Does education improve adherence to a training monitoring program in recreational athletes?

Abstract

Monitoring athletes’ training may help prevent negative consequences such as overtraining and burnout. However, acceptance or willingness of athletes to participate is a barrier to an effective training monitoring program. Educational strategies may potentially increase adherence. Therefore, our aims are to i) assess the impact of training monitoring education on adherence to a monitoring program; ii) determine the effect of the education intervention on burnout, stress, and recovery, and; iii) qualitatively investigate athlete perspectives of the education and training monitoring experience. Recreational athletes (18 male/17 female; age = 42.6 ± 12.0) were randomised to either a control ( n = 19) or education ( n = 16) group and completed daily training monitoring through a smartphone application over 10 weeks. Pre-post assessments using the Athlete Burnout Questionnaire, the Acute Recovery Stress Scale, and a perceived knowledge of training monitoring questionnaire, and semi-structured interviews were performed. Adherence was low, with no differences between the control group ([mean ± SD]; 43.0 ± 38.8%) and the education group (45.8 ± 36.7%). There were also no differences (p >0.05) between the groups on the standardised inventories. There was a significant effect of time (p <0.001) on participant's perceived understanding of training monitoring tools (scored out of 42) at the end of the washout period (Control: 24.4 ± 6.6; Education: 28.5 ± 5.6) and post-study (Control: 32.1 ± 7.5; Education: 35.1 ± 6.0) compared to the pre-study (Control: 21.5 ± 7.3; Education: 21.9 ± 7.7). Interviews revealed participants wanted more education on modifying their training, and feedback on their data. Our findings suggest this specific educational approach was not enough to increase adherence; other aspects of education and individual feedback needs to be further explored.