Endurance, why is it so important for performing and everyday life…

Endurance qualities are classified into aerobic and anaerobic characteristics based on the duration of performance and the level of load, or intensity. 

Aerobic work occurs with the help of oxygen, while anaerobic work takes place without oxygen, when the load increases to the point where the body can no longer utilize oxygen to produce the mechanical energy required for the task. In practice, mechanical energy refers to maintaining posture (static muscle work) or movement (dynamic muscle work).

This might give the impression that these aspects of energy production apply only to athletes, working on their jumps, tendus, backflips, backlevers, and so on but that is not the case. Prolonged sedentary behavior in everyday life can, over time, amount to the equivalent of an athletic performance—especially when considering the fact that the overall physical fitness in the general population has been on the decline for quite some time now and daily sedentary lifestyle includes no real rest days or recovery periods. Typing on a computer keyboard often continues for several uninterrupted hours, and recovery is then attempted, instead of taking a walk for instance (that would promote cardiovascular fitness), with painkillers and muscle relaxants. Short term pain relief, of course, do not in any way improve, for example, the muscles' oxygen uptake capacity or replenish the myoglobin stores in the muscles responsible for maintaining our upright posture—especially when even the moments spent picking up children from daycare or school are spent sitting still in a car, and the rest of the journey children get accustomed to the habit of staring at a phone screen.

The capacity of the energy production systems to effectively utilize oxygen delivered via the circulatory system to skeletal muscles enhances both the efficiency of energy metabolism and the body’s ability to oxidize fat as a fuel source. During interval training, improvements in this capacity facilitate faster replenishment of intramuscular oxygen stores during recovery periods. Enhanced recovery from high-intensity bouts increases the potential to perform additional quality work intervals within a training session.

Moreover, improved muscular oxygen uptake supports greater physical resilience in daily life, as oxygen is more effectively extracted at the muscular level rather than returning unused to the lungs via the venous system. A high maximal oxygen uptake (VO₂max) alleviates the perceived effort of routine physical tasks, thereby reducing fatigue during everyday activities.

These adaptations may also contribute to improved psychological outcomes associated with physical activity. Notably, endurance training has been shown to attenuate the activity of the sympathetic nervous system at rest, a physiological change that plays a significant role in enhancing mental well-being and reducing stress-related responses.

ONCE A DANCER, ALWAYS A DANCER! Just keep up!

You often hear the saying "Movement is medicine" in today’s regular talk about exercise and health. It really sums up how we see physical activity in today’s world—where most of the western society spends hours sitting still just to get through work and take care of life’s responsibilities. But if this is the case, the road towards those eagerly waited golden retirement years might end up being short and bumpy. If we treat exercise, not like a lifelong companion, but like a prescription pill, it might feel like a poison when everything you’ve taken for granted has already started crumbling. If your physical fitness starts falling apart by your forties, you're not dancing toward retirement—you’re crawling.

From a public health point of view, treating movement as a mandatory dose just to keep the society functioning doesn’t really support long-term well-being or help working people stay strong mentally or physically. In the long run, even the ability of working people to pay taxes could take a hit—especially if joint and muscle problems lead to other issues, like a serious drop in other health metrics like for instance your maximum oxygen uptake.

Right now, the average working person who does a bit of Nordic walking can handle about six hours of physical work a day before running out of steam. But for many, their VO₂ max (how much oxygen your body can use) is only a third of what it could be with some consistent training.

When just keeping your basic metabolism going starts to feel like a workout, the health benefits of exercise might not even show up anymore. You can’t rely on your aerobic system alone to burn calories if your resting heart rate is constantly through the roof and getting out of bed feels like it might trigger a heart attack—or a full-blown angel choir in your ears.

At that point, it’s worth asking yourself: Am I okay with who I am as is, or could I be okay with slightly better cholesterol levels and blood pressure too? Sometimes, it’s harder to change our habits and attitudes than our genes. But even though you can’t change your genetics, the choices you make every day can still influence how those genes affect your life. And if you were born as a dancer, just keep dancing. You were born with a gift that keeps giving if you continue to use it.

Carbs, calories and CAT VIDEOS; not all calories were created equal…

A calorie can, in practice, mean very different things depending on the source of those often unidentifiable lumps that gravitate towards your mouth. While choosing a box of cereal or a carton of milk at the store, it’s worth considering the energy intake in relation to the nutritional value. Often, these two aspects of food are inversely related—when the calorie load skyrockets, the amount of nutrients and minerals essential for health may vanish almost completely from each bite.

ARE CARBS REALLY THE COURSE OF ALL EVIL THAT HAPPENS IN THE BODY

Many people fear carbohydrates because they've maybe watched a YouTube performance piece by some internet guru claiming that carbohydrates cause weight gain. So should carbohydrates be replaced by (saturated) fats, which contain more than twice the calories compared to carbs or protein? Or would it be better to occasionally pay attention to food quality before it enters your mouth, since the quality of carbohydrates partly determines how many of the calories listed on the cereal box your body actually absorbs—and potentially stores?

In this instance it’s probably good to keep in mind that there are several important functions for carbohydrates in human body:

1. They maintain stable blood sugar levels – especially glucose helps regulate blood sugar and provides steady energy.

2. Primary energy source for cells (especially the brain) – the brain primarily uses glucose for energy.

3. Spare proteins – sufficient carbohydrate intake prevents the breakdown of muscle proteins for energy.

4. Necessary for fat metabolism – carbohydrates are needed for the complete oxidation of fatty acids ("fats burn in the flame of carbohydrates").

5. Participate in cell-to-cell communication – carbohydrate chains on cell membranes act as recognition elements.

6. Serve as structural components – e.g., glycoproteins in cell membranes and proteoglycans in connective tissues

WHERE THE ENERGY IS STORED

It's also worth thinking about whether you want that energy stored, for instance, as fat tissue or as protein mass. This, too, affects overall consumption and calorie mathematics. Not all products only contain energy—some even have added nutrients. But if grocery shopping is done wandering between shelves while staring more at your phone screening intense cat acrobatic videos or less entertaining but all cosuming work emails, there may not be much capacity left for making quality choices.

And lets talk about the childhood. The obvious risk of growing up with soda can on one hand and pizza slice on the other is that children grow into adulthood not just overweight but also malnourished. But there’s more! If there’s always Coke available as a mealtime drink in the fridge, it also fuels game addiction much more effectively than far lower-calorie tap water. Add on top of this slowly ticking calorie bomb the constant stressors keeping the nervous and endocrine systems on high alert—like social media’s illusions of what’s possible and worth pursuing—and before we know it, we're hit not only with metabolic syndrome and musculoskeletal diagnoses, but also a nice cocktail of various psychological symptoms.

And in conclusion, this excessive hoarding of calories doesn’t just burden ourselves and those close to us—it also puts enormous pressure on the environment as accelerating addictions take over more agricultural land across the world.

Building a Sustainable Lifestyle in performing arts: Four behaviourial Pilars to build A SUCCESFULL performing arts career…

1. INDIVIDUALITY

The importance of individuality cannot be overstated. Nowadays tho, there's so much advice, information, and promises coming from every direction that finding your own path isn't necessarily easy. When different channels are packed with uberfit beachbarbie contenders and bearded lifestyle gurus, it’s almost impossible to find a workout that truly works for your specific goals. And the truth is, even the coolest pair of new cycling shorts won’t help you to improve your VO2 max if you hate cycling.

2. CONSISTENCY

If you do manage to find your thing or model that works for you, the next step to consider is consistency. And to be more specific, what drives progression is consistent overload. This doesn't mean that the improvement of your aerobic endurance happens by taking a daily lap around the house with two cigarettes in your mouth insted of just one or max strenght is hitting the gym once a month with two-kilo dumbells with consistently worsening lifting form. Consistent, health-promoting physical activity is, first of all, as regular as mealtimes, and exercise should involve real movement—not just standing around or flailing your arms. Even just the recovery from any type of stress recquires more than just elevated heartrate that your mobile device feed can easily produce.

3. PATIENCE & LONG-TERM COMMITMENT

A gym binge in January doesn't support a healthy lifestyle if your recovery period lasts the next eleven months. If going to the gym isn’t your thing, you could get a kettlebell and a yoga mat for home workouts. That way, YouTube might become a source of something more useful than just cute cat videos or prank compilations.

4. HOLISTIC APPROACH

Once you've got the first three down, it's time to start thinking about the bigger picture. When the motivation for hitting your performance targets with resistance training has been found, when the challenge of status quo is underway, and the new habits are starting to stand on their own (not just on shaky legs), it’s time to expand the scope. This means taking a closer look at other things like what you're eating, your bedtime routines, and what kind of body care and recovery practices you're incorporating.

These four principles are worth setting in stone to ensure your progress doesn't collapse at the first setback. It's also good to remember that slip-ups are inevitable—and they’re a vital part of the journey. So don’t be too hard on yourself when that chocolate bar accidently slides down your throat when the intention was to swollow something more nutritious completely different. Acceptance and psychological flexibility should walk together with your determination to change your habits for better.