Muscle Fatigue

By the healthiergang writer , personal trainer, athlete and student in Sports Science.

Muscle fatigue usually occurs in untrained or de-trained subjects, i.e. in subjects who for any reason have stopped training for a period of more than 1 month, I say 1 month not because it is the exact time but because it is the maximum time that usually an athlete rests after finishing the competitions it is clear that the more mature and trained the athlete is, the more days of rest he can afford after the effort made during the preparation and during the competitive period.

Usually the champions take training breaks of this duration not only for physical but also psychological recovery deriving from the great competitive events talking about amateurs and amateurs the recovery phase lasts from 10 to 15 days this because the physiological adaptations derived are more easily lost. from the training done previously or you go into detraining.

Untrained subjects during the return to physical activity are strewn with pain and mistakenly believe that the cause of these pains is lactic acid or rather lactate, which is a by-product of anaerobic lactacid metabolism and not a waste product such as you think. Although toxic to the cells, it is transformed into glucose through metabolic processes that take place in the liver while the heart is able to metabolize lactate for energy purposes.

So yes, the pains are not caused by lactic acid that after a couple of hours from the end of training the blood lactate concentrations return to normal but by factors independent of this including:

microlesions in the muscles
inflammatory response to such microtraumas
excessive twitching and muscle spasms
accumulation of metabolites in the muscles

These are the factors that trigger (DOMS) Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness.This is typically experienced by all individuals regardless of training level, and is a normal physiological response to greater exertion, or the performance of physical activities that are not is used to it, micro lesions are those that allow muscle growth when they are repaired.

Causes of Fatigue

The causes of muscle fatigue can be many.

1. Overreaching

Overreaching is a condition in which athletes train beyond their ability to adapt to that training in which the rebuilding process and tissue repair fail to compensate.

Overreaching can be considered a short-term form of overtraining, in which adaptation is impaired but there is no loss of previous adaptations.

It can also be the result of a micro-cycle (about a week) where training is organized in a particularly intense and stressful way, or it can also be the result of excess stress not compensated by adequate recovery (especially metabolic recovery).

If overreaching is a planned event and recovery is estimated to be sufficient, this is a positive fit and results in improved performance. If overreaching is not managed or not managed optimally, it degenerates into overtraining, i.e. the actual long-term overtraining.

2. Overtraining

Overtraining is a psychophysical condition when a subject cannot bear the frequency and intensity of training and therefore fails to make physiological adaptations to them therefore one falls into a state of perennial fatigue with both physical and psychological consequences such as symptoms physiological aspects of the OTS on performance.

chronic fatigue
reduced movement ability and physical performance
reduced lactate response
reduction of the maximum working capacity
headache
decreased muscle strength
inability to meet previously achieved standards
increased respiratory rate
increased thirst
insomnia
articolar pains
loss of appetite
reduction of body fat
menstrual interruption
muscle pain and soreness
increased need for recovery from exercise
reappearance of previously corrected errors

Psychological symptoms of OTS:

personality changes
loss of concentration while working, studying or exercising
fear of competition
attitude of renunciation
distraction during activity

To prevent it, it is necessary to periodize the training phases in the best possible way, trying to understand the physical needs of the athlete, from the single session to the macrocycle everything must be planned in the best way so as not to prolong the athlete's limit for too long. double-edged sword that if known to exploit or bring large increases in performance in a short time, vice versa, burnout is incurred and all the work done is lost.

Periodization Of Recovery

When we train our body adapts to the type of activity carried out and to the workloads or makes physiological adaptations to carry out the activity more easily, then to give new stimuli to our body we carry out variations in training such as changing type of activities, increase workloads, decrease recoveries; that is all you need to do a different workout than what we did previously.

So it is clear that overloading the organism is not good for either the subject or the performance, hence the need for a periodization of recovery.

When it comes to recovery measures, it is necessary to distinguish passive measures, in which the athlete is subjected to interventions such as physiotherapy, hydrotherapy, thermotherapy, electrostimulation and acupuncture, cryotherapy, from active ones, in which the athlete practices light aerobic work, stretching muscle, autogenic training. Sometimes you do not recover enough, that is, it happens more in amateurs than in professionals because the latter are more followed and have more resources and time to invest.

Often the alternation of commitments and recoveries is underestimated, inducing the manifestation of the phenomena of fatigue and overtraining. The planning of a physiological recovery program must be personalized for each athlete, taking into account a variety of aspects related to the individual's lifestyle.

Remedies

The objectives of the physiological recovery measures must be aimed at:

prevention of injuries from repeated microtrauma
elimination of contractures, states of tension and pain
restoration of energy stocks

In developing a correct recovery plan, all those elements that can promote body homeostasis must be considered, for example:

ideal workload planning
not to participate in competitions during illnesses and injuries
general physical and psychological conditions of the athlete
information reported by the athlete

It is important to know that the tissues and the fatigue reaction processes have different recovery times, as reported in tables 1 and 2.

Table 1 Muscle recovery times in athletes (from Winning fatigue, Sport & Medicine, 2004).

Table 2 Regeneration times in recovery processes (from Winning the fatigue, Sport & Medicine, 2004).

light aerobic work, to produce endorphins
de-fatigue massage, to restore the right muscle tone
thermotherapy, electrotherapy and acupuncture, cryotherapy

The psychological and motivational factor of the athlete is also important, that is how it approaches the environment and has teammates or in individual sports, how it holds up the psychological fatigue of intense training, as well as how determined it is to achieve a certain goal.

In addition to this, another important factor is nutrition and supplementation, since people who train often and intensively during the week cannot help but pay attention to the calculation of macro nutrients and if the need is not covered, make up for it with integration; so as not to go into a calorie deficit which would be negative for the pursuit of sports performance.

I could advise you in periods of very intense and frequent training to integrate EAA essential amino acids that promote muscle recovery since they are the units constituting proteins and if you perform strength training I can advise you to supplement by cycling creatine 20-25 g or (0,3 xkg) divided into at least several daily administrations, for 2-5 days (loading phase); at the end of the loading phase, for the next 4 weeks, take 3-5 g of creatine per day (maintenance phase).