The "Underrecovery Trap": When Physical Fatigue Impairs the Physical and Mental Recovery Process

Detachment from sport refers to refraining from sport-related activities (physical detachment) as well as disengaging from sport-related thoughts and emotions during time in recovery (cognitive and emotional detachment). Detachment is associated with improved physical and mental recovery from sport demands. However, research conducted among nonathletes shows that high demands are actually linked with lower detachment. Our understanding of whether such paradoxical effects also exist in elite sport is currently limited. Therefore, the aim of this daily diary study was to investigate within-person associations between daily physical, cognitive, and emotional sport demands and daily physical, cognitive, and emotional detachment. In addition, we examined whether physical fatigue, cognitive liveliness, and positive affect mediate the association between daily sport demands and daily detachment. Eighty-five elite athletes (56 males, 29 females) active at the national or international level completed a daily survey at 2 time points over a maximum of 2 weeks. Mostly in line with our hypotheses, findings revealed that high daily physical and emotional sport demands were associated with increased physical fatigue after training and competition. In turn, high physical fatigue was associated with lower physical and cognitive detachment after training/competition. More importantly, physical fatigue mediated the association between physical and emotional sport demands and physical and cognitive detachment. These findings point toward an "underrecovery trap," in which high levels of physical fatigue can interfere with athletes' physical and mental recovery. Using postperformance strategies to alleviate physical fatigue will likely benefit physical as well as mental recovery processes.