Performance athlete the may know: You train and train and still, the performance falls off. Reason Overtraining is a chronic Overload of the body, which can be caused by to high training intensities is usually. Side effects sleep disturbances, headaches, loss of appetite, and even depression are often.
That excessive Training is not good for the body, is known. Researchers have now found that certain areas of the brain can result in fatigue due to excessive endurance training.
French scientists compared a group of 19 male triathletes around the age of 35, whose volume of Training was increased for three weeks by around 40 percent, with an age-matched comparison group of 18 triathletes who pursued their normal training hours. The performance of athletes who trained too much, showed not only excessive physical, but also mental fatigue.
Prefer 80 Euro 100 Euro in two weeks
More specifically, the activity of the brain area restricted for the conscious decisions was responsible to the Training: the cognitive control. This neural control system is always used if custom monitors standard processes, and modified to be stopped, the behavior for better aligning long-term objectives.
The fatigue in this area of the Brain were also observed in the behavior of the athletes: they were impulsive, like the researchers in the journal “Current Biology” reports. In the study, the athletes were able to decide about whether you would rather get 80 Euro or 100 Euro in two weeks. The athletes in the group that followed a high intensity of exercise, opted for the immediate reward for the longer-term and larger in size.
Scientists do not derive a cause for Overtraining: athletes stopped in spite of aching muscles to train because they had to feel in the Moment a higher Power. You have no regard for the long-term, performance-reducing consequences of Overtraining, the researchers believe.
“The Region of the prefrontal cortex, which responded to the excessive sports training, was exactly the same one that responded in the previous studies to extreme mental stress,” said Mathias Pessiglione, one of the authors of the study. This area of the brain seem to be the weak point that is responsible for the ability to make rational decisions.
For the workout, this means: “You have to stop to consciously decide if, when endurance training is about the muscles or joints pain,” says Pessiglione. “To achieve a long-term training success.”
Endurance sport is generally good for health, Overtraining can have adverse effects on the brain, conclude the scientists. “We have found out that you make the same decisions, when the brain is tired,” says Pessiglione.