With proper training to more energy and health (eBook)

2. Why should we care about directed training

... because it is simply about your well-being, happiness and performance.

This cannot protect you from accidents caused by others, but it will help you to have fewer accidents yourself and to be healthy again more quickly. For me, my directed training saved my life before the end of October 2020. It did not save me from the mistakes of others, but it made me considerably more resilient to the consequences.

For me, directed sport is a synonym for training, otherwise it's just movement. When I do sport for a goal, I have a structured training plan that I stick to and that is also adapted to training principles in terms of the amount and type of load. Sport equals movement when I do sport according to the pleasure principle without a plan. Movement is always better than doing nothing and it also often has positive effects.

"The organism needs strain and directly resulting stress in order to develop and maintain all tissues and organs structurally and, on this basis, functionally, as well as to organize and constantly secure the economic interaction of the organ systems. Stress and strain are also important so that the organism as a whole becomes, is and remains healthy and efficient throughout the entire lifespan (ontogenesis) in order to resist frailty as a result of the physiological aging processes for as long as possible.

(Klein D./ Laube W./ Schomacher J./ Voelker B.: Biomechanics, Theory of Movement, Performance Physiology, Training Theory) Evolutionarily, we still need a lot of different movements for us or our bodies to function. Conscious movement has an influence on our fertility, our metabolism, our intolerances, our nutrition, our immune system, our perception of stress and depression, cancer, age-related diseases such as dementia, on how happy we are, how successfully we can manage our tasks, how attractive we appear to others and much more.

Nutrition is more than just the energy we have and together with movement an important point also in this book. Movement, thoughts, and nutrition always belong together and so these topics are also always considered together in this book, with the emphasis on directed movement and thoughts.

The first important connection between exercise and nutrition is the following:

Our daily consumption (kilojoules) is measured based on the energy (heat) we radiate. For the following example, we can thus directly set energy equal to heat.

In the example, we compare the generation of energy in the body with the heating of a flat. In both cases we want to generate heat, on the one hand to maintain the operating temperature and on the other hand so that we do not freeze in winter.

Therefore, we can equate energy with heat and food with wood and ask the question: "Can only wood warm us?" Whoever answers yes to this has already thrown the wood into the fire. Wood can only warm us when it burns. So we need a fireplace, a chimney or some other device where we convert wood into heat with the use of fire and oxygen.

As with wood, not all wood burns equally well and some woods produce more smoke than heat and can even have a lasting negative effect on the stove. Anyone who has ever filled up their car with the wrong fuel knows what such a mistake can cause.

Most of us eat more than enough, our energy power plants, the mitochondria, can burn almost anything if they get enough oxygen. Oxygen intake has a direct correlation with our fitness level. If you exercise less specifically, you have less oxygen and therefore much less energy. If there is oxygen, we still need many mitochondria to provide the energy we need. Most mitochondria are found in the active muscles. If we have few muscles, then the number of energy power plants (mitochondria) is reduced, so that we have considerably less energy for activities. Those who (properly) exercise too little have much less energy for their activities and their immune system and are therefore much more susceptible to many diseases.

Just as most of us cycle, walk, run or swim, they build almost no muscle and only minimally improve mitochondrial expansion and oxygenation.

Losing energy is like becoming long-sighted or short-sighted. Only when our arm's length is no longer sufficient to hold the mobile phone or book far enough away from our eyes, or when we can already operate the touchscreen with our nose without any problems - only then do very many of us notice that their eyesight has changed.

Very few, or rather almost none of us, are the first to recognize our own limitations and performance losses. For this reason, we should pay attention to indications from friends and other people who say something about our behavior and not simply sweep them aside.

With directed exercises or training, we can get more out of our lives. More energy means that we can complete our tasks more easily and quickly, and then have more time for our loved ones or hobbies.

A question about what you have read: Did you know that food only becomes energy through mitochondria and that we need muscles for this?

2.1 Grow or die

Let's take a look at nature, because we are a part of it. In nature, something is growing or decaying, always changing in one direction or another.

Again and again I hear from people in my health center or in workplace health promotion: "I just want things to stay the same. If everything stays like this, I'm happy!"

So the kidney inflammation that is just starting should continue to develop like this, the diabetes that is starting to progress, the cancer that is just starting to develop should continue to flourish ...

This is exactly what is meant by the status quo ‘shall remain so’. Everything is in motion in our body, our breathing, our blood and much more, so should it be stopped (we want to die) or what should happen now with the permanent changes?

Even death cannot stop the status quo, it is the start of the even more continuous degradation of our body.

Those who choose to grow can increase their inner vitality through better energy supply and exercise and at the same time ensure the degeneration of disease processes.

Those who decide too strongly (extremely) for performance enhancement (growth) in sport and profession will often tacitly approve the degeneration of many recovery processes and thus have to accept negative processes within themselves.

It is important that old mitochondria are broken down in order to be able to build up new performance strength. We renew ourselves every second of our lives, so even birth and death are not status quo in our lives.

Our muscles need regular conscious stimuli, otherwise they degenerate quickly. If the stimulus is too little, too short or too long, then the adaptation processes of the muscle change significantly. It can even lead to the degeneration of muscles. Degeneration can also occur if the stimulus is suitable but the supply of protein and other building materials for the muscles and nerves is lacking.

Drugs massively support destruction in YOU, such as alcohol or smoking. They damage the rebuilding of cells (mitochondria) and increase the chance that cell malformations (cancer) and other harmful processes will take place in you while the drugs are in your body.

Sorry, even a glass of wine is not healthy. A low-risk dose for one day is 8 fl. oz. of wine or 0.8 oz. of pure alcohol for a man and 4 fl. oz. of wine or 0.4 oz. of pure alcohol for a woman, with at least two days of not drinking anything alcoholic. The low-risk dose does not change even if one drinks alcohol only one day a week. There is no such thing as completely risk-free consumption. For example, a very small amount of red wine has a vasoprotective effect, but this is more than destroyed by the damaging effects on a cellular basis.

Of course, it is allowed to numb one's senses once in a while, but please not under the guise of it being healthy! Rather, we should be aware that we have just actively harmed ourselves and should seek compensation for it. Enjoying something in the community and having fun is very important. But just as the third schnitzel is no longer eaten for enjoyment, the third beer or glass of wine is no longer taken for taste, but to deliberately numb one's senses. Or even worse, to give in to one's addiction.

Something about cigarettes: Nicotine is only one of about 4800 chemicals in tobacco smoke, about 90 chemicals of which are proven carcinogens. These include arsenic, lead, cadmium, formaldehyde, benzene or nitrosamines. Over the years, nicotine and tar in cigarettes have been reduced and replaced...