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This is the first global survey investigating athletes’ alternative training, monitoring, recovery modality, injury/injury prevention, and sleep patterns during the early COVID-19 lockdown. Athletes from various countries, across different sports and competition levels, adapted to these unprecedented circumstances in different ways. About a quarter of athletes, predominantly at higher levels, implemented alternative training methods, including virtual reality and improvised equipment. Interaction between athletes and coaches was not frequent, with higher-level athletes more actively monitoring training loads (facilitated by their coaching staff). Physical recovery strategies were dominated by stretching (67%), but some athletes also considered meditation, which was more prevalent among higher-level athletes. Sleep patterns showed little change, though higher-level athletes reported fewer naps. While training during lockdown, injury prevention exercises were also incorporated (40%), particularly among World-Class and International athletes. Analysis of open-ended responses revealed four major themes related to overall home training experience: (i) remote training adaptation, (ii) training creativity, (iii) the opportunity to enhance performance, and (iv) mental and motivation challenges. These insights demonstrate the adaptability of athletes across different competitive levels with changes and shifts they made during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Many athletes employed creative solutions to overcome lockdown restrictions. Notably, home-based exercise equipment (e.g., smart bikes) combined with virtual reality technology (e.g., Zwift) connects individuals remotely, offering interactive and realistic exercise scenarios; contrasting with typical lockdown isolation [26]. Importantly, some athletes reported using a “more traditional” or standard equipment/tools (e.g., treadmill, roller bike, mini gymnasium, or a swimming pool) [27, 28]. Home-based training has yielded inconsistent results in different fitness components [7, 29]. Regardless of the options employed, it is crucial to regulate training variables (intensity, duration, frequency, etc.) to minimize the loss of neuromuscular adaptations [30] and preserve fitness levels [1, 31]. A country-level study revealed that athletes, particularly the World-Class cohort, maintained their weekly training frequency despite compromise in other key training variables, such as duration and intensity [10]. Online coaching has become crucial in this context, with the emerging role of technology being indispensable in maintaining effective training routines under “difficult” conditions.
Effective training during lockdown necessitates regular athlete-coach communication to enhance adherence to remote programs and the interaction/feedback process [3]. This, in turn, enables effective monitoring of progress and training loads. The latter aids in ensuring desired effects on athlete well-being and performance [32], while minimizing the risk of developing non-functional overreaching, illness, and/or injury [33]. Therefore, enhancing the frequency of communication between coaches and athletes is essential, particularly considering the observed low rates of daily (22%) and weekly (36%) communication between athletes and coaches during lockdown, especially for lower-level athletes. It is plausible that the nature of coach-athlete interaction varies by sport; likely more often in higher-level team sports (for team training), but potentially less in individual sports (athletics, cycling, etc.), where the coach’s role might lean more towards an advisory capacity for athletes. In the context of load monitoring, there is a notable variance across athlete levels, with a greater engagement among higher-level athletes (≥ 54%), compared to State and Recreational levels (< 40%). Coaches were more involved in load monitoring at higher-levels (Fig. 1), predominantly using heart rate monitors (21%) and daily diaries (19%), although minimally. Objective monitoring (e.g., heart rate monitors) offers information that allows for immediate adjustments to training intensity, while subjective measures (e.g., rate of perceived exetrion, diaries) can track the perception of effort and training responses (including internal/external loads) such as training volume, muscle soreness, and mood [32, 33]. These practices suggest a trend towards more practical monitoring methods for pandemic home training among athletes. Nevertheless, adoption of proper home-based training protocols, including training load, remains pivotal to avoid a delayed or unsafe return to sport [30], irrespective of athlete levels.
Athletes implemented a variety of recovery methods, including stretching, meditation, and massage. This observation reflects a growing awareness of the importance of recovery and the ability to pivot to accessible, self-administrable methods amid lockdown constraints. Post-exercise stretching (cool down) is commonly prescribed to enhance recovery and alleviate delayed onset muscular soreness after physical exertion [34]. Moreover, meditation has been shown to positively impact athletes’ mental skills and performance, with various techniques linked to enhancements in movement, physical health, and mental well-being [35]. While massage is a widely utilized recovery practice among athletes, its implementation was reduced to less than 20% during lockdown, likely due to access limitations (e.g., restricted movement for masseurs). Nonetheless, athletes might have resorted to self-massage techniques (e.g., foam rolling), sought assistance from housemates, or utilized automated massage devices (e.g. vibration tools). In the latter instance, massaging tools such as a massage gun are easy to use and appear effective in improving recovery-related outcomes [36].
Central to these recovery methods is recognizing sleep as a critical component to maximize recovery (physiological and psychological) from training [37]. Notably, two-thirds of athletes report normal or improved sleep quality (during lockdown), with napping habits remaining consistent pre- and during-lockdown. Despite this, some athletes increased daytime napping after reduced nocturnal sleep quality and higher insomnia, which can affect homeostatic sleep regulation and performance [17]. Interestingly, maintaining high training intensity during-lockdown was associated with better sleep quality [38] in elite athletes, and vice versa [39]. In line with the current finding, elite athletes often report modest sleep quality pre-lockdown [40] likely a consequence of demanding schedules, such as training, travel, and media obligations, which were “limited/alleviated” during lockdown. Key practices for improved sleep quality include avoiding long and late daytime naps, avoiding caffeine consumption in the second half of the day while maintaining regular meals, training, and sleep schedules [17]. Athletes would benefit from improved sleep hygiene, such as establishing regular evening or pre-sleep routines, consistent wake-up time, and creating an optimal sleep environment [41].
Many athletes (40%) engaged in injury prevention measures, with greater practices in World- Class and International athletes than at other levels. The occurrence of injuries (most commonly, knee, ankle, and back injuries) during lockdown highlights the need for safe, regimented training within limited resources. Previously, it has been reported that two-thirds of injuries during lockdown affected the lower extremities [42]. In addition, increased daily sitting duration [43] may be one possible cause of low back pain [44]. Moreover, most injuries (67%) occurred during the first week after the start of lockdown [42]. It is plausible that home-based injury prevention training may have lacked customization to athletes’ specific needs. Individualized injury prevention programs are best identified through targeted fitness assessments (pre-season; existing data), including neuromuscular and biomechanical evaluations (among others) [3]. Furthermore, athletes might have been inadequately prepared for post-lockdown training demands, increasing the likelihood of injuries [42]. Injury may also be attributed to a reduced long-term training load and a sudden increase in training intensity following the lockdown, which increased injury risk [13, 45]. These risks highlight the importance of injury prevention practices as well as proper training load management during (and post) lockdown. Training volume and intensity compliance also do not exempt athletes from factors that may lead to musculoskeletal injuries [42]. Psychosocial elements and observed emotional behaviors during lockdown, may also contribute to injury risk beyond physical fitness/factors [15].
Despite facing multifaceted lockdown challenges (e.g., mental and motivation), some athletes identified ways to adapt to remote training, demonstrated creativity in training practices, and viewed the period as an opportunity to enhance performance (Table 1). Given the lockdown restrictions, athletes often trained alone, thus without adequate supervision [1]. Athletes displayed symptoms (e.g., signs of mental health issues) and disorders at levels comparable to or even surpassing those in the general population [20] possibly related to potential injuries, loss of income or sponsorships, competition uncertainty, and fears of disease (Table 2). Within this context, elite athletes sought assistance in performance lifestyle for managing (supporting) their careers [5]. Interestingly, elite athletes, who had better access to support, demonstrated a notably higher resilience to disruptions caused by the pandemic [46]. From the psychosocial perspective, athletes’ mental health is affected by social support, psychological safety, communication, and self-behaviors [47]; thus, the involvement of family members (i.e., parents and siblings), coaches, teammates, may play a substantial role in regulating or reducing stress [47]. Likewise, keeping athletes informed about available psychological-related services (screening, consultation, etc.) is crucial in promoting a proactive environment for their mental well-being [48].
Some athletes in this international cohort seized the “opportunity” of lockdown to focus on aspects they neglected previously or were simply inaccessible, such as (i) recording and analyzing running technique, (ii) engaging in rigorous physical preparation without everyday life stress, (iii) allotting more time for training and recovery quality due to reduced social engagements and work, (iv) focusing on important but previously neglected training (e.g., muscular strength and flexibility for endurance athletes), and (v) enjoying training with a partner and family at home, or even allow more prolonged periods of rest/sleep (Table 2). Despite the challenges, lockdown proved to be a “blessing in disguise” for some athletes, as noted above. The ability to effectively respond to challenges and mitigate the potential negative effects of adverse experiences may be seen as protective factors, e.g. resilience of individuals and self-regulation [49]. Furthermore, motivation toward training is vital for continuity and adherence [50], while training disruption could influence willingness to train [51]. During lockdown, athletes faced “difficulty maintaining motivation due to resumption uncertainty,” among others (Table 2). Motivation is influenced by autonomy (ability to choose training activities), competence (desire to produce desired results), and relationships (feeling of being connected with others) [52]. The roles of a network of coaching staff, friends, and family support (including team environment) are crucial for maintaining emotional well-being and motivation [53]. Indeed, the absence of a “social facilitator” and team interaction can markedly impact athletes’ motivation and decision-making in sports [54, 55]. As such, changing to a (favorable) training environment (e.g., bubble training) would also help regain athletes’ motivation [5]. Moreover, athletes who followed training programs, either designed by coaching staff or sourced externally, demonstrated reduced anxiety and a higher level of motivation to return to sport upon resumption [56].
This study highlights a comprehensive insight into performance-related challenges and coping strategies athletes worldwide adopted during the COVID-19 lockdowns while accounting for potential moderating factors such as the participants’ gender and experience levels. A major strength of this study lies in its large sample size that covers a wide range of athletes’ routines and challenges. To the best of our knowledge, this research is among the first to document the varied challenges and difficulties faced by athletes from numerous countries in both pre-set and unstructured question-and-answer formats. Nevertheless, it is crucial to acknowledge some limitations that should be considered when interpreting the present findings. The study’s cross-sectional design limits our ability to infer causality. Additionally, the reliance on self-reported data may introduce recall and subjective biases. Importantly, the injury findings pertain exclusively to athletes with “mild injuries,” as those with moderate or severe injuries did not meet the inclusion criteria. Various degrees of lockdown existed across the world. However, we only considered countries and territories that implemented a “medium to high” lockdown severity (at least). Lockdown coinciding with Ramadan fasting could have influenced the results [57], which we further addressed elsewhere [58]. Finally, it is also important to keep in mind that while the unique context of the COVID-19 pandemic might affect how broadly the findings or recommendations can be applied, they nonetheless provides valuable lessons that could be applicable to other challenges, such as a natural disaster, geopolitical or religious restrictions, or government directives that could impact athletes regular training routines. Our recommendations may be more relevant with the interests and needs of athletes who do not have disabilities based on the demographic composition of our survey respondents. Future investigations could explore the policy implications for national federations, practical guidelines for coaches and athletes, further development of digital training tools, and more detailed analysis of how training can be modified when access to specialist facilities and equipment is limited.
Recommendations for supporting athletes during challenging contexts
In this study, we characterized and discussed factors that have the potential to impact an athlete’s performance during “challenging contexts.” Our analysis serves as the foundation for generating informed recommendations. First of all, sports organizations should provide athletes with comprehensive guidelines for navigating extraordinary circumstances such as pandemics, curfews, pollution spikes, extreme weather, and social crises. Next, it is imperative to prioritize the welfare of athletes, ensuring any potential risks or harms are addressed promptly, with their well-being taking precedence over training considerations. As we focus on athlete’s performance and training, we recommend consultation of specific guidelines that address general health, health risks, and necessary screening pertinent to exceptional circumstances (e.g., COVID-19). Also, we are aware of the usefulness (and shortcomings) of AI conversational tools (e.g., ChatGPT) in providing support/prescription for training, mental, nutritional, education (among others) [59, 60], but these are beyond our current discussion’s scope. The following recommendations offer a balanced approach to maintaining physical and wellbeing during “challenging situations” (Table 3). While these recommendations are designed to be adaptable, they should be tailored to accommodate personal requirements for optimal benefits.
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