Recent trends show that the number of sport athletes getting injured as a result of overtraining has risen, but it’s not just a school phenomenon—it’s also a nationwide issue. “Overtraining is when kids play multiple sports in the same season or practice every day for multiple hours,” athletic trainer Lynn Castro said. “They basically don’t allow their body to recover from each.”

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), up to 50 percent of all pediatric sports medicine injuries are related to overtraining. A recent article in Sports Illustrated magazine revealed the epidemic of serious injuries in overtraining teens. “Their injuries tend to be caused by chronic overuse,” the article stated. “They’ve trained—and overtrained—in their sports until their bodies just can’t take it anymore. By [pediatric sports medicine doctor Lyle] Micheli’s estimate, three quarters of the youth players seeking care at the clinic [in the Childrens’ Hospital Boston] have been damaged by doing too much too fast, often when they were too young. That’s up 20 [percent] in the 1990’s.”

Castro sees Gunn athletes overtraining frequently. “It’s pretty common,” she said.

Assistant football coach and history teacher Mark Weisman looks out for his athletes in case they overtrain, but he can’t always tell. “It’s hard for me to know,” he said. “There are some kids who should back off, but don’t. Most kids back off to my knowledge.”

Weisman sees the football program’s effective communication with Castro as helpful in preventing overuse injuries from occurring. Weisman said he personally never overtrained in his football career at University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). “I’ve always listened to my trainers,” he said. “Overtraining is silly. When you overtrain in practice, you will not be able to play in the games.”

The first sign of overuse and overtraining is pain. “It goes from having pain after the activity, to having pain during activity, to having pain all the time,” Castro said. Castro lists stress fractures, tendonitis, muscle strains and shin splints as common injuries from overtraining.

Junior volleyball and lacrosse player Shelly Kousnetz has had her own experience with overtraining. “My freshman year I was playing both volleyball and lacrosse, and both my coaches felt that conditioning was really important,” Kousnetz said. “I was running and lifting over my limit.” Consequently, Kousnetz developed tendonitis in both her knees and a wrist. According to Kousnetz, the best thing to do when feeling overtrained is to take a break, but for her this isn’t realistic. “If I were to consider taking even as little as a week off, it could negatively affect my playing time,” she said. Additionally, according to Kousnetz several colleges she is looking at for sports would lose interest. “Coaches look for the athletes who aren’t overtrained easily and can be pushed hard,” Kousnetz said. “If you aren’t playing in practices, you aren’t playing in games, so all I can really do is take Advil and ice my injuries after I work out. I don’t really have a choice to stop playing, which would be the only cure.”

Other athletes have similar observations. Junior football and baseball player Danny Luskin sees some of his teammates overtraining frequently. “They don’t really think it’s that bad,” Luskin said. “They want to play, so they don’t say anything. It’s hard to stop playing.” Luskin believes that the severity of the injury should determine how much time is taken off, if any. “Some [injuries] you can ice and keep playing, but for some you need to stop,” he said. “I see some guys that shouldn’t be playing. They take Advil to try to cover up the pain.”

When Castro tells athletes they need to take a break, the athletes are not always cooperative. “The hardest part is telling athletes to rest,” Castro said. “Most athletes don’t want to rest.” In the Sports Illustrated article, orthopedic surgeon Scott Maughon finds heavy resistance to taking breaks from activity. “Do parents think I get a thrill out of shutting a kid down?” Maughon wrote. “You can go to a chiropractor. Wish on a star. Try a magnet. Wear garlic. The fact of the matter is your child needs rest.”

The AAP recommends limiting athletic activity to no more than five days per week, with at least two activity-free months per year. “Significant rest and proper nutrition will help muscles recover,” Castro said. “Icing will help reduce inflammation.” Weisman agrees that there is a limit to how much activity a person’s body can tolerate. “I could go run 1,000 [100 yard sprints] but at some point that isn’t going to help me.”

For the athletes that do take time to recover, injuries heal. “The ones who follow the recommendations usually see improvement,” Castro said.