Kolumne 70 | Infekt-Effekt - Demo-Frey-Nutrition

Column 70 | Infection effect

70. INFECTION EFFECT

COLUMN 70 |
INFECTION EFFECT

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.

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Column 70 - Infection effect
I have been bodybuilding since I was 19. I am now 35 years old and I still really enjoy training. I trained with a training partner in a gym for a long time and was able to improve my performance steadily. I weighed 100 kilos, was 1.77 meters tall and had a body fat percentage of 12 percent. I did deadlifts of 260 kilos and squats of 240 kilos. I trained three to four times a week: primarily using the HIT system, sometimes with higher volume, but always with intensity techniques.

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

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Andreas Frey answers
First of all, I recommend that you have your GP do a complete blood count. This will help rule out some of the possible causes of your symptoms or identify any chronic conditions.

8-9 hours of sleep per night is optimal
It is important that you go to an experienced doctor and describe your problems in detail so that he or she can check other values ​​that may be important.

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.

Exercise (especially aerobic exercise) increases heart and breathing rates and core body temperature. All of this can help increase the number of white blood cells, which fight infection.
Listen to your body's warning signals! In the worst case scenario, a cold that is left untreated can lead to a long-term inflammation of the heart muscle, which can keep you in bed for weeks or even months. And if you can't justify cutting back on work, then you should consider handing over work to others...
Vitamin C and alpha-lipoic acid are powerful antioxidants that help prevent infections.
Cardio training strengthens the heart and immune system
Even if you have tried pretty much everything the market has to offer, I would like to recommend the following supplements that have been proven to have a positive effect on the immune system and can help with your problem:

  • 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.

Plant foods (especially dark green, red and yellow) are rich in antioxidants and can strengthen the immune system.
There is one thing you should place the greatest value on: plenty of restful sleep (seven to eight hours per night). You can try to compensate for a lack of sleep by taking a nap in the afternoon. Your body will thank you with better performance and fewer infections!

TIP: PREVENT COLDS!

In particular VITAMIN C and ALPHA-LIPOIC ACID are powerful antioxidants that play a key role in maintaining the health of the body and cells.

Alpha-lipoic acid even has the ability to “recycle” used vitamin C so that it can be used again.

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This will then be answered personally by Andreas Frey in the form of a column and published here!

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