By Sean Henahan, Access Excellence

ATLANTA (7/25/96) Couchbound wannabees motivated by performances of Olympic champions will benefit from using similar training principles to avoid overtraining and injury, according to researchers.

"Overtraining is a well-recognized phenomenon. Dr. William Morgan has provided psychological and behavior markers to evaluate training status. You can use these indicators to predict who is moving into the overtraining state. When you get to the point where you are chronically fatigued, suffer from insomnia, get mood disturbances such as depression, have a decreased appetite and suffer weight loss, and lack interest in sex--these are all important markers that overtraining is occurring," said Dr. Steven N. Blair, P.E.D., Director of Research, The Cooper Institute for Aerobic Research, Dallas, Texas, in an interview.

"These psychological markers are better predictors than physiological markers because athletes who are training competitively almost always exhibit some of these (physiological signs). It doesn't necessarily signal overtraining is occurring. Dr. Morgan's research provides a better understanding of how to monitor overtraining and helps coaches learn to predict when a person is getting close to the borderline. Athletes will know when to rest a little bit, when to back off a little more and perhaps avoid getting into situations where they lose energy and aren't able to train causing their performance to suffer," explained Dr. Blair.

"Parents should be alert to loss of weight, decreased appetite, insomnia, chronic fatigue, and depression. When parents begin to notice these things affecting a child, it should be a warning sign," he noted.

Women More Prone to Knee Injury

"The first step in understanding any type of health or medical problem is knowing what the rates are. The fact that these rates are so much higher in women should be a cause for concern and should prompt additional research to try to find out why," he noted.

Dr. Blair offered some research directions: "Is it something about the training practices? Is it something unique to the female body--are their ligaments weaker? Are their biomechanics different because women are built for child bearing and men are not? That does change some of the mechanics in the hips and lower extremities."

Dr. Blair delivered his comments at a media briefing sponsored by the American Medical Association. Research by Dr. Blair is included in a special Olympic issue of JAMA, July 17, 1996.