The processing of training stimuli follows the principle of supercompensation
The principle of supercompensation is a basic explanation of the body’s adaptation processes through training. Supercompensation can be translated as “excessive compensation”, which means an adaptive reaction of the body that goes beyond the restoration of the original conditions before training.
Firstly, a so-called suprathreshold training stimulus is set during training, e.g. a strength exercise with unusually high weights or an unusually long duration of exertion. The intensive strain depletes the muscle’s energy reserves or destroys tissue structures (e.g. the integrity of the sarcomere). As a result, performance decreases steadily during intensive exercise and reaches a low point at the end of the training exercise or training session. In the subsequent rest phase for the muscle after training, the body compensates for this intensive disturbance of its balance (homeostasis) by replenishing the energy stores and renewing worn tissue. This takes a few hours to days.
The decisive factor, however, is that the body not only restores the state before the training stimulus, but also prepares for future stresses and stores more energy sources or builds up more strength-generating protein structures than were present before the training. This is achieved, for example, by increasing the carbohydrate stores (glycogen) and increasing the myofibrils in the muscle cell.
This results in increased performance for a certain period of time. If training is resumed during this phase, the athlete can now draw on this increased functional capacity, which is reflected in better performance. If the athlete again sets a suprathreshold training stimulus, the process can start again, so that step by step – over a longer period of time – the performance increases steadily. However, if no new training stimulus is provided for a longer period of time, the short-term increase in performance due to supercompensation decreases again. If the next intensive training load occurs too early, i.e. before the end of the recovery phase, the functional capacity is even reduced, as the energy stores have not yet been fully replenished and the strength-generating protein structures have not yet been fully restored. It should be emphasised once again that supercompensation only occurs if the training stimulus was sufficiently suprathreshold, i.e. high enough to unbalance the muscle to such an extent that it is forced to adapt.
How long the recovery or supercompensation phase lasts depends on the exerciser’s ability to recover and on the intensity and type of training stimulus. The principle of supercompensation was developed on the basis of the stress reaction of the energy carriers in the muscle and can be transferred to mechanisms of protein synthesis (muscle growth). Neuronal training adaptations (e.g. movement learning) show different processes, so that the principle of supercompensation in its “classical form” cannot be applied here.
