ABSTRACT
Athletes, coaches, and supporting staff should adopt a scientific approach to both designing and monitoring training programs. Appropriate load monitoring is crucial to determine whether a player is adapting to a training program and to minimize the risk of developing non-functional overreaching, illness, or injury. To gain an understanding of training and match demands and their effects on the player, several potential physiological variables are available. However, very few of them have strong scientific evidence to support their use. Therefore, this chapter will discuss the use of non-invasive and time-efficient methods to record and/or calculate training impulse (TRIMP) and heart rate variability (HRV) in team sports athletes. TRIMP and HRV variables can provide detailed information about positive and negative adaptions over short and long periods throughout the competitive season. The accumulated knowledge regarding the importance of TRIMP and HRV has led both monitoring variables to become popular strategies among elite athletes, coaches, and supporting staff.
