Monitoring the athlete training response: subjective self-reported measures trump commonly used objective measures: a systematic review

BackgroundMonitoring athlete well-being is essential to guide training and to detect any progression towards negative health outcomes and associated poor performance. Objective (performance, physiological, biochemical) and subjective measures are all options for athlete monitoring.ObjectiveWe system...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:British journal of sports medicine 2016-03, Vol.50 (5), p.281-291
Main Authors: Saw, Anna E, Main, Luana C, Gastin, Paul B
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Affect
Athletes
Athletic Performance
Creatine Kinase - blood
Fatigue
Heart Rate
Humans
Oxygen Consumption
Physical Conditioning, Human - methods
Physiology
Review
Self Report
Stress, Physiological
Studies
Systematic review
Training
Trump, Donald J
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Summary:BackgroundMonitoring athlete well-being is essential to guide training and to detect any progression towards negative health outcomes and associated poor performance. Objective (performance, physiological, biochemical) and subjective measures are all options for athlete monitoring.ObjectiveWe systematically reviewed objective and subjective measures of athlete well-being. Objective measures, including those taken at rest (eg, blood markers, heart rate) and during exercise (eg, oxygen consumption, heart rate response), were compared against subjective measures (eg, mood, perceived stress). All measures were also evaluated for their response to acute and chronic training load.MethodsThe databases Academic search complete, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, SPORTDiscus and PubMed were searched in May 2014. Fifty-six original studies reported concurrent subjective and objective measures of athlete well-being. The quality and strength of findings of each study were evaluated to determine overall levels of evidence.ResultsSubjective and objective measures of athlete well-being generally did not correlate. Subjective measures reflected acute and chronic training loads with superior sensitivity and consistency than objective measures. Subjective well-being was typically impaired with an acute increase in training load, and also with chronic training, while an acute decrease in training load improved subjective well-being.SummaryThis review provides further support for practitioners to use subjective measures to monitor changes in athlete well-being in response to training. Subjective measures may stand alone, or be incorporated into a mixed methods approach to athlete monitoring, as is current practice in many sport settings.
ISSN:0306-3674
1473-0480
DOI:10.1136/bjsports-2015-094758