With the Saints breaking their 2017 training camp mode on August 25, after defeating the Houston Texans 13-0 last Saturday night in the Mercedes Benz Super Dome, another phase of the road to the Super Bowl is now behind them.
Coming out of training camp - which can be both physically and mentally intense for the players, the goal is to have the fewest injuries possible - with all players at their peak performance level.
A team must avoid at all cost the over-reaching state with their players.
Over-reaching, according to newly published research - Changes in Stress and Appetite Responses in Male Power-Trained Athletes During Intensive Training Camp - which appears in the current, online, open-access journal, Nutrients, "Induces a short-term decrease in performance capacity, and the initial signs of over-reaching may become apparent, after only a few weeks of hard training.