How Your Body Raises Its Performance Ceiling
Things You Didn’t Know Your Body Was Capable Of - Episode 8
We’re going to go against the grain in this one.
When we’re doing something physically or mentally demanding, most people feel they can only go as far as their effort can take them. The truth is, we’re limited by our capacity!
There’s a point, usually invisible, where the quality of what you produce starts to drop. Your movements lose sharpness. Your decisions take longer. Your focus becomes blurry, not enough to stop you, but just enough to dull your edge. That’s not exhaustion. It’s your body quietly enforcing a performance ceiling. And what determines where that ceiling sits, is how much usable energy your body can store and release when demand rises.
Enter, Glycogen!
Glycogen is the fuel that supports high-quality output, physical and mental. It’s what allows effort to stay controlled, precise, and repeatable, instead of rushed and reactive. When glycogen stores are limited, performance doesn’t collapse. It degrades. And most people mistake that degradation as “normal”.
But your body has a remarkable ability: it can learn to store more fuel than it normally would, raising the ceiling on how much quality work you can do before decline sets in.
This is less about lasting longer and more about performing better, with more power, clarity, and control, and being able to do it again tomorrow.
That’s the superpower we’re exploring.
Understanding What’s Going On
Your body doesn’t wait for failure before it adapts. It learns from demand!
When you push hard, physically or mentally, your body relies heavily on glycogen, the stored form of carbohydrates kept in your muscles and liver. Glycogen is what supports high-output effort: controlled movement, fast reactions, sustained focus, and precision under pressure.
As glycogen levels drop, your body receives a clear signal: “The current capacity wasn’t enough”. This is where the upgrade begins.
After periods of depletion, the body doesn’t simply replace what was used. With the right recovery and refuelling, it overcompensates, storing more glycogen than before. This process is known as glycogen supercompensation.
The result isn’t just more energy. It’s higher usable output. Glycogen supercompensation raises the point at which performance degradation begins, increasing the buffer between working hard and working well.
Importantly, this isn’t a one-off trick. It’s a learning process. Each cycle of stress followed by intentional recovery teaches the body to prepare better for future demand. Over time, your baseline capacity rises and allows you to perform at a higher level, more consistently, even when conditions aren’t ideal.
Training for Higher-Quality Output
Glycogen supercompensation doesn’t happen by accident. It’s also not about eating more carbohydrates at random, or pushing harder every day. It’s about teaching your body when to invest in capacity.
The principle is simple: Create demand → recover properly → refuel intentionally.
Done well, this process raises the level of effort you can sustain without losing quality.
Create Meaningful Demand
Your body only upgrades storage when it believes future demand will require it.
That means: sessions where effort is challenging enough to draw down glycogen, not every day, but regularly. This can come from strength training, conditioning circuits, long walks with pace, sports, or mentally demanding physical work.
The key isn’t exhaustion. It’s clear effort. If a session doesn’t require focus or intent, it won’t trigger adaptation.
Respect Recovery
Remember: the upgrade doesn’t happen during effort. It happens after.
Recovery allows your nervous system and muscles to interpret the signal and respond by building more storage. Without recovery, the signal gets ignored; quality erodes; performance becomes inconsistent.
This means: prioritising sleep; allowing at least one low-intensity or rest day after demanding sessions; and avoiding constant “always on” training or work cycles.
Refuel With Intent, Not Emotion
This is where most people miss the adaptation. After demanding work, carbohydrates become strategic, not indulgent. Adaptation tells the body: “That effort mattered. Prepare better next time.”
It doesn’t mean overeating. It means: reintroducing carbohydrates after hard sessions; and pairing them with protein to support repair.
Prioritise timing over volume.
Repeat the Cycle
This is how baselines rise. Supercompensation isn’t dramatic in a single cycle. Its power shows up over weeks.
Each correct cycle: raises your fuel ceiling slightly; delays performance degradation; and improves consistency when stress builds up.
Over time, you stop relying on adrenaline or willpower to perform well. Your body is simply better prepared.
The Bigger Point
This isn’t all about food or fitness. It’s about designing your system so that, quality holds under pressure. Anyone can push on a good day. Few people can stay sharp when days pile up. Glycogen supercompensation is how your body learns to do exactly that.
Next In The Series
Your ability to stay consistent is not just about discipline or luck. How quickly your body can recover plays a major part, too! And that recovery engine lives in your gut. Over 70% of your immune system is built there, quietly deciding whether stress, travel, hard training, or long weeks slow you down or barely leave a mark.
In our next episode, we’ll explore how gut health shapes immunity and recovery speed, and why the people who rarely get “taken out” aren’t tougher, they’re biologically better prepared.
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