Enhancing Recovery: Preventing UnderPerformance in Athletes

By Lorin Cartwright and Michael Kellmann

Enhancing Recovery: Preventing Underperformance in Athletes is the first book to address the multifaceted aspects and significance of recovery in maintaining high-level athletic performance. In this text, 21 contributors take an interdisciplinary approach to assist you in preventing overtraining and underperformance in athletes you work with. Enhancing Recovery focuses on recovery as a required component of training and the devastating effects of underrecovery, giving you new insights into treating and preventing overtraining and underperformance. The editor, Michael Kellmann, PhD, combines a wealth of information from medicine, physiology, periodization training, and psychology as well as studies of people's motivation, health, and lifestyles to explore all aspects of underrecovery--not just in sports, but also in everyday life. The four-part text features -theoretical models that draw distinct connections between overtraining and underrecovery, -applied strategies for preventing underrecovery, -case studies that provide practical examples and illustrate the importance of integrating recovery into daily training routines, and -full descriptions of how underrecovery affects athletic performance as well as everyday work and overall health. Part I, "Conceptualizing the Problem," explains the concepts of underrecovery and overtraining by clarifying definitions and providing real-life examples that support the assertion that underrecovery is often the precursor to overtraining and underperformance in athletes. Part II, "Determinants of Underrecovery," addresses the physiological factors that are indicators of overtraining in athletes and explains how athletes are constantly pushing the envelope of positive training adaptation to obtain small improvements in performance. Part III, "Intervention of Underrecovery," focuses on the significance of correct competitive scheduling and training sequencing, which together underscore the processes leading to optimal performance. Emotional and mental factors in underrecovery and overtraining are also discussed. Part IV, "Transfer to Related Areas," examines the relationship between recovery and both physical and psychological health. The importance of attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions are also addressed. Addressing recovery as a key factor of performance, the text illustrates how a constant lack of recovery can result in overtraining in athletes you work with. Further, it shows how being even slightly underrecovered over an extended period results in underperformance in athletes and nonathletes alike. Enhancing Recovery: Preventing Underperformance in Athletes is a critical resource for anyone researching or practicing in the exercise science field.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0736034005
• ISBN13: 9780736034005
• Release Date: June 2002
• Publisher: Human Kinetics
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 2.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 11.5" x 1.3" x 8.8"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Practical Information for the professional

I purchased this book to become part of a group of supporting materials for a presentation at a conference on recovery in fitness. The book is written on a college level as a text. The information is practical and supported by research. The recovery questionaire can be broken down into simpler parts to be diaried and easily answered daily by clients/athletes you might work with or for yourself while following a training schedule, and especially in preparation for a specific event, to prevent overtraining issues. The fifth star is missing because of the presentation of information in such an advanced and scientific way. The format is not for everyone, but the information in it is extremely helpful in many venues. I am sure the authors hope that it is selected by many fitness and athletic professionals to educate and train everyone from a proathlete to the four day a week fitness enthusiast to keep them safe and keep training effective through proper recovery and recovery practices.