In recent years, professional athletes like tennis star Naomi Osaka and Olympic champion Alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin have become increasingly open about prioritizing their mental health and taking time off to reset.
But it’s not just Olympians or elite athletes who need a break. Everyday athletes can experience burnout from training and exercise.
“I think sometimes weekend warriors can overdo it,” said Jennifer Lager, a licensed clinical psychologist with a private practice in McLean, Va. “This isn’t their life, so sometimes they have limited time to work out. And so they try to be very intense about it, and maybe not listening to their body or respecting where their body is at.”
When two-time WNBA MVP Elena Delle Donne thinks back to her experience with burnout from basketball during her senior year of high school, she remembers sadness and being in a dark place. Delle Donne would just go through the motions during a basketball practice or game. She withdrew from the University of Connecticut, where she had committed to play college basketball, and instead played volleyball as a walk-on her freshman season at the University of Delaware in 2008.
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Delle Donne, now a 33-year-old Olympic champion who plays for the Washington Mystics, tried to describe burnout during a recent interview with The Post.
“I would say it’s just, like, everything feels gray,” she said. “Like there was no color in my life.”
The Post spoke with Olympians, amateur athletes and mental health experts to understand potential causes of workout and athlete burnout, its symptoms and how to recover from it. Here’s their advice.
What to know
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