ASSESSMENT
SCORE FOR THE BODY’S RECOVERY AFTER EFFORT |
|
The
realities of modern training, which involves high volumes and
intensities for the duration of the athletic effort, have shown that
the natural, spontaneous recovery of the organism after an effort is
exceeded, exposing the athlete’s body to
certain risks that can go as far as the installation of chronic
tiredness with polymorph manifestations, which can be very difficult to
treat.
Having this reality as a starting point,
we have
conceived a method of analyzing the signs of chronic tiredness while
still latent. The bottom line of the idea lies in the use of a
“diary of self-control”, where we have introduced
supplementary data, which we have analyzed in correlation with
laboratory samples (immunological testing).
In the assessment score of recovery after effort, we have included and
marked the elements that we can interpret, in case of their
modification, as medical signs of the chronic tiredness or
over-training syndromes. We present the elements this score is based on
in table 1:
Table
1: The assessment score of
recovery after effort
The
symptoms in view | The
score given |
Weight | Ideal weight | 1 |
Fluctuations of more than
1,5 kg | -1 |
Dynamic
vegetative reaction
| The
vegetative test | 2 |
The Dorgo index | 1 |
Sleep | 8-9 hours | 1 |
Quality of sleep | 1 |
Appetite | 1 |
Desire
for training | 1 |
Means
of recovery | Balneotherapeutical | 1 |
Alkaline nutrition, liquid intake | 1 |
The
elements introduced in the calculation of the score have the following
justifications:
•
The weight of the athletes, as well
as that of sedentary people, should not fluctuate more that 0,4 kg in
the evening as compared to the one in the morning. The modifications
(the deficit or the extra weight) indicate unevenness of anabolism /
catabolism, which can be an early symptom of latent illness, or the
expression of an imbalance between ingestion of nutriments / loss of
energy (in the case of fasting or in hyperthyroidism). For athletes,
the problem of ideal weight is permanent, in relation to having and
maintaining an optimal body ratio.
•
The fluctuation of more
than 1,5 kg in weight is considered in sports medicine to be
patognomonic for chronic nervous tiredness, being met in the cases of
psycho-emotional stress and / or overdosed training.
•
The
dynamic vegetative reaction is one of the most sensitive tests for
latent tiredness, the discharges of catecholamine leading to peripheral
vessel constriction with tachycardia in repose state.
•
The
Dorgo test uses the pulse to highlight the cardiac activities during
effort. The modifications of the Dorgo index, in relation to its normal
values, have the following explanations: the pulse during the first
minute after the warm-up exercise shows if this part of the training
was under- or overdosed. P3 (pulse in the third minute) reflects how
the body perceives the maximum intensity moments of the training. The
pulse at 5 minutes after stopping all physical effort shows the
immediate capacity of the cardio-vascular system to go back to its base
values.
•
Sleep is the main recovery factor after physical/
mental effort. The decrease of the number of hours of sleep in a 24
hour-period is not very common in sports medicine and shows the
implication of a psycho-affective component. We can interpret the
increase of the number of hours of sleep as a daily overload / overwork
situation with an excessive consumption of energy; it can also be
described in latent cases of glandular diseases (hypothyroid disease).
The quality of sleep ensures the recovery of the body’s
structures in its anabolic stage.
•
Appetite is an indicator of
the metabolism (it is not taken into consideration in diseases such as
intestinal parasites, duodenal ulcers, diabetes). With humans, the
mechanism of alimentary self-protection doesn’t always work,
the caloric share being mostly based on the principle of
accepting/rejecting, like/dislike, which may cause deficits in the
alimentary principles, especially regarding mineral salts and vitamins.
As a reflex reaction to these, hunger can occur in cases of lack of
elements / excess through over-saturation (i.e. with lipids).
•
The
desire for training reflects the capacity of muscles of rebuilding the
energy stocks and of loading / saturating with minerals, and also the
ratio of removal of the local acid radicals through the circulatory
system after training. Local muscular tiredness, slumber, digestive
disorders are only some of the factors that can change the
athlete’s ability to train.
The means of
recovery
can ensure a starting point for later training sessions. They are
included in a complex set of measures, which, alone, but with more
efficiency in association with each other, can improve the rhythm of
reconstruction of the biochemical, enzymatic and hormonal parameters
consumed by the physical effort.
•
The problem of
hydration after physical effort is widely discussed in the practice of
sport medicine. Given the aspects discussed in great detail in
specialty manuals (Dragan I. 1982, 1989, 1994) we can only dare to
sustain, with our own data, the significance of the hydration before,
but more importantly after effort. Greenleaf J.E. (1995) draws
attention on the ingestion of at least 250 ml before physical effort
and 300-450 ml after effort. The immune depression of natural killer
(NK) cells registered by these studies is similar to the one obtained
by us and from the physiological point of view, is explicable through
the significant increase in the blood’s viscosity due to
abundant perspiration, and also through the diminution in the
lymphocyte mobilization caused by the blood speed, which itself is also
modified by the viscosity.
The test
conceived was applied to a
number of 41 subjects: 15 judo sportsmen, 16 athletes and, as control,
10 students from the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports and
correlated / linked with the intensity of physical effort during the
training of the athletes or the practical activities of the control
group.
The evolution of the
curves representing the recovery score in pictures 1, 2, 3 demonstrates
that on a subjective level we can see a reflection of the symptomatic
modifications discussed in the recovery score. All three curves have
one element in common: as the intensity of the physical effort grows,
the marks received for the recovery score decrease. In the analyzed
cases, the decrease in the number of points has been registered on
account of: the quality of sleep, that of the dynamic vegetative
reaction as an expression for tiredness, lack of alkaline nutrients
after effort, insufficient liquid intake – not necessarily
after effort, but in 24 hours, or the association of all these factors.
The
data obtained for this score have rendered obvious another aspect
– which we were in fact anticipating: a diet determined not
by rational principles, but mostly by preference (only in 5 of the
analyzed cases a precarious financial situation required it). Thus, we
have found a lack of iron in alimentation (a preference for fried
food), which the laboratory data subsequently confirmed: the average
value of hemoglobin was 13,5%, the average of hematocrit was 36,57%
(both at the inferior physiological threshold accepted for athletes).
Apart from the proven significance in the creation of hemoglobin and
implicitly in the transport of blood gases, it seems that ionic iron
plays an important part in the modulation of the cytotoxic function of
natural killer cells, having the capacity to stimulate the cytotoxic
natural killer activity (Gray A.B. 1993).
The data
obtained in
the questionnaire also showed that the alimentary ratio was ensured at
least in what concerned proteins. However, those of vegetal origin
predominated, which makes us wonder about the quality of the structures
of the body, and indirectly about that of immunological structures as
well. Pederson B.K. (1994) and Phillips S.M. (1996) draw attention onto
this very aspect, indicating protein supplement not as alimentary
substitutes, but in order to ensure the quality of amino acids that the
body will use.
We can conclude that the
approach of the
state of health and of recovery can be achieved through this recovery
score as an indirect, latent reflection of the nonspecific defense
capacity. We consider this is a simple, easily applicable method, but
extremely useful in conducting the athletic
training.
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