TY - JOUR T1 - How much is too much? (Part 2) International Olympic Committee consensus statement on load in sport and risk of illness JF - British Journal of Sports Medicine JO - Br J Sports Med SP - 1043 LP - 1052 DO - 10.1136/bjsports-2016-096572 VL - 50 IS - 17 AU - Martin Schwellnus AU - Torbjørn Soligard AU - Juan-Manuel Alonso AU - Roald Bahr AU - Ben Clarsen AU - H Paul Dijkstra AU - Tim J Gabbett AU - Michael Gleeson AU - Martin Hägglund AU - Mark R Hutchinson AU - Christa Janse Van Rensburg AU - Romain Meeusen AU - John W Orchard AU - Babette M Pluim AU - Martin Raftery AU - Richard Budgett AU - Lars Engebretsen Y1 - 2016/09/01 UR - http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/50/17/1043.abstract N2 - The modern-day athlete participating in elite sports is exposed to high training loads and increasingly saturated competition calendar. Emerging evidence indicates that inappropriate load management is a significant risk factor for acute illness and the overtraining syndrome. The IOC convened an expert group to review the scientific evidence for the relationship of load—including rapid changes in training and competition load, competition calendar congestion, psychological load and travel—and health outcomes in sport. This paper summarises the results linking load to risk of illness and overtraining in athletes, and provides athletes, coaches and support staff with practical guidelines for appropriate load management to reduce the risk of illness and overtraining in sport. These include guidelines for prescription of training and competition load, as well as for monitoring of training, competition and psychological load, athlete well-being and illness. In the process, urgent research priorities were identified. ER -