ABSTRACT
The balance between recovery and stress and between training and rest is of high importance in the daily routine of competitive athletes, and is a substantial component for optimal competition preparation. The greater demand on athletes is supported by literature findings of inadequate recovery phases and overload symptoms in athletes from different sport disciplines. The same external absolute training load could lead to the desired training adaptions in one athlete, but chronic maladaptations in another athlete, or even the same athlete under different stress and recovery states. Physiologically, recovery is mainly referred to as regeneration in sport and exercise contexts. A continuous physiological or psychological imbalance due to inadequate recovery and excessive demands can be the result of insufficient systematic and individualized recovery, which can further lead to a cascade of deleterious conditions. Psychometric scales may well represent the most successful instrument in scientific studies to show recovery and stress.
