IntroductionThe goal of any athletic training is to provide sufficient training loads to improve the athlete's performance (Meeusen, 2006, p.1). Due to training methods, athletes will experience mild fatigue and acute declines in performance (Halson, 2004, p.967). New, creative training methods, developed by coaches, athletes, and sports scientists, are intended to help improve the quality and quantity of athletic training (Kellmann, 2010, p.1). However, these methods have encountered a consistent set of barriers, including overtraining (Kellmann, 2010, p.1). When training stress and adequate recovery time are disproportionate, overtraining will occur (Halson, 2004, p.967). Because of these barriers, the need for physical and mental recovery in athletics has brought increasing attention in practice and research (Kellmann, 2010, p.1). To fully understand the impact and effects of overtraining, defining and differentiating what overtraining results from other conditions, such as overtraining, is necessary. Overtraining is defined as the accumulation of both training and non-training stresses that produce a long-term effect on the athlete's performance capacity, with or without signs and symptoms of physical and psychological overtraining in which recovery of performance capacity will take weeks or months (Halson, 2004 page 969). Overshoot, however, is defined by the accumulation of training and non-training stress with a short-term effect on the athlete's performance capacity, with or without signs and symptoms of physical and psychological overtraining where performance capacity will require days or weeks to recover. (Halson, 2004, p.969). The difference between overtraining and overtraining is implied as the rec… at the heart of the article… a lot (Meeusen, 2006, p.1). Without sufficient recovery, the body will abnormally adapt to training, having negative effects on various biological, hormonal, metabolic, physiological, and lymphatic systems ( Meeusen, 2006, p.1). Implementing sufficient and adequate recovery is the most important step in acquiring positive adaptations to intense training. Recovery allows the athlete to remove training stress and allow the muscle to properly heal and recover from previous training (Smith, 2004, p. 194). Recovery from overtraining syndrome typically lasts a few months, however there are cases where an athlete never fully recovers from overtraining and the condition becomes chronic (Smith, 2004, p.190). An athlete, with overtraining syndrome, should participate in training only at a slow pace and only when functionality and desire to train are present (Smith, 2004, p.. 190).