What actually happens when I don't workout?

ately, I have actually received some messages - be it via WhatsApp, SMS or mail. Most of them had a discreetly desperate undertone and read, for example, "I see how my muscles, steeled with a lot of commitment, are fading away". Often there was just a simple call for help with "Help, I need my workout"or "Please open up again quickly". You can believe me, I understand you completely. Of course, I don't want you to see your hard-earned progress fade away and my whole team is eager to get back on track with you. Well, we always tell you about the sensational effects our training has on your health and fitness, but asked the other way around, what actually happens in your body when you don't train for a longer period of time? I would like to get to the bottom of this question with you. Of course, I will also give you some tips and tricks on how you can counteract "physical decay".

No training means "no reason for your body to hold on to previous progress"

First you have to realize that your, my, as well as Arni's body needs a stimulus or even stressor to develop further or even maintain previous physical adaptations. Why is this so? Our bodies have barely evolved in thousands and thousands of years, yet they are highly efficient. Your body adapts to your life situations and as an organism it always makes appropriate adaptations.

During the growth phase, I could eat whatever I wanted, my metabolism utilized it and built up muscles almost as a side effect. I'm sure it wasn't just me. Until the age of 25, your body continues to build up until you are fully grown in many respects. From then on, unfortunately, you have to do something to maintain your musculature, your heartbeat volume, your bone density and an active metabolism. After the age of forty, it is actually the case that we lose between3 to 5% muscle tissue per decade unless we actively do something about it. And with the loss of muscle, the auxiliary systems that help to supply the muscles also shut down.

What to do about it? Of course, strength training on our machines scientifically gives you the highest stimulus, but while we are closed, there are other ways to give a positive stimulus to your muscles and other organs. For example, a high-intensity workout. Such a workout in the morning empties your energy stores in the muscles.‍

Failure to empty the energy stores of our muscles

Conversely, if we do not empty our stores, the body does not need to provide energy to refill emptied stores. But then where does the energy go when our muscles or other systems don't need it? You guessed it - into the fat depots, because it could be that sometime in the distant future a famine is waiting for us. Your body does not register that you are sitting just 5 steps away from a bulging refrigerator. If your daily energy intake is too high and your metabolic expenditure is lower, due to your current lack of exercise, superfluous nutrients can easily be stored in our cells in the form of fatty acids. You may feel this phenomenon after the last few months of lockdown when you reach for your hips or stroke your belly.‍

The short body HIIT as a positive stressor

We want to give you a metabolic advantage with our short but intense morning and evening workouts. I drink a glass of water before each of these workouts to also stay hydrated and support my fat burning - and off I go. I start with a light mobilization, followed by two rounds of 6 exercises each. It's not about fully utilizing my muscles, much more I want to get my metabolism going and offer at least a little stimulus. Because without having eaten breakfast so far, my body has to provide plenty of energy pretty quickly so that I can keep up with you and the other workouts on the other side of the screen during the short training intervals. In the morning, training on an empty stomach is especially effective because we don't have much energy stored in our blood after sleep, because most of it has been utilized elsewhere. This means that in this"emergency situation" your body has to attack stored fatty acids by means of various metabolic processes such as lipolysis and convert them into energy. The now mobilized energy is made available to the depleted muscles. It is best to drink another glass of water after training, because sufficient hydration supports the chemical reaction of energy production at all times, transports nutrients to the cells, provides minerals, regulates your temperature down after training and ensures a healthy cell tension, where by ultimately fats can be better utilized.

Our short HIIT sessions provide:

• Emptying energy stores and thus increase insulin sensitivity. Since there is no basic muscular depletion, you can perform the short HIIT workouts several times a week
• Increased basal metabolic rate and improved efficiency of energy systems
• Increased insulin sensitivity
• Release of happiness hormones

Cardiovascular system does not have to work effectively and stops making adjustments

Blood pressure and resting heart rate increase. Since your heart muscle, like all other muscles, adapts to external circumstances. Are you now in a permanent state of rest.

Insulin and cholesterol

Cholesterol levels may rise again because your insulin is deposited in the body, because your energy supplied by food cannot be sent to the muscle, why should it, it has not been moved for a long time and its energy stores are as full as your candy drawer. The LDL cholesterol now has to repair the inflammation caused by permanently present insulin. So your high level of LDL- cholesterol is not the cause, but rather a marker that shows what an increased level of inflammation in the body. It is important to understand that this type of cholesterol is solely responsible for repairing damage in our blood vessel walls. This damage occurs precisely when we permanently accumulate too much insulin in our bloodstream.

The solution to this can be brought about by a combination of diet and exercise.Imagine joining a HIIT workout in the morning without having eaten anything.The workout will get your metabolism going and since there is no excess energy floating around in the system, the body can go straight to fatty acids to provide energy. This means that morning workouts in a fasted state will bring a great advantage. Secondly, this short session in the morning will ensure that the following breakfast is processed more effectively, since we actually need the nutrients to supply our muscles, whose energy stores we have just emptied.Your diet is also very helpful to get the problem of elevated insulin and cholesterol under control. Here I would like to recommend the latest webinar of our co-founder Philipp, in which he discusses cholesterol, insulin, omega-3 and other health markers.

No sufficient stimulus on the bone

Unfortunately, the external stimulus to the muscle-tendon-bone system cannot be replicated by conventional training. This is simply because a bone requires about four times its own body weight for the osteoblasts responsible for bone growth to build new bone tissue. This is not an acute problem for people in middle age up to thirty-five, because osteoblasts and their counterparts the osteoclasts (cells that break down bone) are still in a healthy balance. It is not until - or perhaps already? - at the age of thirty-five, the body no longer sees it as absolutely necessary to maintain bone density and bone mineral density. This inevitably means for us that with increasing age it actually becomes more and more important to "trigger" bone growth accordingly.

Lack of"positive" stress leads to lack of stress resilience

I'm sure many of you are currently experiencing an increased sense of stress due to your home office routine. But what is the reason for this and is there anything we can do about it?

Every one of us knows the problem of not getting going in the morning. You might be lying in bed and refuse to get up, even though it's just this one step to the home office. What is the reason for this? It almost sounds like your daily routine is turning into melancholy. There are certainly several reasons for this. Your state of mind and well-being are highly dependent on the hormones endorphin, adrenaline, vitamin D, dopamine, serotonin,

Endorphin and adrenaline are produced in "emergency" situations. However, we rarely experience an actual emergency situation these days.  That's why it's even nicer that we can simulate such an emergency situation by means of HIIT. After all, it's all about providing energy as quickly as possible to either run or fight - but in daily HIIT you're not fighting for survival but rather against the never-ending time intervals and the burning in your muscles.

The step out the door at noon

Typically, you're sure to be on the move for a few minutes by the time you arrive at work.While you're on your way, you're getting fresh air, soaking up the sun rays and, of course, moving your muscles to keep moving forward. When your body comes into contact with the sun's rays, it produces the hormone vitamin D through a chemical reaction. The majority of this hormone is produced this way and only 10% comes from your diet. Interestingly, this hormone has a direct effect on the production of adrenaline, noradrenaline and dopamine in your brain. In addition, vitamin D protects against a decrease in the happiness hormone serotonin. These hormonal connections have already shown in some studies that a lack of vitamin 3 significantly influences the risk of depressive moods or even depression.

"Back on Track" in just a few months

Maybe I scared you a little bit, but maybe it is the right and important impulse to start your day actively in the morning or to end it just as positively in the evening. These habits, which I would like to build together, will help you to regain your "drive". Go out for a walk or do our HIIT, because movement is proven to be incredibly important for body and mind.

Need another motivational boost? After the first lock down, I quickly noticed a peculiarity. Those who stayed active in the lock down had significantly lower strength losses than those who had desperately waved the white flag and waited until they were finally allowed to train again against their former selves atAURUM. The latter were often disappointed with their results after a 7-week break. For me, this is a clear sign that it is worthwhile to keep at it and to fight together against the inner pig. The good thing is that you are not alone. Set yourself a timer, get up and drag yourself to your training mat and I promise you that after a short start-up phase you will be thrilled - thrilled not with the training, thrilled that you are creating a routine to face the lockdown adversity, thrilled how motivated and energetic you suddenly start your day and thrilled that a little thing of just a few minutes can have such a big impact.

But don't worry, even if you don't really manage to build a daily routine with my help, we will quickly reverse a regression. Even if the muscle gradually atrophies for weeks or months without a decent stimulus, muscular memory will ensure that you catch up to your previous successes within about 10 workouts.