Curated by Francesca Fanolla
It happens a bit "to everyone, in the life of sportsmen, agonists or simple practitioners, of" overdoing it with "training and physical activity, either for that state of almost addiction that sports practice gives, especially if lived with passion, or for the fear (and often terror) of "losing the results obtained and with them strength, muscles, endurance, etc.". We thus fall into what everyone knows as overtraining syndrome (chronic fatigue, difficulty in falling asleep, inappetence and above all non-existent progress from training). In essence, it is a phase in which the body, with a self-defense reaction from the stressful and continuous attack of training, literally refuses to react and progress. This suffering is expressed through clear signals, such as those mentioned, of a state of general suffering.
Not everyone knows how important rest is between individual training sessions, between microcycles, mesocycles and macrocycles.
So rest is sometimes relegated to times when it is forced and unwanted, such as the Christmas holidays, the summer break, etc.
But why is rest so important? The answer is in SUPER COMPENSATION.
This term hides biochemical and physiological processes that are fundamental for maintaining organic well-being and for any progress in terms of training.
In fact, supercompensation is a process of physiological reactions to training or to a training period, which has as a final result the achievement of a physical potential, in terms of strength and performance, higher than that which occurred before training or training. training period. This, therefore, allows you to face the new workouts with "stronger weapons".
Here's how it works.
During and after training the human body reaches a certain level of fatigue, caused by the depletion of energy supplies, by the accumulated lactic acid and by a considerable psychological stress. In these conditions there is an "alteration of homeostasis", that is, of that condition of equilibrium in which the body is in a state of rest.
This determines the appearance of fatigue and the reduction of the physical functional capacity to train.
If this rest time is "guessed" or programmed exactly, the body is given the possibility to recover all the lost energy supplies and to acquire that "something more" that makes the difference. This supply of energy brings the athlete into the so-called supercompensation state and gives him even higher strengths to train more intensely.
However, leaving too much rest time for overcompensation can also be detrimental and lead to an involution in training skills.
The right time to give to supercompensation based on the activity carried out is indicated in the table:
Time required for supercompensation based on the activity performed
Type of training
Energy metabolism involved
Time required for supercompensation (in hours)
AEROBIC / CARDIOVASCULAR
AEROBIC
6-8
MAXIMUM STRENGTH
ANAEROBIC / ALACTACID
24
HYPERTROPHY / DEFINITION
ANAEROBIC / LACTACID
36
After a long protracted period in these conditions, the organism will respond less and less to stimuli, with no more progress, until the dreaded "stalemate" from which it is very difficult to escape.
A solution to this risk is to alternate, by combining them together, more intense and lighter training sessions. In this way the supercompensation curve does not drop below "dangerous" levels and this indicates that the energy reserves are recovered and the body has time and a way to recover from "fatigue.
With this I conclude by recalling how fundamental it is, for the purposes of training and improvement, not to mistreat your body by pretending that it works like a machine and above all to be able to prevent periods of exhaustion by preventing it from reaching a limit point of no return ...
The winning strategy, therefore, is to alternate not only heavy phases with lighter phases, but, in the phases themselves, also more intense workouts with less demanding workouts, which allow the body a constant and profitable recovery.
Good workout.!!!
