An extra gear: supercompensation

Edited by Francesca Fanolla

It happens a bit to everyone, in the life of sportsmen, agonists or simple practitioners, of "strafarè with training and physical activity, either because of that state of almost addiction that sports practice gives, especially if lived with passion, either for the fear (and often terror) of "losing the obtained results and with them strength, muscles, resistance etc.". Thus we fall into what everyone knows as overtraining syndrome (chronic fatigue, difficulty in falling asleep, lack of appetite and, above all, inexistent progress from training). In essence, this is a phase in which the body, with a self-defense reaction against the stressful and continuous attack of training, literally refuses to react and progress. This suffering is expressed through obvious signs, such as those mentioned, of a state of general suffering.

Not everyone knows how important rest is between individual training sessions, including micro-cycles, mesocycles and macrocycles.

Thus rest sometimes is relegated to moments when it is forced and unwanted, such as Christmas holidays, summer breaks etc.

But why is rest so important? The answer is in the SUPERCOMPENSATION.

This term hides biochemical and physiological processes that are fundamental for maintaining organic well-being and for any progress in terms of training.

Supercompensation is in fact a process of physiological reactions to training or a training period, which has as a final result the achievement of a physical potential, in terms of strength and performance, higher than what one had before training or training period. This, therefore, allows you to face new training with "stronger weapons".

Here's how it works.

During and after training, the human body reaches a certain level of fatigue, caused by depletion of energy supplies, accumulated lactic acid and considerable psychological stress. In these conditions there is an alteration of the homeostasis, that is of that equilibrium condition in which the body is in a state of rest.

This determines the appearance of fatigue and the reduction of physical functional capacity to train.

After each training session and during rest, a compensation occurs (represented in a graph with a curve) during which the energy reserves and the neuro-muscular potential are restored and the curve, which had previously fallen below the normal level, begins to go back to the condition of homeostasis. This phenomenon requires a number of hours dependent on various factors such as intensity, volume and duration of training.

If this rest time is "guessed" or programmed exactly, the organism is given the chance 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 state of supercompensation and gives him even greater strength to train more intensely.

However, even leaving too much rest time for supercompensation can be deleterious and lead to an involution in training abilities.

The right time for supercompensation based on the activity performed is indicated in the table:

Time needed for supercompensation based on the activity performed
Type of training	Energy metabolism involved	Time needed for supercompensation (in hours)
AEROBIC / CARDIOVASCULAR	AEROBIC	6-8
MAXIMUM FORCE	ANAEROBIC / alactacid	24
Hypertrophy / DEFINITION	ANAEROBIC / lactacid	36

However it is possible to achieve supercompensation even during the first 2-3 days of training but after this limit, continuing to train intensely with progressive and continuous overload, a quantity of fatigue accumulates which precipitates the curve below the normal homeostatic levels. This begins, every workout with the already stressed and tired body at the start, worsening an already difficult situation.

After a long period of time in these conditions, the body will respond less and less to stimuli, without more progress, until the dreaded "stall" phase, from which it is very difficult to exit.

A solution to this risk is to alternate, combining them together, more intense and lighter training sessions. In this way, the supercompensation curve does not fall below "dangerous" levels and this indicates that energy reserves are recovered and the body has time and a way to recover from fatigue.

Optimal rest period. The maximum adaptation is obtained by applying the new stimulus at the peak of the supercompensation phase.

With this I conclude by recalling how fundamental it is, for training and improvement purposes, not to mistreat one's body by pretending that it functions like a machine and above all to be able to prevent periods of exhaustion by preventing it from reaching a point of no return ...

The winning strategy, therefore, is to alternate not only heavy phases with lighter phases, but, in the phases themselves, even more intense workouts with less demanding workouts, which allow the body a constant and profitable recovery.

Good workout.!!!