Rakesh Tomar, John Ainsworth Allen

Abstract

The purpose of present study was to examine correlation between Training Load (TL), Monotony (MT), Strain (ST), Acute Chronic Work Load Ratio (ACWR), Sleep, Well-being and Incidence of Injuries over a pre competitive season.  The present study further compares Training load, Monotony, Strain and ACWR over seven weeks of training in a swimming team. Twelve males from the university swimming team took part in the study with the mean age of 20.41 years, mean weight 71.16 kg and mean BMI 22.19. All participants who enrolled in the study were followed and monitored for a period of seven weeks which included both training and competition. The training load was measured by Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) × time. ACWR, strain and monotony were calculated using standard formulas. Sleep quality was measured using Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index and well-being was assessed using WHO -5 well-being Index. Pearson correlation coefficients was used to examine the relationships. There were some interesting findings as very few injuries (n=3) occur during the training and no injury taking place during the competition. Interestingly, no relationship was seen between various training parameters and sleep. While strong positive relationship was seen between TL and ST (r = 0.89), TL and ACWR (r = 0.80) and ST and ACWR (r = 0.78). The relationship was also found between ACWR and Well-being (r = 0.71). The findings suggest that the training load was well within the acceptable range as enough recovery days were provided during the training weeks. One of the major limitations of the present study was that it was set up in a very demanding academic environment and therefore it may not be appropriate to generalize the findings to rest of the population or different geographical and educational settings.