Monitoring strain and recovery in athletes: application of a short inventory of perceptual well-being

The right balance between stress and recovery is important to improve an athlete’s performance (e.g., super compensation) and prevent overtraining and injuries. Although there are a number of objective (e.g., physiological or biochemical) indicators for the stress-recovery balance, they are outperformed by subjective indicators (i.e., self-reports on strain and recovery). In the present paper, a six-item inventory to monitor physical and mental strain and recovery in sports is presented. Based on empirical findings, and experiences from sport psychological practice in different sports, we discuss the pros and cons of self-report monitoring tools. On a more general level, we give advice on how and when to use such monitoring tools. In addition, we describe how different settings (e.g., monitoring during a whole season vs. monitoring before important competitions, like the Olympic Games) and samples (team vs. individual sports) might affect how such a monitoring tool is used and on what factors a successful application might depend. Finally, we offer guidelines on how to respond to unexpected monitoring results, ranging from clarifying discussions between athletes and (athletic) coaches to sport psychological consultations.