When most athletes commit to a training program, they often do so with tremendous vigor and excitement. According to John Pryor, rugby strength and conditioning expert, this is very much a good thing so long as the athlete understands the dangers associated with overtraining. For John Pryor, strength training should be done at the optimal level of effort and not the maximal level of effort that athletes sometimes believe is necessary to achieve their performance goals.

With overtraining, athletes risk the possibility of diminishing returns from their training, hitting a training plateau, or, worst of all, experiencing an injury. Due to these potential outcomes, athletes and coaches must be able to recognize the earliest signs of overtraining in order to be able to make the necessary adjustments in a timely fashion.

Many athletes experience a great deal of muscle fatigue as the result of intense physical training, especially in the early stages of a training program. Some level of soreness is absolutely normal and simply represents part of the process involved in muscular adaptation. If the soreness becomes persistent and extends into future training sessions, it is then much more likely that the athlete is at risk of inhibiting their progress by overtraining.

According to Pryor, one of the best indicators of overtraining is a consistent rise in resting heart rate. Athletes should check their resting heart rate each morning and record it in order to create a baseline for future comparison. While there will be some variation from day to day, an overall rise in resting heart rate is one of the most accurate measures for recognizing overtraining.