Physiology of Training

The body is always seeking to maintain homeostasis – a state where your entire body is working together in synchronization. This means that when it is put under some type of stressful stimulus, it will adapt in order to keep the body running smoothly and efficiently. However, not all types of stress will result in a beneficial adaptation.

In terms of both psychology and physiology, there are two kinds of stress: distress and eustress.

Distress is the type that most people associate with the word “stress.” It is the negative, destructive kind that happens when you’re worried or anxious. Eustress, on the other hand, is the kind of stress that is constructive and will facilitate building you up. The easiest example to point to is when you are working out. During a training session, your body is being placed under stress for the purpose of building an even stronger body. When talking about your mental state, the same classification can be applied for studying. Neither of these things are pleasant while you’re in the midst of it, but they are both necessary in order to grow.

Fortunately for those involved in athletic development, the adaptations that occur after being subjected to eustress are fairly predictable. When an athlete trains and then improves as a result, it is the result of a 4-step process called supercompensation that has occured. This simply means that the body is overcorrecting itself for the muscular breakdown that just happened.

Step 1 of the supercompensation process is the application of neuromuscular stress, which will cause the body to actually tear muscle fibers. Step 2 is the recovery phase, where it will replenish the body’s energy stores and will bring performance back up to the baseline where the athlete started. The third step is finally where we enter the true supercompensation phase. The body realizes that it was not prepared for what just happened, and knows that it may need to perform at that level sometime in the future. So, as an adaptive response, it actually builds itself up bigger, stronger, and faster than before, to ensure that the muscle fibers will be prepared for the next time.

However, this phase does not last for long. Step 4 is the declination of this supercompensation. Because the body is not familiar with maintaining that level of physiological power, it is unequipped to sustain it. The type of energy system used will determine how long this period lasts. For example, extensive endurance recovery will usually peak around 12 hours after the training session has ended, and then will quickly return to the baseline over the next 24 hours. On the other end of the spectrum, intense weightlifting will generally result in a peak after 72 hours, but will slowly return to the baseline over the course of the next 3 days.

This is why elite athletes have such a strict schedule when they start to approach a competition. Their coach must ensure that they are going to peak at exactly the right moment so that they will perform at their best when it really counts.