Table 4. Individual monitoring: a suggested battery of tests to detect impending overtraining.

· Performance
· Mood state questionnaires
· Diary of responses to training (fatigue, muscle soreness) and symptoms of illness
· Sleeping heart rate
· Blood lactate and plasma cortisol response to high intensity or incremental exercise
· Plasma creatine kinase activity
· Cortisol:Testosterone ratio
· Nocturnal urinary noradrenaline and adrenaline secretion
· Routine haematology (blood haemoglobin, serum ferritin, leukocyte counts)
· T-lymphocyte CD4+/CD45RO+ expression
· Experience of coach and athlete