This is how you get a good condition

Effortlessly sprint to the bus or run up five flights of stairs to your workplace. We all want to be in such good shape. But how do you do that? And what does all this play a role in? All facts &figures in a row.

5 misunderstandings about fitness

Condition equals stamina † Partly true, but condition is also about agility, strength, speed and coordination. Together with endurance, these are the five basic motor skills that determine our physical performance.
If you don't exercise, you are not in shape. Nonsense, everyone has a certain basic condition † Even if you have never exercised in your life. Regular exercise can significantly improve your condition.
Your condition remains the same over the years. That would be nice, but unfortunately your condition from your thirties by about 1 percent per year. You can counteract that decline by training.
When you run, you build up so much fitness that you don't have to do any strength training. During endurance sports you use a lot of muscles, but they don't grow from it. If you do a lot of cardio, you can even lose muscle mass.
Being in good shape only benefits your physical condition. No, because you also benefit mentally from it. It has been scientifically proven that with a good condition you more joie de vivre experience and are therefore happier.

Variation is key

‘ It's for your condition It is important that the load is high during your sports sessions, but it is just as important to train in a varied and not monotonous way,' says Ramses Jedeloo of The Bootcamp Club.

Fatness vs. fitness

It is often thought that overweight people cannot be fit, but overweight people who are fit have a better life expectancy than thin people who are not fit. "So fitness is so important," says sports doctor Guido Vroemen. “You cannot say that fitness equals being healthy, because you can also be healthy with little fitness. But if you have excellent condition there is a good chance that your health is also good.'

Q&A with personal trainer Jothan Purmer

Q:What exactly is fitness? A: ‘Condition revolves around two aspects:the maximum oxygen absorption in the muscles and the acidification threshold,' says Jothan Purmer, who is not only a personal trainer but also an exercise physiologist and teacher. “Maximum oxygen uptake refers to the amount of oxygen that can be absorbed by your muscles per minute. The greater this shot, the greater your stamina. The acidity threshold refers to the moment at which your muscles become acidic. The better trained you are, the higher this threshold is. And the higher the threshold, the longer you can train at the same level. For novice athletes, the acidification threshold is around 60 percent of their maximum, for top athletes it goes towards 80 to 90 percent.'

Q:What determines your fitness? A :‘The ventilation, circulation and absorption in the muscles. Your tidal volume and respiratory rate play a major role in ventilation, but usually this is not the limiting factor when it comes to fitness. That is more in the circulation and the absorption in the muscles. Circulation refers to the stroke volume of your heart and the heart rate † The greater the stroke volume and the higher the maximum heart rate, the more oxygen can be pumped through your body. The absorption of oxygen in your muscles is determined by so-called 'mitochondria'. These are a kind of factories:the bigger and the more of those mitochondria, the more energy is available for the muscles, so the longer you can continue. To make that energy, oxygen is needed, and that oxygen is withdrawn from the blood again.'

Q:Why is good fitness important? A:“There is a clear relationship between endurance and quality of life. Your chances of survival increase significantly with better condition. For example, a good condition has a positive influence on cardiovascular disease, diabetes, blood pressure, cholesterol, bone building and absorption of nutrients into your muscle cells. In addition, you are much more productive, energetic and happier if you exercise a lot. Recent research has shown that your cognitive performance also benefits from physical exertion.'

Golden-condition-tips

‘ There is no quick fix, you will have to train consistently,' says personal trainer Jothan Purmer. “Luckily, your stamina is improving rapidly, so you'll notice your heart rate adjusting after just two weeks. But in my opinion it is more important that you exercise persevere in the longer term than achieving something quickly. It helps to find a training that you enjoy.”
'Exercise moderately intensively for half an hour every day:leave the car at home, go shopping by bike, take the stairs,' advises sports doctor Guido Vroemen. ‘In addition to your daily exercise, go running three times a week for half an hour and a half , cycling, skating, rowing or, for example, swimming," advises sports doctor Guido Vroemen. “It doesn't really matter which endurance sport you do for your fitness, as long as your heart rate is around 70 to 85 percent of your maximum heart rate. You can have your maximum heart rate tested or based on the calculation 220 minus your age. In addition, do half an hour of strength training twice a week to build muscle.”
'Go bootcamp,' says Ramses Jedeloo, founder of The Bootcamp Club. "It's a bit like preaching to your own parish, but with bootcamp you train everything a bit:you do sprints, you do strength exercises, you get coordination exercises. That's good, because it improves your overall fitness. Bootcamp is a comprehensive training method in which you train all elements that contribute to your condition.'

Lose weight and get fitter. Does that go together?

The Bootcamp Club founder Ramses Jedeloo:'If you go to the gym, you increase your muscle strength. Muscle weighs more than fat, so often the scale shows more pounds after a few months than before. At the same time, you have lost fat and become tighter, so that you look cosmetically slimmer. My advice if it's purely about your appearance:mentally get over the fact that the scale shows a little more than you wish and look at what you see in the mirror.'

Recipe for condition

Ingredients :Heart, lungs and muscles

Preparation method: “When you exercise, you get your muscles moving,” says sports doctor Guido Vroemen. “These muscles need energy and oxygen. That oxygen is pumped around the heart and must be absorbed by your lungs. That is simply how the engine works. If that works, then you are basically in good shape. But there are degrees. If you can absorb a lot of oxygen and your heart is pumping vigorously, you can get more done in a short time. You see this, for example, with top athletes who participate in endurance sports. The more endurance training you do, the better your condition will be. There is, however, a limit to this, because on the other hand fatigue will also pile up. You can't think:I'm going to run a few miles every day, then I'll get better. There has to be a plan.'

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Self-test:how good is your condition?

'You can predict your fitness with some tests in the gym or with a breathing gas analysis at an exercise physiologist or a sports medical consultancy,' explains personal trainer Jothan Purmer. ‘This is where your maximum oxygen uptake (VO2max) and/or your acidification threshold roll out. You can compare these scores with the norms and averages. But you often know yourself whether you are in good shape:not training, smoking and drinking a lot will not get you in shape. If you train on average two to three times a week, your condition will improve fairly quickly. You can also make a prediction of your fitness yourself, but those tests are not very accurate. You may remember one from the sports lesson from the past:the Coopertest † Run your lungs out of your body for twelve minutes to cover as many meters as possible, of course after a good warm-up. What a good score is depends on your age and gender. But suppose you are a 35-year-old woman, then 2 kilometers or more is a good performance.' You can also keep track of your fitness and heart rate with a Fitbit Incidentally. You can find it here .

The 6 biggest-condition-killers

Smoking , because disastrous for your lungs and the binding of oxygen † Experts agree that little is as bad for your condition as smoking.
Incorrect power supply † For example, saturated fats cause your arteries to clog, which results in less good blood circulation. Also eat enough proteins, because they provide muscle building †
Don't move † Sitting on the couch has never made anyone fitter. In fact:your muscles become less and your condition deteriorates. Goodbye Netflix, hello gym!
Alcohol hinders your recovery process and causes extra muscle pain †
Illness. Your condition will not immediately deteriorate, but after one week it will start to decline. Fortunately, your condition has 'memory', so you can straighten that out afterwards.
Holiday, because you usually move less and eat more, you take muscle strength and stamina, but that comes back quickly when you start training again.

From zero to one-hundred

If you have not exercised before and are therefore not in good condition, it is advisable not to train too often or too intensively. Start by exercising for half an hour two to three times a week at 70 to 85 percent of your maximum heart rate. If you don't have a heart rate monitor, you can also recite the text of 'See yonder comes the steamboat'. If you manage to talk comfortably and easily, then you are in the right place in terms of intensity. If you start panting, you are sitting just a little too high. This so-called 'Talk Test' was developed by the American physiologist Carl Foster. You can also keep up with a sports watch with built-in heart rate monitor.

Nutritional do's &don'ts

The Bootcamp Club founder and sports fanatic Ramses Jedeloo:'Eat as pure as possible. Unprocessed food is better than processed food. In addition, make sure that everything is in balance. Do not eat too many calories, but also not too few and create an optimal balance between the macronutrients that you get. These are:proteins, carbohydrates and fats. If you pay attention to that, then you have your diet in order.'

Text:Fleur Baxmeijer. Source:Ramses Jedeloo, Jothan Purmer † Image:Getty Images