activity) or hormones including the ratio between (free) serum testosterone and cortisol, may serve to reveal circumstances which, for the long term, impair the exercise performance, they are not useful in the diagnosis of established OTS. The nocturnal urinary catecholamine excretion and the decrease in the maximum exercise-induced rise in pituitary hormones, especially adrenocorticotropic hormone and growth hormone, and, to a lesser degree, in cortisol and free plasma catecholamines, often provide interesting diagnostic information, but hormone measurements are less suitable in practical application. From a critical review of the existing overtraining research it must be concluded that there has been little improvement in recent years in the tools available for the diagnosis of OTS.

Indexed as

AffectBiomarkersExerciseExercise TestHeart RateHormonesHumansLactic AcidSportsSports MedicineBiomarkersHormonesLactic Acid

Identifiers

PMID11817995
OpenAlexW1989770551

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.