Loss of balance
The human organism is in permanent interaction with its environment. If an environmental factor changes and acts as a stimulus on it, the organism must adapt to the new conditions. Consequently, substances are constantly being broken down, modified and restructured. In sport, this adaptability is the basis for a higher level of performance. Here the intensity of training provides the stimulus that triggers such adaptations. A specific strain causes the body’s various functional systems to lose their equilibrium (homeostasis). Upsetting the state of equilibrium is called heterostasis, which leads to catabolic metabolic processes. Central nervous, vegetative and hormonal regulation centres ensure that the organism returns to the state of homeostasis through anabolic (constitutive) metabolic processes. The reaction of cells or tissues to changed environmental conditions or damage is called adaptation.
Performance-based training is aimed at achieving the best possible athletic form at a specific point in time. The level of athletic performance drops after high athletic stress. A certain period of recovery is necessary in order to be able to perform intensive exercise again. The individual functional systems have varying periods of regeneration.
Fatigue resulting from physical strain can be divided into two categories:
– peripheral fatigue as a result of the strain on individual muscles or muscle groups
– central fatigue, which represents a general reduction in performance and function
REGENERATION – THE CHRONOLOGICAL SEQUENCE
Chronological sequence according to Georg Neumann, Ernährung im Sport (2014)8
| 4 – 6 minutes | Complete replenishment of creatine phosphate depot in the muscles |
| 20 minutes | Return of heart rate and blood pressure to the initial level |
| 20 –30 minutes | Compensation of hypoglycaemia after carbohydrate intake; temporary increase in blood sugar level |
| 30 minutes | Restoring the acid-base equilibrium; decrease in lactate concentrations |
| 60 minutes | Decrease in the inhibition of protein synthesis in exhausted muscles |
| 90 minutes | Switch from catabolic to anabolic metabolism, from a higher protein metabolism to regeneration |
| 2 hours | Restoration of tired muscular functions |
| 6 –10 hours/ day 1 | Restoration of balance of fluids, normalisation of the ratio of liquid to solid components; replenishment of the liver glycogen levels |
| 2nd – 7th day | Muscle glycogen replenishment |
| 3rd–5th day | Replenishment of muscular fat reserves |
| 3rd–10th day | Regeneration of partially depleted muscle proteins |
| 7th–14th day | Structural build-up of mitochondria with impaired structures; gradual regaining of full muscular performance |
| 1st–3rd week | Mental recovery from stress of the whole organism, repetition of the body’s athletic performance |
