COLUMN 70 |
INFECTION EFFECT
COLDS AND FLU ARE AMONG THE MAJOR REASONS FOR PASSING SCHOOL, WORK OR TRAINING. KEEP YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM INTACT SO YOU DON'T LOSE PRECIOUS TRAINING TIME.
Today I train at home in my own gym. Here I have a power rack, a multi-press, an abdominal bench, a cable tower, a leg press and lots of dumbbells and barbells. Because I'm self-employed, I only train each muscle group once every ten days at best. I do cardio primarily on the exercise bike or treadmill - once a week for 30 minutes. As you can easily see, my training intensity has dropped significantly and I've also reduced the weights for fear of injury.
I eat a healthy, balanced diet and have tried every supplement available over the years. I drink about two to three liters of tea or water every day, hardly drink any alcohol and smoke no more than three cigarettes a day. I now weigh about 87 kilos and my muscles from back then have atrophied. Unfortunately, I can no longer see my abdominal muscles, but the layer of fat is not so significant that I don't even want to look at myself in the mirror anymore. My differential blood count was within the normal range a year ago. I don't suffer from any illnesses or physical limitations.
Now to my problem: Then as now, if I train more than twice a week and do a little cardio, I suffer from flu-like infections. This was the case in my 20s, but not as blatantly as it is today. Since I am always forced to interrupt my training for at least two weeks, I am becoming increasingly unhappy... At the moment I work around 70 hours a week - this could be a cause. But the infections were no less even with a 39-hour week.
Currently, I get sick about four times a year for three to four weeks while doing light training! Since I know a lot about medicine, I treat my symptoms as soon as an infection starts to develop. This at least prevents me from being unable to work.
I'm fed up with not being able to train the way I want to. I would like to train three hours a week at a moderate intensity and do cardio twice a week for 30 minutes. I'm asking you to help me with my problem!
ANSWER
You should definitely think about reducing your working hours. Once your physical reserves are used up, it is difficult to regenerate, which is accompanied by frequent colds and infections.
Regular and extensive rest periods are absolutely necessary in order to recharge your batteries and get fit again for everyday work.
- Vitamin C (1-2 g per day)
- Glutamine (20 g spread over the day)
- Alpha-lipoic acid (300 mg twice daily)
- Vitamin E (300 mg per day)
- Magnesium (600 mg per day)
- Calcium (1500 mg per day)
Of course, a healthy and balanced diet with lots of (fresh) vegetables is important. Vitamin supplements make sense (especially if you have a vitamin deficiency), but they cannot replace natural vitamins, only supplement them. Regular meals are also important. With a 70-hour work week, I can well imagine that you skip one or two meals or forget to drink something regularly.
TIP: PREVENT COLDS!
Alpha-lipoic acid even has the ability to “recycle” used vitamin C so that it can be used again.
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