What happens to your body when you exercise every day

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Briefly

• If you take a break from exercise due to a family emergency, injury, or some other factor, you may lose fitness faster than you think.
• If you have been exercising for a long time and are in good shape, you will maintain your fitness for longer than those who have just started exercising.
• Here are six tips to help you stay inspired about exercise, based on the latest science in motivational psychology.

Whether the disruption is a change in your work schedule, a family crisis, or an injury that keeps you out of the gym for a while, there are things you can do to minimize the loss of your hard-earned fitness.

Even with the best intentions, we all have times when life gets in the way of sticking to our workouts. Sometimes it's just a temporary decrease in motivation that gets in the way, in which case there are strategies to solve the problem.

Some loss of fitness is inevitable when you take a "workout break", but how much you lose depends on a number of factors, such as the length of the break, your fitness level at the time you stop, and whether you stop training completely or just cut back. .

If you're new to working out and just starting out on your fitness journey, research shows that you're more susceptible to getting worse quite quickly if you stop. On the other hand, if you've been exercising for a long time and you're more fit, you'll likely maintain your fitness longer and also regain it faster when you start again.

Just be careful to avoid the reverse error and train every day without any recovery breaks. Your body needs time to recover. Insufficient recovery can be almost as bad as not doing enough exercise. But it usually only takes a few days and rarely more than a week.

What happens to your body when you exercise?

Regular exercise is vital to your health in almost every way, so it's important to keep your break as short as possible to minimize your losses. You don't want your exercise habit to be replaced by a "habit" of not exercising.

One of the key health benefits of exercise is that it helps normalize glucose, insulin and leptin levels by optimizing insulin/leptin receptor sensitivity. This is perhaps the most important factor in preventing chronic diseases. A little exercise every day seems to go further than a lot of activity once or twice a week.

It's also important to try to move as much as possible throughout the day, as too much sitting is an independent risk factor for chronic disease and shortened life expectancy, even if you're fit and exercise regularly. Walking 7,000 to 10,000 steps a day with a fitness tracker can be very beneficial.

Besides the positive metabolic effects, exercise has many other benefits for your mind and body. Increasing your blood volume benefits your brain and cardiovascular system by increasing oxygenation, cognitive function, and neurotransmitter production, which helps lift your mood.

Exercise has also been shown to benefit sleep and sexual function, and has been shown to "turn off" your fat genes. Exercise is really good medicine, but it takes consistency... the minute you start to slack off, the health benefits start to fade.

Getting out of shape happens faster than you think

How quickly does your body lose shape when you stop exercising? In three words - too fast! Anyone who has ever returned to the gym after a moderate absence will likely agree with me on this. A number of studies have examined the process of “detraining,” and there appear to be differences between novices and experienced athletes.

In a recent article, 1 sports medicine expert Elizabeth Quinn mentions a study that looked at fit athletes who exercised regularly for a year before stopping the sport. After three months, the athletes had lost about half of their aerobic fitness.

According to exercise specialist Wayne Westcott, a triathlete can lose between five and ten percent during a break of one or two months. 2 But science suggests it's a different matter for beginners.

Researchers 3 observed novices who trained for two months and whose strength increased by 46 percent. These novices then stopped training for two months, resulting in a 23 percent loss of strength—they lost half of their previous gains.

Currently reading: All about the terribly skinny...

Another study 4 involved sedentary people who started cycling for two months and experienced dramatic improvements in their cardiovascular health. After eight weeks, these new athletes stopped exercising for two months. At the end of this period, they lost ALL of their aerobic gains and returned to their original fitness levels. If you're in great shape and have been in good shape for a long time, you may have accumulated some extra protection, but don't make the mistake of thinking that your continued fitness has no expiration date!

How muscles grow after training among professionals

Experienced athletes who have reached their genetic limit (maximum fiber density and mass) often resort to the hyperplasia technique.

Hyperplasia is a controlled increase in a fixed number of muscle fibers “above” what nature intended. One of the most difficult to reproduce, controversial, not fully studied and, rather, experimental technique, to achieve which it is necessary to spend about nine to ten months or more.

It consists of creating conditions for full cell division - tearing off part of the nucleus by overgrown tissues and creating a separate functional structure from them.

The determining factor that triggers hyperplasia is an excessively high anabolic background, which is unusual for the human body, which can be achieved by training using additional stimulants - sports nutrition and sports pharmacology.

The training is aimed at creating collapse through daily extreme loads with an emphasis on pumping.

Pumping is a high-intensity training complex with a large number of negative repetitions and short rest between approaches, during which more blood enters the muscles than they have time to pump out.

A set of anabolic steroids, peptide hormones, growth hormones and digestive enzymes in various combinations is used as additional stimulants.

Exercising hard when you're young won't help you throughout your life.

Most research confirms that you should get out of the house and exercise, no matter your age or how fit you were in your younger years. Research generally supports the old adage: “Use it or lose it.” Study 5, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, concluded that physical inactivity is indeed a risk factor for metabolic syndrome in retired elite male athletes.

Another study shows that endurance runners who do a lot of endurance training lose muscle mass at the same rate as everyone else, including those who are sedentary—2.5 kg per decade, according to Dr. Westcott.

This is not surprising considering that cardio endurance exercise does not build or maintain muscle mass. To do this you need to do strength training. Strength training is extremely beneficial no matter your age.

A 2011 study 6 found that if you strength train regularly when you are young and continue into your later years, your muscle strength will be easier to maintain as you age. The study also suggests that going to the gym just once a week may be enough for young and old people to maintain past strength gains, so the sooner you start getting in shape, the better.

Study 7 of world-class kayakers highlights the importance of maintaining a regular fitness schedule. Kayakers who quit training completely at the end of the competitive season showed rapid loss of strength and endurance - losing nine percent of their muscle strength and 11 percent of their aerobic capacity in just five weeks.

Often there is no need to give up training at all. You may be able to change your schedule—perhaps reducing the number of days you go to the gym or how much time you spend at the gym—and research shows that this can significantly mitigate worsening conditions.

Mechanism of muscle growth

Muscles are a set of long fibers consisting of cells - myotubes, which promote their contraction and satellite cells, which ensure regeneration.

The growth of muscle mass is responsible for the processes of hypertrophy and hyperplasia, which are triggered in the body during exercise and rest after training under the influence of certain factors.

The main “building materials” for launching these processes are a set of components entering the blood: free creatine, hydrogen ions, anabolic hormones, amino acids, etc.

Reducing exercise is less harmful than quitting smoking

Relatively mild exercise appears to be effective in maintaining at least some of your fitness progress. The kayakers in the above study who simply cut back on one weight training session and two endurance sessions per week lost less than half of what they had when they stopped training altogether. 8

In another study, 9 men who were previously sedentary did strength training three times a week for three months and then reduced it to one session a week. These people retained almost all of their strength gains.

If you need to cut back on your workouts, perform weekly high-intensity exercise to increase your chances of maintaining fitness, even if you can't return to full fitness for a few months.

To do this successfully, you need to train at about 70 percent of your VO2 max at least once a week, Quinn says. VO2 max (also known as maximum oxygen uptake) is defined as the maximum amount of oxygen you can use in one minute of maximal or exhaustive exercise. 10

Your brain can become flabby too

Flat abs and improved metabolic markers aren't the only benefits you'll lose by taking a break from exercise. Two studies 11 presented at the 2012 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting found that the benefits of brain exercise can disappear relatively quickly if you stop exercising.

In the first study, active rats that had just one week of inactivity were compared to completely inactive rats on memory tests. The previously active rats completed the tests much faster and had at least twice as many new neurons in the hippocampus region of their brains (memory center). It is important to reiterate that this change occurred after just a week of inactivity.

After three weeks of inactivity, their new neurons began to decline, as did their performance on memory tests. After six weeks of inactivity, neural and memory test scores dropped further, leading the researchers to conclude that "the beneficial effects of exercise may be temporary."

In a second study, rats that were active for 10 weeks followed by three weeks of inactivity had brains almost identical to those of rats that were completely inactive. This is likely due to a decrease in brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which stimulates exercise.

Currently reading: Muscle is hard to build, but easy to lose

Previous research has shown that exercise has a beneficial effect on the mood of animals, making them less anxious and more resilient to stress, but new research shows that these benefits "quickly disappear." It is impossible to accurately predict how quickly you will lose your fitness if you stop exercising because there are too many variables. However, the longer you remain inactive, the greater the losses will be - you can count on this.

Excessive sitting is dangerous, no matter how many hours you spend in the gym

Occasional daily physical activity is probably even MORE important than going to the gym. The dangers of excess sitting are well documented; sitting for long periods of time is an independent risk factor for poor health and premature death, even for athletes. No exercises have been found to counteract these effects. Research shows that excessive sitting is also bad for your mental health, increasing your risk of depression, anxiety and low self-esteem.

The main thing is to get up often - at least once an hour. I recommend doing some exercises while standing. Ideally, you should avoid sitting entirely as much as possible. Limiting your sitting to three hours or less per day can go a long way in preventing a number of risk factors. Also consider getting a fitness tracker and aim to walk 7,000 to 10,000 steps per day. This is not instead of exercises, but in addition to them...

How and why muscles grow.

Our body is very complex, an incredible number of different processes occur in it every fraction of a second to maintain life. These processes are an adaptation of the body to environmental stimuli.

Next, the main adaptive changes in muscles during training will be described. How and why muscles grow.

The process of hyperplasia (muscle cell division) will not be considered, this is due to the fact that this process is not scientifically substantiated, and all scientific arguments are extremely dubious. Therefore, we will consider what is well known and tested in practice.

First you need to understand the process of muscle cell growth. How and why it grows in size and what is needed for this. Our body is in homeostasis (constancy) all the time, and any stress for it is a problem that needs to be dealt with.

The body does not like stress, it loves constancy and peace, and training is stress. The body will cope in the following way: it will create a margin of “strength” for future sudden stress, and the growth of a muscle cell is that margin of safety for future stress.

Any training stress (stress from strength training) for a muscle triggers muscle growth, but muscle growth requires full recovery.

Growth of muscle cells.

In order for a muscle cell to fully adapt to the load and its growth, there are a number of factors that must be present in the cell (sometimes they are called growth factors).

Growth factors:

• Amino acids are the main element in the construction of all proteins in animal and plant organisms.
• Anabolic hormones - testosterone, growth hormone and insulin.
• Free creatine is a nitrogen-containing carboxylic acid.
• Hydrogen ions are the simplest diatomic ion, H2+.

All these elements must be present in the cell for its full growth. Moreover, it is the specific concentration of each element that is important, so everything should be analyzed in more detail.

Amino acids are the main building material for the full growth of muscle cells. Since the contractile part of the cell, which is subject to growth, consists mainly of proteins. Moreover, if there is an excess of amino acids, those amino acids that the body cannot use for building material will be used as a source of energy. Therefore, it should be understood that too much excess of an amino acid will not lead to accelerated muscle growth.

Anabolic hormones, and primarily testosterone, are one of the most important factors for muscle growth. It is testosterone, after entering the cells, that affects the DNA of the cell and triggers muscle growth.

1. Testosterone – affects DNA, increases anabolism.
2. Growth hormone - affects receptors (transmembrane protein), and increases anabolism.
3. Insulin - affects cell membrane receptors, improving the permeability of cell membranes, improves the flow of amino acids, glucose and micro and macroelements into the cell.

Free creatine appears due to muscle contraction. During muscle contraction, ATP resynthesis occurs due to creatine phosphate reserves (Creatine kinase reaction), which leads to the appearance of free creatine. In this case, the increased concentration of free creatine in the sarcoplasmic space serves as a powerful endogenous stimulus that stimulates protein synthesis in skeletal muscles.

Hydrogen ions actively appear when lactic acid is broken down into lactate and hydrogen ions. Hydrogen ions, as they accumulate, destroy bonds in the quaternary and tertiary structures of protein molecules, this leads to a change in the activity of enzymes and easier access of hormones to DNA.

It should be understood that hydrogen ions at high concentrations can destroy muscle cells, so their concentrations should be moderate. In this case, more does not mean better.

With modern knowledge and medications, a person can control all four factors responsible for muscle growth. The concentration of amino acids can be maintained by proper nutrition rich in complete amino acids. Despite the fact that testosterone levels are genetically determined and are extremely difficult to influence, strength training contributes to a better supply of testosterone in the blood. Also, both free creatine and hydrogen ions can be released only during strength training.

Differences between training for “natural” muscle growth and “chemical” one.

Before we move too far from the topic, we need to tell you how hypertrophy differs from natural training and from “chemical” training.

For a natural athlete, it is more important to release a large amount of free creatine, but the amount of hydrogen ions should not be in very large quantities, since they will greatly destroy the muscle cell.

Also, testosterone is not as important as with “chemical” training, since its concentration is not high, and accordingly, so many hydrogen ions are not needed.

Therefore, all training for gaining muscle mass should be built primarily on creatine phosphate energy supply, in order to increase the concentration of free creatine.

In this regard, the optimal time to perform the exercises is 8-10 seconds. But, of course, it is also necessary to perform exercises in the range of 20-30 seconds, in which anaerobic glycolysis works, to increase the concentration of hydrogen ions.

At the same time, “chemists,” on the contrary, need to work more in anaerobic glycolysis and try to maximize the concentration of hydrogen ions in order to “open” access for testosterone to the cell nucleus.

Therefore, it becomes clear why professionals love “pumping” so much. Firstly, when “pumping”, blood flow greatly increases, and hormones and amino acids enter the cell. And secondly, “pumping” greatly acidifies the muscles, it consumes a lot of energy and increases the amount of lactic acid and, accordingly, hydrogen ions. “Chemists” should not be too afraid of acidification and destruction of the muscle cell, since positive anabolism from hormones will lead to significant growth of the muscle cell.

The theory of muscle growth, which is not relevant today.

The destruction theory is an outdated theory according to which microtrauma of myofibrils leads to their supercompensation and growth.

The essence of this theory is that during training there are microtraumas of the muscle fiber, which during recovery increase in volume with a certain margin of safety, thereby increasing in volume.

Typically, adherents of this theory recommend training so that the next day there is soreness (muscle pain), but if there is no pain after training, it means that the training was mildly irritating and was not effective. In fact, this theory is not correct, for the reason that many do not understand the cause of post-training pain.

Post-training pain indeed occurs due to microtrauma of the myofibrils, but the pain itself does not lead to muscle cell growth. Krepatura occurs due to different lengths of myofibrils, which are not evenly injured when contracting.

After a certain training period, all myofibrils become of uniform length, which leads to the distribution of the load on them evenly, so microtraumas do not occur, and there is practically no post-training pain. But the person still continues to gain muscle mass.

“No pain no gain” is an old American expression that translates as: “Without pain there is no growth.” It was very popular in America during the golden era of bodybuilding. At that time, the destruction theory was relevant, and everyone trained in very large volumes in order to micro-trauma the muscles as much as possible and get muscle pain the next day.

There have been studies of the calf muscles of Olympic marathon runners immediately after the race. And studies have shown severe damage to the calf muscles (a large number of microtraumas of myofibrils), but at the same time their muscles do not increase in size, but only become more resilient due to an increase in the number of mitochondria.

Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is an increase in muscle size due to the growth of sarcoplasm (a non-contractile element of the cell).

This theory is erroneous; sarcoplasm occupies only 10% of the total mass of the muscle cell, and myofibrils account for almost 90%. And at the same time, most of the sarcoplasm is occupied by glycogen.

Naturally, with training, glycogen reserves in the muscles increase, but their increase is not significant and cannot greatly affect the size of the muscle.

Therefore, during strength training, the main growth of a muscle cell occurs precisely due to an increase in myofibrils - the contractile elements of the cell; non-contractile elements (sarcoplasm) have practically no effect on the size of the muscle.

Also, adherents of the theory of sarcoplasmic hypertrophy often use “pumping,” arguing that large energy expenditures during “pumping” lead to depletion of glycogen reserves and an increase in sarcoplasm.

And “pumping” really works, it was described in detail in the last chapter, but it leads to myofibrillar hypertrophy, not sarcoplasmic.

All cyclic sports have much larger glycogen reserves than weightlifting sports, since they predominantly use glycolysis.

The use of glycolysis and depletion of glycogen stores leads to glycogen supercompensation, while weightlifters use creatine phosphate as an energy supply and have less glycogen stores.

Therefore, the sarcoplasm is more hypertrophied (due to glycogen stores) in cyclic sports, but weightlifters still have greater muscle mass.

If you're short on time, try high-intensity interval training

High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is another way to get big benefits in a short period of time. Research has shown that just three minutes of HIIT per week for four weeks can improve your insulin sensitivity by 24 percent.

You can also experiment with plyometrics, supersets, interval cardio, and other workouts. Perhaps exercising at home will prevent you from quitting smoking. Fitness challenges due to icy roads, harsh temperatures and limited gym schedules make winter the ideal time to work out at the gym.

Bodyweight exercises have the advantage of being very flexible and convenient, requiring no equipment, special location or schedule, and the price is right - they're free! Mountain climbers, burpees, and countless variations of push-ups, pull-ups, and squats are some of the most challenging bodyweight exercises you'll find.

If you're just getting back into training after being away, relax. For strength training, start with about 75 percent of the resistance you've been using—and increase as much as you can. You'll be back where you were probably half the time you were away.

“Building materials” for muscle growth after training

To summarize the above, let us dwell in more detail on the “building materials” that stimulate each of the described processes: free creatine, hydrogen ions, anabolic steroids, peptide hormones, growth hormones and digestive enzymes.

• Free creatine and hydrogen ions are substances that are produced by the body itself and enter the bloodstream as a result of stress resulting from stress in the central nervous system. Stimulates muscle growth during recovery after training.
• Anabolic steroids are supplements that stimulate controlled protein synthesis and its subsequent distribution in muscle tissue during regeneration. They are responsible for the process of primary muscle hypertrophy when used in its pure form and their collapse state when used in combination with growth hormones.
• Peptide hormones are pharmacological agents that promote local hypertrophy of muscle tissue without changing its structure and functionality.
• Growth hormones are pharmacological agents that make it possible to increase the barrier between a cell and its nucleus up to 20 times to achieve collapse.
• Digestive enzymes are supplements that help improve the absorption of protein and proteins needed for muscle growth.

How to stay on top of fitness

Staying motivated to exercise can sometimes be as challenging as the exercise itself. If you fall prey to exercise from time to time, Huffington Post 12 suggests the following six strategies to stay on top of your fitness routine, based on the latest research on motivation:

1. Remember to get good exercise - 13 new research shows how powerful memory is in keeping you motivated. Study participants who described a positive memory of exercise were not only more motivated to exercise, but actually did more exercise over the next week than those who were not asked to remember.
2. Don't try to "train"; Exercise instead— a 2005 study 14 found that motivations for exercise are more desirable than for exercise. Exercising is often associated with intrinsic motivations such as pleasure and challenge, and with intrinsic motivation you are more likely to take action. On the other hand, exercise is more often associated with external factors such as appearance, weight and stress management, which tend to be less effective.
3. Avoid working out next to the fittest person at the gym - Given our human tendency to compare ourselves to others, a 2007 study 15 found scientific evidence that your perception of the person working out next to you can influence your exercise habits - at least least if you are a woman. Women who work out next to a woman they perceive as more fit and attractive than they are will cut back on their workouts and report lower levels of body satisfaction than those who work out next to women who are more "average" looking. Even if you don't actually move to another area of ​​the gym to avoid this magnificent bomb, it's worth at least being aware of this psychological phenomenon and monitoring your thoughts and feelings during your workout.
4. Don't motivate yourself to think about your appearance— body image is complicated. Goals like “get rid of my flabby abs” or “cut off the top of my bun” are likely to backfire. A new study 16 shows that excessive attention to one's appearance reduces motivation to exercise. The authors concluded that messages promoting exercise should deemphasize weight loss and appearance. Instead, you should focus on other aspects of body image, such as "body esteem" and "functional body satisfaction" (what your body can do). Other studies show that although many people begin an exercise program to lose weight and improve their appearance, they continue to exercise because of the benefits to their well-being.
5. Making small changes to your workout feels empowering, which increases motivation. Introducing options into your exercise routine will not only keep it new and exciting, but it will also strengthen your sense of empowerment and autonomy. Having a variety of activities that you can choose from on any given day will increase your commitment to your fitness plan.
6. Don't call yourself lazy . The human psyche goes to great lengths, sometimes unconsciously, to live up to its identity. Thinking of yourself as someone who exercises, or someone who is healthy (or whatever workout-friendly lifestyle you'd like to adopt) can help you get into this mindset. Defining yourself as an exhausted, stressed person may sabotage your efforts, but transforming yourself into a "very busy healthy person" can give you a good motivational boost.

Currently reading: 6 Ultramarathon Rules for Success

If the muscles don't grow

In conclusion, here are some simple tips for those who are experiencing muscle growth arrest:

• Limit your energy expenditure while gaining weight. Between workouts, the body should be in a state of relative rest. Recover and grow.
• Carefully plan your training program and the amount of rest in between. Both too infrequent and too frequent exercises with short intervals between them can have a negative effect.
• Don't ignore training individual muscle groups. Especially the legs and back. The largest muscles are located on the legs and back, setting the tone for all the others.
• Adjust your diet. Gaining muscle mass is impossible not only without training and recovery, but also without “building materials” that help them grow.

Author: Full-Fit

Manage Stress and Increase Motivation with EFT

Stress can sabotage your fitness efforts for a surprising number of reasons, including poor coordination, slower recovery, and a higher risk of injury. But stress can also suppress your motivation. The psychological factors discussed in the previous section may seem straightforward, but it may be more difficult than you think.

Perhaps constantly comparing yourself to others is stopping you from going to the gym, or you can't deal with your negative self-talk. There is a tool that can really help with this!

EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique), also known as tapping, is an energy psychology practice that you can learn on your own that helps you release this unconscious emotional baggage. EFT allows you to “reprogram” your response to stress and helps you drown out negative self-talk that can interfere with your success.

EFT can address motivation issues, food cravings, self-confidence, and a variety of other issues. It's easy to learn - even children can do it effectively and reap huge benefits.

You can also study the book “Relax... and everything will be fine,” which presents effective techniques for relaxation and achieving optimal harmony of mind and body.

Sources

• 1 Sports Medicine May 30, 2014
• 2 Women's Health Magazine August 7, 2014
• 3 Women's Health Magazine August 7, 2014
• 4 Sports Medicine May 30, 2014
• 5 Br J Sports Med 2010
• 6 Med Sci Sports Exerc July 2011
• 7 Med Sci Sports Exerc June 2010
• 8 New York Times December 29, 2010
• 9 Sports Medicine May 30, 2014
• 10 Sports Medicine May 16, 2014
• 11 New York Times January 9, 2013
• 12 Huffington Post August 11, 2014
• 13 Memory February 26, 2014
• 14 J Am Coll Health September-October 2005
• 15 Int J Eat Disord July 2007
• 16 Body Image March 2014

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