Optimal training plans on physical performance considering supercompensation

Abstract

A quantitative evaluation of athletic training is one of the most important issues in the sports science, and its optimization problem between fitness and fatigue has to be considered. Although fitness is the gain of athletic training and athletes can acquire extensive fitness by hard training, they cannot continue such training for a long time because of fatigue. After the hard training which exceeds the physical capacity of athletes, a delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) appears and they cannot continue the same training hereafter. Because DOMS impedes the progress of training, it must be avoided when the training plan is made. By continuing training for a long period, the performance capacity of athlete body has enhanced and they can endure hard and long training with which it could not tolerate before, and such performance capacity enhancement is called supercompensation. In a planning athletic training, its optimization problem between fitness and fatigue should be discussed considering, both DOMS and supercompensation by forming probabilistic models of fitness and fatigue, optimal training plans which maximize the total fitness during training periods and minimize the occurrence of DOMS are discussed analytically and numerically.