B.V. Endal'tsev, professor, Dr.Biol.
S.A. Malashenko
Military Institute of Physical Culture, St. Petersburg

Key words: adaptabilities, professional activity, physical exercises, acceleration of adaptation.

Relevance. Two significant qualities in a human body are being formed in the course of evolution which are: the ability to adapt (adaptability) and the ability to maintain adaptation on a high level for a long period of time (V.V. Frolkis, 1988). The latter provides peoples’ health and physical working capacity practically at any age. 

However, the fundamental laws of adaptation, that contribute to more effective settling of many problems of labor and sports activities, improvement of man’s health, ensuring his career longevity, are being not widely implemented. There is no systematic scientific basis of the effective development of human body adaptabilities using different means, including the means of physical culture. The implementation of the laws can be seen only during fundamental research under extreme conditions (space, underwater and other research).

Meanwhile, advances in biological sciences that fully reveal the way how physical exercises affect the development of new features and properties of the human body at the cellular and even genetic levels, provide for significant results and development of modern scientific basis of physical culture, sport and physical training for different population categories (G.I. Kositskiy, 1977; F.Z. Meerson, M.G. Pshennikova, 1988).

The purpose of the study was to consider the mechanisms of man’s adaptation to different conditions of professional activity and environment and to substantiate the methods and techniques of physical training that can enhance those mechanisms that improve people’s adaptabilities and physical working capacity during professional work.

Materials and methods. The scientific results were obtained while studying cardiovascular and respiratory systems, central nervous system, locomotor system, working capacity, psychological state, effectiveness of professional activities of various specialists during days-long professional activity in different environments.

Results and discussion. According to the large volume of obtained scientific data, enhancement of adaptabilities of a human body is the main goal of physical training of specialists in any field - energy, operational or mixed. Solving this task will help accelerate the adaptation of specialists to their professional work, increase training load, ensure the formation of physical readiness to perform professional tasks within short periods of time.

Body adaptabilities of specialists should form depending on the impact of activity factors or environment. If the impact of the factors increases, specialists should also possess higher adaptabilities. The latter were defined based on the results of a 3 km race and a step test.

It is now established that physical test results are as objective as results of complex laboratory tests when assessing the functional capacity of the body. 

Significance of adaptabilities in ensuring working capacity of any specialist is stipulated by those body qualities that can be formed using certain physical training techniques.

While adapting to any factors, including physical loads, the following situation is observed:

increase of functionality of physiological systems and body in general;

economical functioning of the body;

increase of resistance to adverse effects of external and internal environment (including diseases).

The mentioned qualities contribute to working capacity increase with regards to professionals of any profile.

This accounts for the increased relevance of physical culture at the current stage of social development.

While adapting, such features and properties are being formed in the body thanks to which people acquire the ability to work in unusual environment (V.P. Kaznacheev, 1983; V.I. Medvedev, 1998; B.V. Endal’tsev, 2008). However, not all physical exercises facilitate effective formation of body adaptabilities, ensuring high working capacity. They are selected based on the current provisions of the laws of physiological adaptations (V.I. Medvedev, 1998; B.V. Endal’tsev, 2007, 2014).

Effective improvement of the body and increase of its functional capabilities take place only in case of muscular work of considerable intensity. At the same time, slower increase of the training load makes for easier adaptation of the body to it. The last two regularities should be taken into consideration while adapting the body to physical loads, in view of expediency of obtaining the desired results.

How can we effectively form person’s adaptabilities by means of physical training, improve his performance during his professional work?

Two stages are observed in the development of the majority of adaptive reactions: an initial stage of immediate, but imperfect adaptation; a subsequent stage of perfect long-term adaptation.

Under different in character, powerful environmental or activity factors (which may be characteristic for tasks under unusual conditions) the stability of body functions and man’s working capacity are ensured by physiological capabilities of the same systems - the systems of the first phase of mobilization. If these systems provide a moderate body response to the effect of environmental or activity factors, adaptation takes place within a shorter period of time and at lower physiological cost, that is at a higher performance level. Physical exercises can be effective for increasing functional capabilities of the systems of the first phase of mobilization (immediate adaptation), and thereby accelerate adaptation of man to work and ensure its effectiveness. What are these exercises?

Physiological systems of the first phase of mobilization include cardiovascular, respiratory and blood systems, which deliver oxygen to all part of the body. The functionality of the mentioned systems is most remarkable during high intensity physical activity. High intensity muscular work promotes effective improvement of the functionality of the systems under consideration - it demands much of the systems delivering oxygen to all parts of the body. High intensity exercises are those that a person can do during 5-6 to 20-30 minutes. These include 3 km race, 5 km forced march, 5 km ski race and others.

Thus, the use of exercises that enhance the functionality of the physiological systems of immediate adaptation and develop physical endurance can significantly accelerate the adaptive response to either work or environment and enhance person’s physical working capacity.

Another more advanced phase of the long-term adaptation to the factors of professional activity lies in the adaptation of tissues to effective functioning under reduced oxygen content of the internal environment and increase of their resilience. These phenomena are most pronounced when doing submaximal exercise tests, associated with maximum physiological changes. Duration of the submaximal exercise testing is from 20-30 seconds to 3-5 minutes. These exercises include 200 to 1,500 m races, obstacle course and others.

Considering long-term adaptation, an exceptionally important mechanism of adaptation processes should be noted, which is the presence of a single mechanism of adaptation to various factors at the cellular level. The importance of this mechanism is that a body adapted to some factor (for example, to physical loads) generates adaptive responses to changing conditions (moving into highlands, etc) being in a better position, having a ready-formed adaptation mechanism at the cellular level, which makes it possible to transfer adaptation responses from the system to a more advanced tissue level faster, avoiding a sharp decline in working capacity.

These are the theoretical and practical foundations of using physical training techniques for the formation of adaptabilities, acceleration of the adaptation of people to work and environment and ensuring their working capacity.

Conclusions:

1. The mechanisms of adaptive processes provide for the definition of the content of physical training that accelerates the formation of human body adaptabilities, resilience to adverse effects and, accordingly, ensures the effectiveness of professional activity of all specialists. In our research, people with high adaptabilities demonstrated high performance in different professional activities - the indices decreased by 9–18%; while people with low adaptabilities showed a decrease by 31–43%.

2. During physical training of specialists one should take into account the scientific evidence that enhancing the function of any cell results in the activation of its genetic apparatus, which in its turn results in the accelerated synthesis of specific proteins that give effect to this function. It is particularly important that similar data were obtained while studying the connection between the function and the genetic apparatus of the nerve cells and in respect of the heart.

The conclusion for physical training is for the applied methods and techniques to adequately activate the necessary muscle groups and physiological systems that are most crucial for professional activity.

3. Physical exercises that lead to some degree of oxygen deficit should be included in training sessions. As a result, antihypoxic system is trained and enhanced, preventing a person to some extent against many adverse effects.

4. Growth of functionality and efficiency of functioning of the body is a general consequence of any adaptation. Here the conclusion for physical training is to choose techniques that contribute to high results, which requires taking into account the specificity of formation of adaptive reactions (of immediate and long-term phases) while performing a variety of physical exercises.

5. The mechanisms of adaptation as a process of formation of adaptive reactions in a human body, people’s health promotion and strengthening should be included into the educational process of higher educational institutions subject to the specifics of professional training of graduates.

It is very important to take into account the peculiarities of adaptive reactions in training of elite athletes from different sports, especially for providing body’s resistance to nerve-emotional stress during sport events.

References

1. Endal’tsev, B.V. Physical culture, health and physical working capacity of a person under extreme ecological conditions: Monograph / B.V. Endal’tsev. St. Petersburg: MD RF, 2008 – 198 P. (In Russian)
2. Kaznacheev, V.P. Essays on theory and practice of human’s ecology. – Moscow: Nauka, 1983. – 260 P. (In Russian)
3. Kositsky, G.I. Civilization and heart. - Moscow: Nauka, 1977. – 182 P. (In Russian)
4. Medvedev, V.I. Interaction of physiological and psychological mechanisms during adaptation // Fiziologiya cheloveka, 1998. – V. 24. - № 4. – P. 7-13. (In Russian)
5. Meerson, F.Z. Adaptation to stressful situations and physical loads / F.Z. Meerson, M.G. Pshennikova - Мoscow: Мeditsina, 1988. – 254 P. (In Russian)
6. Frol’kis, V.V. Aging and life-prolonging processes. – St. Petersburg: Nauka, 1988. – 240 P. (In Russian)

Corresponding author: smalashenkos@mail.ru