Research

Hormonal

Rapid increases in training load can cause immunosuppression, increasing illness risk if the athlete does not return to baseline within 7-21 days.

After a period of intense training, allow yourself 7-21 days to recover. If you don't feel back to baseline, you are at higher risk of illness. Monitor your health closely during this window.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Immunosuppression occurs following a rapid increase in training load. Athletes who do not return to baseline levels within the latency period (7–21 days) are at higher risk of illness during this period.
Christopher M. Jones et al. · Sports Medicine · 2016

Why this rating

Supported by the systematic review's findings on illness.

Source

Training Load and Fatigue Marker Associations with Injury and Illness: A Systematic Review of Longitudinal Studies

Christopher M. Jones et al. · Sports Medicine · 2016

DOI 10.1007/s40279-016-0619-5

systematic_reviewCited 380×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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