ABSTRACT

The relationship between training load, fatigue, and recovery-stress balance has received great attention in sports performance literature with special reference to preventing nonfunctional overreaching and overtraining, and reducing the risk of injuries and illness. Psychophysiology in sports has a long tradition of applications and investigations of the psychophysiological and behavioural features associated with optimal performance. This chapter reviews the literature on the behavioural, physiological, psychological, and biochemical markers of recovery-stress balance of soccer players. It discusses the interactions among internal training load, recovery-stress balance, psychobiosocial states, hormones, autonomic nervous system indices, and central nervous system activity. The chapter describes these variables in a sample of professional soccer players during two months of the in-season competitive phase. Recovery-stress balance is a multidimensional phenomenon that needs to be monitored in a multimodal way before and after each training session. Training load can be assessed by means of external and internal parameters.