Intense Workloads Research Articles

Unpacking the stress-satisfaction-Performance triangle in the it workforce

The booming Information Technology (IT) sector has led to high job stress due to intense workloads and technological changes worldwide. Examining the relationship between job stress, satisfaction, and performance is vital for employee well-being and productivity in IT industry. The primary objective of this research was to analyse how job stress and job satisfaction collectively impact job performance in IT sector employees of Delhi-NCR. IT professionals (n=255) working in service-based company from various roles and experience levels were recruited. Participants' perceived levels of job stress, job satisfaction, and job performance using validated scales. Through statistical analyses, it was observed that higher levels of job satisfaction will be associated with lower job stress and enhanced job performance. Conversely, elevated job stress is expected to correlate with decreased job satisfaction and diminished job performance. The demographic and work-related variables of the study added context to these findings by elucidating personal experiences, working conditions, communication, and contextual factors that may moderate these relationships. By exploring the multifaceted connections between job stress, job satisfaction, and job performance, this study provides a valuable insight that can inform evidence-based practices for fostering healthier and more productive work environments in the IT industry.

A review of the impact of sensory processing sensitivity on mental health in university students.

The concept of sensory processing sensitivity (SPS) was first introduced by Aron and Aron (1996) as an innate trait characterized by heightened processing of sensory, emotional, and physical stimuli. Since the concept's introduction in 1996, high SPS has been shown to be associated with poor physical and mental health. It is possible that this is especially true in university students, who are frequently faced with numerous stressors, such as intense workloads and test anxiety. This article is a systematic literature review conducted through EBSCOHost using the following databases: Academic Search Complete, APA PsycArticles, APA PsycInfo, Education Research Complete, ERIC, MEDLINE Complete, and SocINDEX. Search terms included terms regarding high sensory processing sensitivity, university or professional students, and mental health. A total of 6 studies were included. University students with high SPS experienced heightened reactions to sensory, emotional, and physical stimuli. The studies demonstrate correlations of high SPS with outcomes such as depressive tendencies and difficulty adjusting to college. These findings highlight that SPS is associated with poor mental health outcomes. The results underscore the importance of developing support methods for students with high SPS. Future studies should further explore SPS in university students to develop targeted support methods and programs.

Aspects of psychological training of volleyball players of different ages

Background and purpose In the course of many years of training, volleyball athletes face a number of difficulties, such as intense workloads, competition, team relationships, and crisis situations in the athlete's life. Therefore, psychological training should be an integral part of athletes' activities. Objective: to carry out a comparative characterization of psychological preparation of volleyball players of different ages and to give recommendations for improvement of game performance. Material and methods The study involved 15 athletes (aged 13-16 years) and 13 athletes (aged 20-28 years) from Šumperk, Czech Republic. Volleyball players of the Czech club TJ Šumperk. Methods: analysis of scientific literature, questionnaires, method mathematical statistics. Results Based on the analysis, it can be said that psychological preparation in the training and competitive activities of young athletes should differ from adult athletes in many aspects, taking into account the peculiarities of adolescent development. Significant differences were found between the study groups; young athletes have more pronounced individual differences in psychological development, so adolescents need more attention to motivation, confidence, emotional stability, and reaction to stressful situations in the game. The psychological preparation of adult players after a certain game and competitive practice begins to be based on the experience of their own well-being and interaction with teammates. Analyzing the reaction to successes and failures, understanding the emotional state of the players in the team, and the general atmosphere of the team helps to adapt your own behavior to different situations within and outside the team. Conclusions Psychological training plays a key role in creating optimal conditions for effective performance of athletes in volleyball, so the coach needs to take into account the mental state of volleyball players

Optimized Python library for reconstruction of ensemble-based gene co-expression networks using multi-GPU

Gene co-expression networks are valuable tools for discovering biologically relevant information within gene expression data. However, analysing large datasets presents challenges due to the identification of nonlinear gene–gene associations and the need to process an ever-growing number of gene pairs and their potential network connections. These challenges mean that some experiments are discarded because the techniques do not support these intense workloads. This paper presents pyEnGNet, a Python library that can generate gene co-expression networks in High-performance computing environments. To do this, pyEnGNet harnesses CPU and multi-GPU parallel computing resources, efficiently handling large datasets. These implementations have optimised memory management and processing, delivering timely results. We have used synthetic datasets to prove the runtime and intensive workload improvements. In addition, pyEnGNet was used in a real-life study of patients after allogeneic stem cell transplantation with invasive aspergillosis and was able to detect biological perspectives in the study.

Transformation of teachers through a collaborative-reflective training model: A case study on school-based professional development

With this study we aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a collaborative and reflective school-based training model on the teachers’ professional transformation in a middle school in Turkey. This study emerged as a result of a need for this school to transform its instructional approach to the understanding by design (UbD) approach. Considering the needs of teachers for instructional design, a 1-year training programme was planned. Thirteen teachers from different subject fields in the school participated in this case study. The teachers prepared 4 UbD plans collaboratively under the coaching of the researchers, implemented them in the class, and participated in the reflection meetings after each implementation. While evaluation of plans showed their progress, focus-group interviews revealed that this training had changed the teachers’ instructional approach and developed their design skills. Additionally, even though there were some challenging issues such as intense workloads, time constraints, coordination problems, the teachers generally emphasised the contributions of studying UbD to their peer collaboration, classroom practices, and their students’ understanding and learning. We concluded that not only this collaborative and reflective training model but also the UbD itself had positive effects on teachers’ professional transformation.

Mindful Self-Compassion as an Antidote to Burnout for Mental Health Practitioners.

The objective of this correlational study was to explore the relationship between levels of self-compassion and burnout for currently practicing mental health practitioners (MHPs) in the United States. All professionals are vulnerable to burnout based on various types of organizational stressors, but burnout is of particular concern for health care service providers who may need to adopt a stance of detachment, or emotional distance, as relief from intense workloads, with clients. The data were collected through an online survey. Regression analysis found that scores from Neff's Self-Compassion Scale were a significant negative predictor of levels of MHP burnout, as assessed by Schaufeli et al.'s Burnout Assessment Tool, p < 0.001. The implication of this finding is that cultivating self-compassion appears to be a pragmatic self-care strategy for MHPs to mitigate the negative effects of burnout. More educational and occupational training in self-compassion practices as self-care should be provided to help protect the physical and emotional well-being of MHPs. The deleterious systemic effects of burnout make MHP self-care an ethical issue, along with the need to identify protective factors, prevention, and treatment of burnout.

Effectiveness of the SMART training intervention on ankle joint function in patients with first-time acute lateral ankle sprain: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

BackgroundThe lateral ankle sprain (LAS) is the most common injury in the field of everyday and sports-related activities. There is a high rate of patients with LAS who will develop chronic ankle instability (CAI). A possible explanation for this high rate is an insufficient rehabilitation and/or a premature return to intense exercise and workloads. Currently, there are general rehabilitation guidelines for LAS but there is a lack of standardized evidenced-based rehabilitation concepts for LAS, which effectively reduce the high CAI rate. The primary aim of the study is to investigate the effectiveness of a 6-week sensorimotor training intervention (SMART-Treatment, SMART) in contrast to standard therapy (Normal Treatment, NORMT) after an acute LAS on perceived ankle joint function.MethodsThis study will be a prospective, single-center, interventional randomized controlled trial with an active control group. Patients (14–41 years) with an acute LAS and a MRI confirmed lesion or rupture of at least one ankle ligament will be included. Exclusion criteria are acute concomitant injuries of the ankle, pre-injuries of the ankle, serious lower-extremity injuries of the last 6 months, lower-extremity surgery, and neurological diseases. The primary outcome measure will be the Cumberland Ankle Instability Tool (CAIT). Secondary outcomes include the Foot and Ankle Ability Measurement (FAAM), isokinetic and isometric strength diagnostics, joint repositioning sense, range of motion, measurements of postural control, gait and run analysis, and jump analysis. This protocol will follow the SPIRIT guidance.DiscussionCurrent management of LAS rehabilitation lacks since there is a high rate of patients developing a CAI. It has been shown that exercise therapy improves ankle function in acute LAS as well as in patients with CAI. It is further recommended to address specific impairment domains in ankle rehabilitation. However, empirical data for such a holistic treatment algorithm is missing. Therefore, this study has the potential to improve the healthcare for LAS patients and might be used for a future standardized evidence-based rehabilitation concept.Trial registration“Prospectively registered” ISRCTN – ISRCTN13640422 17/11/2021; DRKS (German Clinical Trials Register) – DRKS00026049.

Navigating the Academic Labyrinth: Understanding and Addressing Stress among Undergraduate and Postgraduate Students in Telangana

This essay explores the multifaceted issue of academic stress among undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) students in Telangana, India. The study delves into the causes and manifestations of stress, emphasizing the intense competition, heavy workloads, high expectations, and transition challenges faced by students. The essay also highlights the physical and mental health consequences of academic stress, including its impact on social interactions and academic performance. In addressing these challenges, the essay proposes solutions such as promoting mental health awareness, balancing workloads, encouraging a healthy work-life balance, and building a supportive academic environment.

Psychological Reactions of Lebanese Nurses to Workplace Violence in Critical Care Units.

Workplace violence (WPV) is a growing concern that constitutes a major threat to occupational health and safety, thereby comprising a priority issue for policymakers. Given the increasing prevalence of chronic diseases and comorbidities among the Lebanese population, nurses working in critical care settings encounter intense workloads and high-risk interactions, potentially increasing the risk of WPV. This study aimed to investigate the traumatic and psychological reactions of Lebanese critical nurses who have been exposed to WPV, and the risk factors for depression and anxiety. The study utilized a cross-sectional descriptive correlational design; 112 critical care nurses from diverse departments took part in this study during the period of June to July 2021. A positive, significant correlation between WPV exposure and self-reported anxiety was observed, p = .03 with high levels of WPV, especially among patients and their families. Although verbal abuse was found to be more prevalent among critical care nurses in Lebanon compared to physical and sexual violence, the severity of the situation and its impact on the nurses' mental health and well-being cannot be ignored. WPV for critical care nurses is a serious issue that needs to be considered. Policy-makers should develop the politics of regulating the nursing profession, especially for critical care nurses in Lebanon.

The Effect of Increasing the Health Practitioner’s Workload on Patients and Their Safety

The clinical healthcare system has been burdened due to various disease outbreak such as COVID 19 outbreak. Clinical Workloads on healthcare workers and practitioners lead to fatigue and mental exhaustions, causing medical errors. About 98 000 patients globally expires due to preventable medical errors in hospitals due to workload of health practitioners. (Philibert, et al., 2002) The majority of mistakes are made by well-meaning people operating under poor systems, procedures, or circumstances. The healthcare workers and physicians have been facing intense workloads due small workforce, physician working hours and financial pressures on hospitals and healthcare centers. However, very limited research has been conducted on association of workload of healthcare workers and safety of patients. Therefore, we aimed to design the systematic review on evaluation of effect of increasing the health practitioner’s workload on patients and their safety. To fulfill aims of study, we conducted a systematic review &amp; meta-analysis by following “Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA)” (Selçuk, 2019) guidelines related to title which was “effect of increasing the health practitioner’s workload on patients and their safety”. About 5 databases were used for data search, collection and extraction include PubMed, MEDLINE, EMBSE, Cochrane library, and PsycInfo, on 2 November, 2022. To search data, we used MeSH keywords of “effect of workload on health practitioners”, “Healthcare workers workload” “its effects on patients’ safety, effect of workload on medical errors” “Mental stress among workers” and “patient safety” among all databases. Only those research articles were extracted that have been published during March 2020 to October 2022, keeping the COVID 19 pandemic in context. There were five qualitative studies that evaluated the value of psychological treatment for mental illness. Stress resulting from worries about infecting close relatives and anxiety and fear of getting infection worries about the health professionals were two interwoven elements in all five investigations. Our findings could be explained by an increase in resident physician workload that followed programmers’ elimination of 24-hour shifts. There is evidence to suggest that patient safety may suffer when healthcare workers and doctors care for more than more patients each day.

Governing partnerships with technology companies as part of the COVID-19 response in Canada: A qualitative case study.

Cross-sector partnerships are vital for maintaining resilient health systems; however, few studies have sought to empirically assess the barriers and enablers of effective and responsible partnerships during public health emergencies. Through a qualitative, multiple case study, we analyzed 210 documents and conducted 26 interviews with stakeholders in three real-world partnerships between Canadian health organizations and private technology startups during the COVID-19 pandemic. The three partnerships involved: 1) deploying a virtual care platform to care for COVID-19 patients at one hospital, 2) deploying a secure messaging platform for physicians at another hospital, and 3) using data science to support a public health organization. Our results demonstrate that a public health emergency created time and resource pressures throughout a partnership. Given these constraints, early and sustained alignment on the core problem was critical for success. Moreover, governance processes designed for normal operations, such as procurement, were triaged and streamlined. Social learning, or the process of learning from observing others, offset some time and resource pressures. Social learning took many forms ranging from informal conversations between individuals at peer organisations (e.g., hospital chief information officers) to standing meetings at the local university's city-wide COVID-19 response table. We also found that startups' flexibility and understanding of the local context enabled them to play a highly valuable role in emergency response. However, pandemic fueled "hypergrowth" created risks for startups, such as introducing opportunities for deviation away from their core value proposition. Finally, we found each partnership navigated intense workloads, burnout, and personnel turnover through the pandemic. Strong partnerships required healthy, motivated teams. Visibility into and engagement in partnership governance, belief in partnership impact, and strong emotional intelligence in managers promoted team well-being. Taken together, these findings can help to bridge the theory-to-practice gap and guide effective cross-sector partnerships during public health emergencies.

Transitioning from Nurse-Patient Ratios to Workload Intensity Staffing: What Helps and Hinders the Change.

The aim of this study was to explore the facilitators and barriers in implementing a workload intensity (WI) tool. A WI tool was developed to quantify patient needs and more evenly disperse workload among nurses. A descriptive phenomenological design was used. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 16 nurses on 5 inpatient units. Questions focused on the factors that helped or hindered the change transition to workload intensity staffing (WIS). WI was perceived as a positive change. Five themes were uncovered as facilitators and barriers to the change: resistance to change, intense workloads, supportive organizational culture, resources/training, and evaluation. Understanding barriers and facilitators to change is important for successful implementation of WIS. To promote success, leaders should provide support to staff and ensure availability of adequate resources.

The influence to the sports horses performance traits of the compound feeds from the heat-treated grain insertion in the diet

The efficiency of the horse, high sports results and the effectiveness of recovery after stress, are largely dependent on the characteristics of the organization of nutrition and diet. The comparative assessment of the performance traits and the speed of recovery after workloads in the Oryol trotterhorseis presented in this work. Six horses were each fed diets of hay and cereal grains (HG), hay and combination of cereal grains and compound feed (HGM) in a 2 x 2 Latin-square design study. The performance was assessed by heart rate (HR) indicators using a Polar M400 monitor with an H10 heart rate sensor. Recovery of the heart rate to 80 beats / min after medium work (the average heart rate to 120 beats / min) at HG and HGM horses had no statistically significant differences. Recovery of heart rate to 60 beats / min in the HGM was significantly faster (P &lt;0.05) than in the HG. Under intense workloads (average heart rate above 120 beats / min, or at least 5% of work at a heart rate of 180 beats / min or more), the HGM showed a significant (P &lt;0.05) faster recovery of heart rate values after work than in horses HG. In the course of the study, it was also found that the use of partial replacement of grain concentrates with specialized feeds allows us to reduce the volume of the ration and the total amount of concentrates without changing the structure of the ration.

TP8.2.21 Two Teams, One Patient: Identifying Barriers to Patients’ Flow from Emergency Departments to Surgical Wards

Abstract Aims The transfer of responsibility for patient care across the Emergency Department (ED)/ inpatient interface has always been recognised as a challenging process. Current research focuses on qualitative data and is based occasionally on anecdotal information. The aim of this study was to identify barriers to efficient patient flow with a specific focus on type and quality of referrals and logistics involved. Methods Quantitative retrospective data was collected on referrals received by the surgical team from ED (n = 83). The outcome of the referral was recorded. Quality of referrals was assessed on clinical information, examination and investigations performed as well as working diagnoses. Further data was collected on location and time to review referred patients. Results Outcome of referral: 14.5% were discharged directly from ED, 16.9% were admitted for &amp;lt;24 hours, 4.8% were referred to another speciality within 24 hours and 63.9% were admitted for &amp;gt; 24 hours. Quality of referral: 18.1% patients were referred without working diagnosis. 31% of patients presenting with upper abdominal pain did not have amylase checked prior to referral and 20% of patients with suspected PR bleeding lacked a PR examination. Logistics: 57% of patients were seen in ED. 15.7% were reviewed within 1 hour (median: 133mins). Conclusions Referrals often failed to meet the needs/criteria of the speciality team. Combining the above with high volume of referrals and logistical challenges of working across multiple areas leads to potential delays in timely patients’ review. Intense workloads create stressful environments which eventually breed interpersonal discord.

Sleep Disturbance and its Associated Risk Factors among Pakistani Athletes

Sleep is increasingly being an integral part of a training routine rather than a stagnant state of inactivity, and as a controllable factor that can modify performance for elite athletes. Athletes report high rates of sleep disturbance especially during intense workloads which directly affects athletic performance and may predispose individuals to injury. This study aimed to evaluate the quality of sleep and the various risk factors associated with it among Pakistani athletes.&#x0D; From February to April 2020, a cross-sectional, multi-center study was conducted involving athletes aged 18 and up, of either gender, from various cities in Pakistan... A validated Urdu version of the Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) instrument was used to identify sleep quality.&#x0D; Out of 205 participants, n=84 athletes were bad sleepers based on PSQI score. Of whom, the majority were males n=75 (89.3%), and having age group of 18-30 years n=71 (84.5%). Binary logistic regression demonstrated no statistically significant association between any of the factor and PSQI score.&#x0D; The study found a disturbing quality of sleep in a considerable number of athletes. Therefore, interventions should be done to improve sleep quality so that the performance of the athletes can be improved.

The Effects of an Educational Program on the Professional Quality of Life and Health of Nurses: A Cluster Experimental Design.

ABSTRACTBackgroundThe complexity of the healthcare environment and intense workloads may negatively impact the health and professional quality of life (ProQOL) of nurses. Prior research has identified a significant association in nurses between ProQOL and health. Developing an intervention to improve the ProQOL and health of nurses may benefit the quality of nursing care.PurposeThe aim of this study was to explore the effects of a compassion fatigue Resiliency, mindfulness Respiration, and Relatives and friends’ support (i.e., 3Rs) educational program on ProQOL, physical health, and mental health in nurses.MethodsA cluster experimental design was used in this study to recruit registered nurses at two regional teaching hospitals in southern Taiwan as participants. The experimental group (n = 67) attended the 4-week (2-hours-per-week) 3R educational program. The control group (n = 57) received no intervention. The outcome variables, including compassion satisfaction, burnout, secondary traumatic stress, physical health, and mental health, were measured at baseline, at the end of the intervention (immediate effect), at 4 weeks postintervention (short-term effect), and at 12 weeks postintervention (medium-term effect). The study was conducted from May 2017 to December 2017.ResultsIncreases in compassion satisfaction and mental health and decreases in secondary traumatic stress were significantly greater in the experimental group than in the control group between baseline and all three posttest time points. Moreover, burnout decreased and physical health improved more significantly in the experimental group than in the control group between the baseline and end of intervention time points (p < .001).Conclusions/Implications for PracticeThe 3R educational program intervention, integrating compassion fatigue resiliency, mindfulness respiration, and support from relatives and friends, had immediate and positive effects on ProQOL as well as physical and mental health. Moreover, the intervention was shown to have short-term and medium-term positive effects on compassion satisfaction, secondary traumatic stress, and mental health. Nursing managers may apply programs that integrate compassion fatigue resiliency, mindfulness respiration, and relatives and friends’ support to improve ProQOL and health in nurses.

The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on the Mental Health of Health Professionals

Objective: To assess the impact on mental health of health professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Narrative review of the literature, of a descriptive character, carried out through bibliographic survey through a search strategy based on the terms: Mental health, Health professionals and Covid-19. Inclusion criteria were adopted: articles published in Portuguese, English and Spanish indexed in the PUBMED / MEDLINE, SciELO and VHL databases published between February 2020 and August 2020. Results: The COVID-19 pandemic established a chaos in all sectors of society, the health sphere was the most affected. The routine of health professionals was abruptly altered by the constant confrontation of an enormous pressure that goes from working in an environment with a high risk of contamination without adequate protection, excessive working hours, frustration, lack of contact with family to experiences of discrimination by a small part of society who see them as potential vectors of disease transmission. Conclusion: The pandemic was extremely harmful to the health of health professionals, affecting their emotional balance. It was shown that the pandemic scenario caused a lot of damage, as these professionals were exposed to high and intense workloads, which caused physical and mental exhaustion, leading to a feeling of weakness and professional insecurity.

POF-SVLM: pareto optimized framework for seamless VM live migration

Live migration helps to achieve resource consolidation and fault tolerance. It transfers VM storage together with VM memory and CPU status. During migration, a dirty page rate also delays the period of live migration, and it affects the performance of migration by increasing migration time, network bandwidth consumption, CPU processing overheads and application downtime. Experimental results after comparing with existing methods of VM live migration, reflects that with high data transfer rate, prolonged migration time and downtime make it infeasible to achieve seamless live migration. This paper provides a detailed analysis of the KVM strategy for live migration. It shows that the KVM iterative copy method, where all RAM data is marked as dirty and transferred during the first iteration, initially generating majority of additional overheads, mainly due to large data transfer. Based on these findings, the innovative Pareto Optimized framework [POF-SVLM] was developed and deployed as a standardized VM storage network, such as the Network Attached Storage (NAS), shared between the source and the target machine. Only the VM primary storage is to be transferred during live migration. Additionally, the architecture effectively monitors all I/O VM requests to determine unique pages in the primary memory that are only transferred during the iterations. All duplicate pages are downloaded directly from the NAS to the target machine. Detailed experimental evaluation shows that the proposed mechanism reduces the VM live migration overheads by 55–60%. Experimental results also shows that the downtime of POF-SVLM based live migration is in the range less than 60 s even for highly intense workloads. This is the most significant contribution of POF-SVLM because since the downtime less than 60 s, the user will not be able to notice it and results in seamless VM live migration.

Measuring the levels of burnout syndrome and empathy of Spanish emergency medical service professionals

Backgroundto determine the prevalence of burnout syndrome among Spanish emergency medical service professionals and establish any possible relationships between their levels of empathy and sociodemographic and/or working conditions. Method550 professionals participated in this descriptive study by responding to the Maslach Burnout Inventory and the Basic Empathy Scale. Resultsrespondents were, on average, 40.9 years old (SD=9.03) and 63.4% were female. Their average length of service was 11.6 years (SD=8.1); 57.9% were physicians, 22.4% nurses, and 7.2% technical staff. Of the 337 who said they had children, 51% said that parenthood affected their emotional state when attending emergency situations involving children. Participants generally considered themselves to be competent (x˙=4.2; SD=0.7) and occupationally motivated (x˙=3.8; SD=1.1). More experienced participants presented fewer signs of burnout and empathy and more signs of competence (p<0.001). Occupational category appeared to significantly affect the presentation of burnout syndrome (p<0.05). Prehospital emergency medical services (PEMS) staff tended to rate their ability to perform their work and interact professionally with their patients more positively than emergency department staff. ConclusionSpanish emergency medical service staff present similar levels of burnout to other healthcare providers but have higher levels of empathy. We found no significant differences in the presentation of burnout between physicians and nurses, but compared to emergency department staff, PEMS professionals appeared to be more confident in their abilities. Educational activities are required to improve professionals’ ability to cope with their work and structural workplace interventions could help reinforce healthcare professionals’ ability to tolerate intense workloads and to maintain their sense that their work is rewarding.

Biological Background of Block Periodized Endurance Training: A Review.

Block periodized (BP) training is an innovative and prospective approach that is drawing increasing attention from coaching scientists and practitioners. However, its further dissemination and implementation demands serious scientific biological underpinnings. More specifically, the fundamental scientific concepts of homeostatic regulation, stress adaptation and the law of supercompensation determine the biological essence and content of appropriate block mesocycles, i.e., the accumulation, transmutation and realization cycles, respectively. Such a separation is intended to prevent conflicting physiological responses and provide a favorable interaction for training effects. Several studies have evaluated the metabolic effects of various training programs, and the superiority of the BP model has been confirmed in terms of significant gains of maximal oxygen uptake, maximal power output and positive trends in athletic performance. It was found that the endocrine status of athletes is strictly dependent on appropriate blocks such as voluminous extensive workloads combined with resistance training (accumulation), lower-volume intense training (transmutation), and event-specific precompetitive training (realization). Evidence from molecular biology indicates the major regulators that determine meaningful adaptive events within specific block mesocycles. Specifically, voluminous extensive accumulation blocks stimulate mitochondrial biogenesis and protein synthesis in slow-twitch muscle fibres, whereas lower-volume intense workloads of the transmutation blocks evoke adaptive modifications in fast-twitch glycolytic and oxidative-glycolytic muscle fibers. Furthermore, such a training program causes a remarkable elevation of myonuclear content in muscle fibers that enables athletes to regain previously acquired abilities. The precompetitive realization block produces accentuated expression of stress-related and myogenic genes that affect protein synthesis and increase muscle glycogen. In addition, such a program stimulates and increases the size, force and power of fast-twitch fibers.