Column 58 | Fighting exhaustion

ANSWER

First, you should find out what causes your situation...

A state of exhaustion usually has three causes:

• 1. too much training,
• 2. too little rest and/or
• 3. inadequate nutrition.

Based on your comments, I don't think you're training too much, even though you don't write anything about the length of your training sessions. If you stick to a maximum training time of 60 minutes per session, you can rule out overtraining through the workout.

Since four workouts a week - twice cardio and twice strength training - are actually not too much, your body is certainly getting enough rest. So in my opinion, the only possible cause is diet.

The all too brief description of your eating habits actually suggests that - given the intensity of your workouts - it could be due to inadequate, if not incorrect, nutrition. After training in particular, the muscle cells cry out for quickly available and high-quality food. The faster the required nutrients are supplied, the faster the body enters the recovery phase and then the building phase. The body does not build muscle if the used reserves in the form of muscle glycogen are not fully replenished.

After an intensive workout has heavily used the glycogen stores, the muscle cells especially need QUICKLY AVAILABLE CARBOHYDRATES , preferably in the form of maltodextrin. This ensures a rapid rise in insulin followed by a steady fall, which is optimal for a constant replenishment of the glycogen stores depleted during training.

You should consume one gram of maltodextrin per kg of body weight. There are different quality levels that can be differentiated using the dextrose equivalent. Conventional maltodextrin has a dextrose equivalent of 19, other variants have 14 to 16 ? at MALTO 95 it is 12. The lower the dextrose equivalent, the more constant and efficient the absorption of carbohydrates into the muscle cells.

An optimal supplement to maltodextrin is whey protein or - even better - whey protein isolate, which you already consume. I recommend ISO WHEY WITH ITS HIGH ISOLATE CONTENT and increase the dosage to about 50 grams. The optimal dosage is 0.5 grams of ISO WHEY per kg of body weight.

You can take MALTO 95 and ISO WHEY together in a shake, preferably with still water and not with milk. This is for good reason, because the fat contained in milk inhibits the rise in insulin levels - which is particularly important after training - and delays the absorption of nutrients. Don't worry, most modern protein preparations taste great in water, especially ISO WHEY, as it is developed on a water basis. This is also the case with PROTEIN 96, TRIPLE WHEY AND MEGA PROTEIN the case.

If you continue to feel weak after taking maltodextrin and L-glutamine, you can try taking the L-glutamine several times throughout the day. I do this especially in the winter months or when dieting to prevent colds. IN CONJUNCTION WITH VITAMIN C There is hardly a more effective combination!

Of course, your daily diet should also be goal-oriented (unfortunately, many athletes overestimate their diet). Many of my previous columns will certainly help you to maintain a suitable diet. So much for now: your diet should be rich in protein and carbohydrates - more or less carbohydrates, of course, depending on your goal.

Good, unsaturated fat is also a must. Many athletes reduce their fat intake too much - with fatal consequences, such as a drop in metabolism and a deterioration in fat mobilization and fat breakdown. Continue to pay attention to a ADEQUATE INTAKE OF VITAMINS , which are particularly found in fruits and vegetables and also play an important role in regeneration.

You regularly change the intensity of your training by training less hard for a few weeks. But it would be better to take a complete break from training after a certain intensive training phase (for example after twelve weeks). This should last about a week. This allows you to recover holistically, because if you train hard and put your muscles under intense strain, you need to give them a break every now and then in order to make lasting, successful progress.