The Study
Prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of the overtraining syndrome: joint consensus statement of the European College of Sport Science and the American College of Sports Medicine.
This study is like a group of top coaches and doctors sharing what they think about overtraining, based on their experience and reading other studies. It doesn’t run new experiments, so it can’t prove what causes overtraining, but it can describe what usually happens and what signs to look for.
Analysis score
Maximum 5 for a narrative review.
Where the score came from
When athletes train too hard without enough rest, they can get too tired and perform worse. If they rest and get better quickly, it's called overreaching. If they stay tired and weak for months, it's overtraining syndrome.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 51 / 100
Quality score
Based on clinical experience or non-systematic literature reviews. The lowest level of evidence as they are most susceptible to bias and personal perspective.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1Yes, this matters because pushing too hard without rest can seriously hurt an athlete’s performance and mental health for a long time.
- 2Overtraining can make athletes weaker for months.
- 3Mood changes like sadness can be early signs.
- 4No single test can prove overtraining.
- 5High training stress increases injury and illness risk.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
Medicine and science in sports and exercise
Year
2013
Authors
Romain Meeusen, M. Duclos, Carl Foster, A. Fry, Michael Gleeson, David Nieman, John Raglin, Gerard Rietjens, J. Steinacker, Axel Urhausen
Related Content
Claims (4)
Overtraining isn't just being tired — it's when an athlete's body stops working properly and performance drops for a long time, even after resting, and it's different from regular burnout that goes away in a few weeks.
Doctors can't use a single blood test or scan to diagnose overtraining — instead, they have to rule out other health problems and see if an athlete's performance keeps dropping for no clear reason.
Athletes who are really overtrained might feel more depressed or moody than those who are just temporarily worn out, and these mood changes could be an early red flag that something's wrong.
If you train too much, your performance can drop and stay low for months — and even after you recover, you won’t get any stronger or faster.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.