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Fatigue and Recovery
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Fatigue and Recovery in Bodybuilding
by James Wright
You grind out what you planned as your last set of the day. You're tired, of course, but your motivation to add mass constantly makes you ask yourself if you've done enough. Nobody seems to be able to tell you how tired you should be at the end of your training. You want to ensure that you've simulated growth so you decide to do one more set, and end up injuring yourself due to lack of concentration and / or poor form, resulting from mental as well as physical fatigue.
Or maybe you've just completed your 12th set of biceps work. You arms are burning and aching with that deep fatigue that comes from using heavy weights. But the question remains - will another set or two mean an extra quarter inch on your arms by the end of this training cycle? And, therefore, should you include some exercise or hammer curls? Or maybe, some heavy eccentric close-grip chins?
The questions that plague very bodybuilder and other athlete are how much and how hard to train, and when to stop. If a little training is good, how much more is better? And, more importantly now much is enough to produce the best gains?
Answers to these questions begin with an understanding of the processes that underlie that feeling of being partially or totally trashed after your workout.
WHAT IS FATIGUE?
Scientists define fatigue as a failure to maintain a specified force or power output. The purpose of fatigue is to protect the individual muscles and the body from serious damage, which extremely motivated persons might be able to inflict on themselves.
Basically, fatigue is a subjective sensation that reflects various metabolic, circulatory, nervous or other physical and physiological changes induced by stress of all kinds. The bottom line for bodybuilders and other athletes is that endurance drops and you get weaker, mentally as well as physically.
As far as the physiology goes, a number of processes are involved in the development and recovery from weight-training induced fatigue. The causes, consequences and duration of fatigue effects differ based on different types of training stresses - high reps, low reps, twice-a-day training, continuous tension versus relaxation, pauses between reps, 90 second rest periods, 90-second rest periods, 3-4 minute rest periods between sets, etc. In this article we will focus on four main interrelated factors that can lead to immediate reductions in work capacity.
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Accumulation of Substances. These include mainly waste products (lactic, pyrouc and succinic acids, ammonia and urea), but also heat and, when the exercise or stress is particularly intense or prolonged, catabolic hormones such as cortisol.
Depletion of Substances. This involves energy sources (high energy phosphate compounds, particularly creatine phosphate, and possibly glycogen in rare instances, some key minerals / electrolytes (particularly potassium) chemicals that transmit messages between nerve cells in the brain (that influence hormone levels, mood, strength capacity, etc.).
Changes in the Physical-Chemical State of the muscle. These include structural changes in the permeability of the membranes surrounding each muscle fiber, changes in their excitaiton threshold, changes in the levels of phospholipids (choline, inositol), nucleic acids (RNA), many enzymes, and even in the colloidal structure of the cells.
Disturbances of Regulation and Coordination in the Nervous System. These changes are known to affect both brain and peripheral nerve function.
Although all of the above factors can and do play roles in fatigue of various types, the most important is the loss of work capacity associated with bodybuilding and strength training are the accumulation and depletion of substances.
ACCUMULATION EFFECTS
The longer each set lasts, the shorter the rest periods between sets, the greater the tension in the muscle and the greater the number of sets, the more waste products accumulate. As the by-products of anaerobic metabolism, particularly lactic acid, accumulate, they inhibit both the production of energy and the coupling and uncoupling between myofliaments that result in tension development (contraction) and relaxation of a muscle.
Intense or prolonged exercise also results in the release of ammonia from muscle, especially form the larger, stronger fast-twitch fibers Ammonia not only inhibits muscle metabolism, its most important effects are on the brain where, unlike lactic acid, it can alter the concentration of neurotransmitters and reduce the level of ATP.
Training itself, particularly multiple sets lasting 45-60 seconds each will, over time, increase the blood supply to the muscle and the activities of certain enzymes (such as lactate dehydrogenase) which enable the muscle to combat and withstand the acidic conditions produced by such stresses.
Relaxation pauses between reps and longer rest periods between sets can help, as can breathing exercises and meditation (yes! calm down between sets, attempting to stay super psyched throughout your entire workout is usually counterproductive and can quickly lead to overtraining). Flexing the muscle (to squeezed out waste products), stretching (to facilitate relaxation of the muscle and increase blood flow) and relaxing the muscle between sets, exercise and training sessions are active ways to promote recovery. Very low intensity "aerobic" work (on a lower body or upper body cycle ergometer, for example) can also very dramatically reduce and eliminate the waste products of high-intensity exercise. Passive techniques might include massage and vibration therapy.
Keep in mind, though, that in order to fully increase all the components of muscle, you must expose it to high concentrations of waste products. Using the methods mentioned above will be particularly beneficial in the development of strength and power. However, maximal muscle size can only be developed by regular exposure but not overexposure to supramaximal levels of these substances.
Nutritional methods might include ingestion of sodium bicarboante to buffer the acids generated by intense anerobic work. Consumption of branched-chain amino acids can help maintain amino acid balance to the bloodstream that staves off fatigue (by preventing an increased uptake of tryptophan by the brain and a resulting increase in serotonin, which typically produces feelings of fatigue and sleepiness). Carnitine supplementation is another potential recovery factor because it promotes energy production (energy is needed to rebuild and replenish each cell) by esterifying free fatty acids and facilitating theri transport into the nitrochondria (where most fuel from foods is converted into usable energy). The anti-fatigue (buffering) effects of aspartic acid salts and sodium glutamate are inconclusive at this time.
DEPLETION EFFECTS
Depletion typically refers in the reduction or use of fuels such is glycogen for exercise. However, under conditions, other than a very low or zero carbohydrates diet, the supply of muscle glycogen has never been shown to be a limiting factor to resistive exercise. The loss of energy results, rather, from the fact that the high acidity in the muscle., along with the ammonia, interferes with the breakdown of glycogen to produce ATP and CP. Since large quantities of these high-energy phosphates are used rapidly during high-intensity exercise, the failure to keep these replenished leads to a relatively rapid loss of capacity. Ingestion of inosine has been suggested by some athletes as a potential means to facilitate replenishment of thee critical compounds, although this has not been scientifically studied.
Another sign of fatigue, in fact the first that can be measured in the blood, is the element potassium which leaks out of the muscle fibers as a result of repeated stimulation/contraction. Potassium is the most important positively charged ion without the cells, It has a key role in fatigue because it maintains the integrity and excitability of the cell membranes, and thus the responsiveness, contractile capabilities and endurance of the muscle cells themselves. When bonded to certain amino acids such as aspartic acid, which serve to carry certain electrolytes into muscle cells, intracellular potassium in muscle can be significantly increased, helping to maintain strength and endurance under conditions of repeated intense contractions.
Most people don't realize how much water they lose in sweat and through metabolism. But keeping adequately hydrated by drinking about 16 ounces of dilute liquid or water 45 minutes or so before your training and frequently drinking small amounts as your workout progresses is critical. It'll maintain your plasma volume, dilute the wastes generated by muscular contractions, promote the greatest pump, and keep you cool, and that's just a start. Be sure to drink plenty of fluids after your workout as well. If you allow yourself to become dehydrated, your 're inviting overtraining, flu, viruses, and a host of other unnecessary health and performance problems. Unfortunately, I see this happen much too often even among experienced athletes.
WHAT ABOUT REALLY HEAVY TRAINING?
Lower reps and sets produce different effects. There is little accumulation of waste products (or depletion of energy or other substances). The principal effects seem to be a disruption of the sarcomere -- the basic unit of contraction in muscle fibers. There is also a disruption of the membrane systems within the muscle cells on which protein synthesis takes place and within which is contained the calcium that controls the processes of contraction and relaxation. These effects lead to an early failure of the contractile mechanism. The loss of force-generation capability tends to be prolonged and the recovery period slower than for less intense (lower percentage of max) work.
Although you now know a little about fatigue, you sitll don't know how tired you should be at the end of a workout if say, you're shceduled to train the next two days in a row. And how do you know how tired you really are? How do you know if it's the training or other stresses in your life that are drainig you the most? First take a long, hard and honest look at your lifre and at the stresses in your life and at the stresses ohter than traiing that compete for your recuperative energies.
HOW FATIGUED ARE YOU?
To determine how stressed or fatigued you are from training combined with the other stresses in your life, you can ask yourself some of the following questions:
How soon does your heart rate return to normal (after training)? How soon does appetitive return? How's your digestion?
How well do you sleep? Do you have trouble falling asleep or wake up during the night and have difficulty falling back asleep? Do you have to urinate during the night, or more frequently than normal during the night?
How alert are you (compared to what's normal for you at various times of the day? How's your ability to concentrate? How tense or irritable are you? How stable are your moods?
Any aches or pains? Cramps or Soreness? What about your body temperature? Blood pressure? How's your sex drive or interest?
How's your bodyweight (relative to "normal")? Are you adequately hydrated (dry lips, etc.)? Are you adequately hydrated (dry lips, etc.)?
How would you assess the quality of your workouts over the past few days and weeks in terms of how well you can feel the resistance and contraction in the muscle, and what about the pump (if you're using a set/rep scheme that should give you a pump), and strength, endurance, etc? Are you motivated to get back into the gym, to handle heavy weights and work with great intensity? How's the growth of hair / beard, nails?
Any other changes in mental or physical functions? You may want to monitor your emotional state in a systematic way as described in the sidebar, "Rating Your Emotional State."
Military researchers have concluded that in a sustained high-intensity combat operation, the psychological (rather than the physical), component will be the limiting factor and the first to succumb to the effects of stress.
Recuperation thus involves the recovery of both the psychological willingness and motivation as well as the physiological ability to perform work. Sometimes reduced training efforts and active rest are necessary (for this "psychological" neuro-chemical restoration. And this reduction of training, unfortunately is one of the difficult things that bodybuilders and other athletes must deal with if they wish to maximize their potential.