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Evaluation of Endocrine Activities and Hormonal Metabolic Control in Training and Overtraining

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Overload, Performance Incompetence, and Regeneration in Sport

Abstract

An essential task of hormones in metabolic control is to interference into cellular autoregulation and to ensure an extensive mobilization of resources of the body. Otherwise the actualization of potential capacities of the body is impossible. Accordingly, the exercise performance depends on influence of hormones on metabolic processes. Therefore, the magnitudes of hormonal responses in exercises, including competition performance, as well as their interrelations, allow us to understand the actual mobilization of various metabolic resources. However, in monitoring of training the significance of hormonal studies is not limited only by this approach. The determination of hormones can provide information on the adaptation to certain levels of exercise intensity and duration, as well as on disorders of adaptation, including exhaustion of the organism’s adaptivity and overtraining phenomena. Hormonal responses can be used for assessment of the trainable effect of exercise session and for control of the recovery period. In order to get actually information and to avoid misunderstandings and wrong depiction, several cautions and limitations must be taken into the consideration.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Exercise Biology, University of Tartu, 18 Ylikooli, Tartu, EE2400, Estonia

    Atko Viru & Mehis Viru

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  1. Atko Viru
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Medical University Hospital Ulm, Ulm, Germany

    Manfred Lehmann

  2. University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, La Crosse, Wisconsin

    Carl Foster

  3. Medical University Hospital Ulm, Ulm, Germany

    Uwe Gastmann

  4. University of Limburg Maastricht, Maastricht, The Netherlands

    Hans Keizer

  5. Medical University Hospital Ulm, Ulm, Germany

    Jürgen M. Steinacker

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Viru, A., Viru, M. (1999). Evaluation of Endocrine Activities and Hormonal Metabolic Control in Training and Overtraining. In: Lehmann, M., Foster, C., Gastmann, U., Keizer, H., Steinacker, J.M. (eds) Overload, Performance Incompetence, and Regeneration in Sport. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-585-34048-7_5

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