Load and recovery

Author of the article Matmaster

Source site Marathon in the Tver region

Banal Truth #1:

After exercise, the body recovers.

Banal Truth #2:

The recovery time depends on the magnitude of the load. And this dependence is parabolic. What does it mean?

The recovery time grows faster than the magnitude of the load, until it becomes infinitely large. This means that if this load limit is exceeded, the body will never recover to its previous level. If the load is too great, the depletion of resources reaches such proportions that it is already difficult to recover from it. Let’s call these scales the destruction threshold (red dotted line).

A load exceeding the fracture threshold is no longer called a load. This is rather a traumatic factor.

Misconception: «The less we pity ourselves, the more strength we gain.»

The most important property of all living organisms is the ability to adapt to environmental conditions. It simply could not but arise in the process of evolution: an organism that does not change its properties in accordance with the latest directives from the outside was doomed to a very quick death.

Our variability is due to two properties:

1) Atrophy

2) Hypercompensation.

Atrophy

Did you know?

If the astronauts did not do physical exercises in space, then, after spending only five days in weightlessness, upon returning to Earth, they would no longer be able to walk on their own.

The presence of certain abilities in the body can interfere with the development of others, and even requires certain energy costs. Therefore, atrophy goes on constantly: everything unnecessary gradually disappears. If necessary, even the tail can disappear, and even such trifling things as antibodies, muscle fibers or performance, if not in demand, can come to naught in an instant.

The principle of overcompensation

Under load, the body consumes its resources. Then, when the load stops, he restores them during rest. But not to the previous level, but a little more than it was: with a margin for the future. This phenomenon is called hypercompensation (over recovery) and underlies all training, that is, adaptation to environmental conditions.

Misconception: «Strength grows with training.»

— Wrong! Strength increases during rest.

Almost all features of the organism develop according to the principle of hypercompensation. Strength, endurance, flexibility, resistance to heat and cold, immunity, and even the ability to control one’s internal states and emotions — everything obeys this law.

However, some fabrics almost never recover when worn. No need to gnaw candy and scratch tooth enamel, comforting yourself with the hope that it will grow more than scratched — it will not grow. Also, for example, shrunken intervertebral discs are not restored. All this you need to know to protect yourself from injury. Another exception is some poisons that accumulate in the body (example: lead, mercury, dioxin) and radioactivity. The body does not get used to them either.

Banal Truth #3:

The lower we “fall” into fatigue, the greater the overcompensation then, but the later it comes.

Reverse hypercompensation process − atrophy. If there is no re-load after overcompensation, the blue performance curve will smoothly go down until it crosses the dotted line indicating the initial level, and then even lower.

By the way.

Of all the muscles, the abdominal muscles most quickly atrophy. They also develop faster.

Too little and too much load

One advanced «remote» began to work on hardening. In NLP courses, he was taught that everything is “easy and simple”, so he, ignoring the recommendations “load yourself correctly”, enthusiastically began to douse himself with cold water every morning. The result is hypothermia of the facial nerve and paralysis of the right half of the face. However, he was a smart man, and after a week with a twisted muzzle, he nevertheless cured his unfortunate face and started pouring again. Now he doused himself with slightly cool water and lowered its temperature day by day. Result: now, without any harm to himself, he is doused with the same water that once almost killed him.

… Not everything is so rosy in this world. If resource consumption does not exceed a certain limit, hypertrophy does not occur at all. You can call this limit atrophy threshold. Why:

Too little load

Look at blue line. After an insignificant load, the working capacity drops slightly, not reaching the threshold of atrophy (blue dotted line). The body has not received the shake-up necessary to start the compensatory mechanisms. Therefore, after rest (and even immediately after the load), the working capacity again returns to its original state. And then it starts to fall altogether due to the constantly ongoing process of atrophy: the body decides that the function is not used, which means that it is not needed.

In fact: what would be the point if you don’t do a damn thing?

Too much load

She is illustrated red line. Everyone has heard of overwork, and common sense dictates that running hurdles with a tank on your shoulders will not be of any use. Recovery takes longer than with a small load, and if the load exceeds the destruction threshold, recovery does not occur to its original state (the red line a stops a little lower). And only after a long time, perhaps, the performance will slowly recover to the initial level.

And in what NLPers are right — everything is really easy: the load should not be hysterical to the point of insanity.

Note that the graphs almost converge in one place. Indeed: both too large and too small load lead to the same result! The result is all in one place!

The training effect — what we saw in the very first graph — can only be achieved in training area, marked green arrows.

Correct load

The ancient Greek wrestler Milo of Croton (520 BC) took a calf on his shoulders every day and carried it around the field. The calf grew, and the strength of the athlete grew with it. A year later, he could lift a one-year-old bull on his shoulders. Six times he became the winner at the Olympic Games and several times at the Pythian. According to the chronicles, once at the Olympic Games he lifted a four-year-old bull on his shoulders and with him went around the Olympic stadium four times, and then ate the whole bull in one day.

It is this system that reflects the basic principles of proper training:

1) The load is given not too small to trigger the adaptive mechanisms

2) The load does not reach close to the threshold of destruction, in order to protect yourself from injury and so that the recovery time is not too long.

3) A new load is given when the body has fully recovered.

4) The volume of the load increases from time to time.

The higher the fitness of an athlete, the deeper he can «fall» into fatigue without any consequences for himself and the greater the benefit in the form of hypercompensation, therefore, to receive. As training increases, the destruction threshold drops lower and lower. But the threshold of atrophy is not far behind! Therefore, the required load is more and more. Previously, you could barely run a kilometer at a given pace, but now you are happy to run five and want more!

Please note that the load increases from time to time, while the recovery time and resource growth remain the same. Only there is, as Vasily Ivanovich said, a nuance. This technique will first give results, and then stagnation will come. Subsequently (not shown in the graph), progress will decrease until it stops completely. The increase in results also looks like a parabola if you build a graph.

How to ensure steady progress

Any development technique, even the most perfect one, first gives amazing results, then it simply develops, and then sooner or later leads to stagnation.

In general, there can be two reasons for stopping the growth of results: stagnation and approaching the border of human capabilities. Sometimes the first is mistaken for the other. Stagnation is a common phenomenon that often occurs in sports practice, as well as in the practice of everyone who develops themselves in any area, because, I repeat, the patterns described here operate in any area of ​​development.

Possible causes of stagnation:

1. Motor stereotype

Did you know?

The croupier in the casino should not work for more than 4-5 years. Over time, his movements become so perfect that he begins to spin the roulette wheel at an absolutely constant speed and throw the ball with exactly the same force. An experienced player can notice this, calculate his movements and beat the casino.

Let’s say you’re training for the 100m. Let’s say your time is… well, 14 seconds. And you train in the 100m, of course, the 100m. Every day you come to the stadium and run 20 times a hundred meters. Soon the muscles, ligaments and everything will be strengthened, and you will run 100 meters in 13. Then the growth of results slows down, and this is what happens.

As a result of repeated repetitions of the same movements of the same strength and for the same period of time, the nervous system gets used to sending the same impulses of the same frequency, the same strength and in the same sequence to the muscles. Our nervous system has excellent learning ability, and the motor stereotype is formed faster than the growth of results! And no effort of will can break this stereotype. Moreover, all the will is spent on achieving the speed at which this malicious template begins to work. It turns out a vicious circle: we do not run because there is a stereotype, and there is a stereotype because we do not run.

Problem Solving Example

The first thing is to stop running hundred meters, because with our hundred meters we drive ourselves even deeper into crisis. Do you know what percentage of the total workload in training sprinters is actually running 100 meters at full strength? Percent units!

The second thing is to invent exercises in which we will show ourselves in a way that we will never show in a hundred meters. Running downhill with all the dope: getting used to the speed. Running uphill: slower, but we learn to push off more strongly. We tie a bundle of firewood to the belt and run. We diversify the modes, fantasize! Firstly, the old stereotype will be filled with new ones, and, secondly, the old stereotype will not work for a new body that is used to new loads.

Therefore, to the basic principles of proper training, we add one more:

5) The load should be varied

If Milo of Croton did not do other exercises besides carrying the calf, it would be harder and harder for him to carry it every day, and one fine day he could hardly tear it off the ground.

2. Balance configuration

Suppose we are jumping, and for this we need a) strength b) speed. While we are weak, progress goes by leaps and bounds, and we easily develop both qualities at the same time with the help of jumps. But over time, the level grows, the atrophy threshold goes down, and soon there will be enough strength to either develop one or the other. And so that both together — figurines. No matter how much you jump, there will be no sense. We need an exercise that will give more load in one parameter and unload us in another.

“Physically, I was really stronger than my rivals. Objectively. He was, perhaps, the first jumper who was not afraid to engage in the barbell. Moreover, I determined the degree of my readiness not by the height of the bar, but by kilograms. At sixteen and a half years old, I squatted and lifted with a weight of 140 kilograms, and pushed 110 from the chest. It was a lot. Among my colleagues, a different opinion prevailed: the bar for the jumper is harmful. She weighs him down, enslaves his muscles, while the jumper should be light and explosive, like a grasshopper. I did not agree with this. In practice, I constantly felt that lightness comes only through heaviness. I never considered myself a man of great intelligence, but I always had enough professional cunning and that degree of useful narrow-mindedness to believe in myself and in myself most of all.

I approached the head of the Ukrainian team and asked:

— With what weight do they squat and how much they push? — He pointed to Kartanov and Gabidze.

The leader did not understand me.

— I mean the barbell, — he clarified his question. — What are you talking about! the leader replied. They don’t see her straight away. And I do not advise you!

— Aha! I thought. “This is what will kill you!”

Valery Brumel, «Do not change yourself.» There is an inscription on the book: “For a good memory …” I keep this book in a secluded corner, which I read for the first time while lying in the hospital — until the neighbors in the ward borrowed. Read a book by Valery Brumel. A GOOD memory remained of Valery Nikolayevich.

If a gymnast can do one power out on the bar but cannot do it twice, he needs to train strength. If he can do it seven times, but cannot do ten, he needs to train endurance. More specifically, strength endurance.

Concepts of physical qualities can vary even from sport. For example, for a swimmer to swim 200 meters on the arms with a breaststroke is work for strength, although such an approach will seem at least strange to any weightlifter (and gymnast too): for them it is clearly endurance work, like all swimming in general.

Read in specialized literature:

— Strength is different. What is power and what is it like? Who showed greater strength: a weightlifter who lifted 250 kg or a guest worker who unloaded a carriage of cabbage?

What is the difference between the methods of developing strength and endurance? Explosive strength from static strength? Speed ​​endurance and strength endurance?

Problem solving example.

I want to pull up on the bar. My record is 5 times.

— Stage 1. I train by pulling up 4-5 times (maximum), resting for 3-5 minutes until I can pull up the same amount again, then again maximum, and this is 5-6 sets of 4-5 times. That is 5×5. And it is right. I rest a day or two — until full recovery.

Did you know?

With a load on the growth of muscle mass (weightlifting, bodybuilding), the recovery time at maximum load for the arms is 2-3 days, for the muscles of the legs and back — 3-4.

In just a week, I already pull up seven times, which inspires faith in the infinity of perfection, but it takes another month to reach the result of 10 times. Compared to the original growth, this is somewhat discouraging and suggests that I am doing something wrong. And it leads me right, because what was right three weeks ago can now even slow down my development. The growth curve has flattened out. The muscle is too accustomed to the load, the nervous system is too standardized in the generation of nerve impulses that make the muscle work. Changing tactics:

— Stage 2. Pull up 3+4+5+6. Seven is no longer possible … We make a slide: 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 5 + 4 + 3 We play with quantity, alternation, rest interval. Another two or four months — and I’m already pulling up 15, or even 18 times. But this is where it stops again.

— Stage 3. I give myself a week off, during which, however, I do not sit back, but, for example, swim somewhere on a boat, and then tie a 10 kg barbell pancake to my ass. and do the same approaches 5×4. I can do 5×6, but I still start with 5×4, which very soon becomes 5×10. And then I hang 15 — which means I again have to reduce the number of repetitions. With this weight, it turns out 5×7, and they too soon become 5×10. After two or three months, the pancake becomes heavier up to 20, or even up to 25 kg. Our development (strength-endurance-speed, etc.) was balanced and did not want to move forward. And we introduced an imbalance: increased strength. And the old level of endurance is not suitable for the new level of strength. Therefore, there is room for growth.

… I notice that when pulling up, my biceps get very tired. In order to strengthen it, I do a “bicep curl” twice a week (bending the arms at the elbows in a standing position. Naturally, a barbell is in my hands). And suddenly I discover: if I was so strong that I could do it 5 times with a barbell of 45 kg, and became so strong that I do it 5 times with a barbell of 55 kg, then this has almost no effect on my results in pull-ups. Why? A lot has been written about this in the sports literature, and sometimes even very well. Therefore, I see no reason for me to write about this issue here, and therefore let’s move on to the next ones.

Read in specialized literature:

— Correlation. How and what indicators in different types of load influence each other.

… Concepts of physical qualities can vary even from a sport. For example, for a swimmer to swim 200 meters on the arms with a breaststroke is work for strength, although such an approach will seem at least strange to any weightlifter (and gymnast too): for them it is clearly endurance work, like all swimming in general.

— Stage 4. After the third stage, especially if, apart from the horizontal bar, there are few places to exercise, stagnation will also occur. The new capabilities of the muscles come into conflict with the old capabilities of the cardiovascular system. And also with other energy mechanisms that feed it, the muscle. Hands with hands, but there is no house without a foundation, and no one has yet canceled the OFP.

Did you know?

Bodybuilding and powerlifting professionals know that it is impossible to achieve high results in the bench press without doing at all … squats! Obviously, nature has laid some kind of balance in the development of legs and arms, and the body strives for balance. No meat on the legs — hands will not grow.

I will not go far for an example: here is what I did. On their own skin, so to speak. The hit of the season:

Circuit training!

We practice 30 seconds at each stage. Few? Just a minute! After each stage, rest for 30 seconds and proceed to the next:

1. Push-ups in an emphasis lying.
2. Squats.
3. In hanging on the gymnastic wall, we raise our legs.
4. Lying on your stomach, bend over, raise your arms and legs at the same time.
5. Jumping up from the squat.
6. Pulling up.
7. Jumping out, only relaxed and with shaking of arms and legs.

Stole from: Stichert (GDR)

We start with two «circles» per day (training three to five times a week), every week we add one «circle». When we get to 6 «laps», we increase the time at each stage by 15 seconds and again start with two «laps».

The given option is “in the mode and in the interval”, that is, the rest time is fixed. Another option is “in mode”: everything is 20 times, the time for the stage is 2 minutes (the number of repetitions and the time for each stage are fixed). And you can also change the exercises, adapting them to your needs … The head of a person is to think, and the brains — to think. The annual training cycle of athletes just consists of phases in which different types of load sequentially and purposefully alternate, which is how a wave-like increase in results is achieved. The time of the peak of the sports form is adjusted to the time of the competition:

This is a scheme for changing the intensity and volume of training and sports results from the textbook «Athletics» for institutes of physical culture.