Assessing Stress and Recovery during Preparation for the World Championships in Rowing

Training stress and adequate recovery have been identified as important factors to enhance performance in sports and to avoid overtraining. Research dealing with training monitoring and overtraining is mostly based on the Profile of Mood Stales (POMS). Recently, Kellmann and Kallus (2000, 2001) published the Recovery-Stress-Questionnaire for Athletes (RESTQ-Sport), which assesses training effects from the perspective of stress and recovery. During a six-week training camp before and at the World Championships, 24 female and 30 male rowers of the German Junior National Rowing Team completed the RESTQ-Sport and the POMS six times. Results of selected MANOVA’s revealed significant increases of stress and decreases of recovery when training load expands, and vice versa. Changes in mood, creatine kinase, and ergometer performance reflect the alteration and success of training. These results suggest that the RESTQ-Sport is a potential alternative to the POMS in evaluating the impact of various training schedules.