A tool for measuring stress tolerance in elite athletes

Abstract A self-report inventory of sources of life-stress and symptoms of stress is described. The tool can be used to determine the nature of an athlete's response to training, particularly his/her capacity to tolerate training loads. Data are used to demonstrate the use of the inventory to determine i) training responses which are either too stressed or under-stressed, ii) the ideal amount of stress to promote the optimum level of training effort, iii) the influence of outside-of-sport stresses that interfere with the training response, iv) preliminary features of overtraining, v) reactions to jet-lag and travel fatigue, and vi) peaking responses.