What are the symptoms of burnout in competitive athletes?
Burnout in athletes often shows up as ongoing exhaustion, losing motivation or enjoyment, a drop in performance and feeling detached from your sport. It can build slowly from heavy training, pressure and too little recovery.
Common symptoms
- Feeling drained physically and mentally
- Losing interest in training or competing
- Performance dropping despite hard work
- Irritability, poor sleep or getting sick more often
- Feeling like sport is a chore
What can help
- More recovery and a review of training load
- Setting new, personal goals
- Talking with a coach, family or a professional
- Support from a psychotherapist or mental performance coach
When to get it checked
If burnout is affecting your mood, sleep or daily life, our psychotherapy team can help.
At Performance Sports Therapy in Gloucester, our psychotherapy team and our mental performance coaching can help you find the cause and build a plan.
Related: how do I get over performance anxiety before a race, how do I overcome fear of re-injury after ACL surgery.