Turn your muscles into an immune booster! During training, your muscles produce messenger substances: so-called myokines.
Myokines protect you against diseases and act as a “charging station” for your immune system. The Immunity Boost program has a unique intensity and progression tailored to release myokines, while also preventing your body from entering a state of stress that could increase your risk of infection. In this way, your muscles can be amazing protective organs. Give your muscles the power to become the ultimate immune booster with EGYM+ immunity boost training!

Your immune system can be trained. The immune system is the body’s defense against infections, fighting germs and helping us stay healthy. A strong immune system reduces the risk of infections and also helps your body fight illnesses, making the course of the disease less severe. A healthy lifestyle can have a major impact on the efficiency of your immune system. Exercise, along with nutrition, is one of the most important levers for strengthening your immune system (Nieman 2020).
An important part of your immunity is the lymphatic system. Its primary function is to transport lymph, a fluid containing infection-fighting white blood cells, through the body. Muscle lengthening and contractions act as a lymph pump and increase lymph flow (Havas et al. 2002).

Strength training releases myokines, hormone-like messenger substances that have a protective and rejuvenating effect on the immune system (Nieman and Wentz 2019). The higher the intensity of the training, the more myokines are released. Strength training with the right training stimulus also increases your muscle mass, and more muscles can release more myokines!

But training can also cause the so-called open window effect, where the function of the immune system is weakened shortly after training. A higher training intensity is also associated with a larger open window effect. A cool down with light cardio training can help reduce this effect and speed up recovery (Hooren and Peake 2018).

Old age and an unhealthy lifestyle have a negative effect on the immune system. The right amount of exercise improves the defense against viruses. Source: Sciencedirect (Nieman 2020).

The EGYM+ recipe for strengthening immunity. The EGYM+ Immunity Boost program balances training intensity and progression to release as many protective myokines as possible without putting the immune system in a weakened state.

Each workout includes a warm-up, a muscle-strengthening section, and a light cardio cool down. During the warm-up, which includes stretching exercises for increased lymph flow and improved breathing capacity, you activate your immune system and prepare for the subsequent strength training. The muscle-strengthening part is designed so that your muscles release as many myokines as possible without being too strenuous. In the cardio cool down, your body speeds up recovery and reduces the open window effect.

Optimal strength training. Muscle strengthening is the main component of the program and follows EGYM+ principles to provide effective, safe, and standardized training that results in reproducible and predictable results. The best result is achieved when the training is performed with EGYM+ Smart Strength equipment.

EGYM+ intensity control: There is a risk of overtraining and thereby extending the time window of immune suppression. Especially “boot camp-style” training programs that push you to the limit can be risky. EGYM+ automatically sets the training weight based on an isokinetic strength test that is repeated every six training days. This allows for very precise training stimuli that stimulate myokine release and muscle growth without weakening the immune system, which is almost impossible to achieve without EGYM+ tools. Additional training principles such as short breaks between sets after a few repetitions let the muscles “breathe” and lower the perceived exertion. With EGYM+ Smart Strength training, high myokine release combined with low perceived exertion is achieved.

EGYM+
program standardization: The training is fully standardized and execution is monitored by live feedback, the EGYM+ curve, making it super easy to follow the program for all types of user groups, but especially for 50+ users. The system ensures that every repetition, set, and progression follows the training principles exactly. Member compliance with the unique program is much higher than with any other conventional prescription from a trainer via paper or just an app.

Unique program design: The strength training is designed for 12 weeks with a training frequency of 2 sessions per week. It contains four main phases of about 3 weeks each that create an intensity progression that optimizes program compliance and efficiency.

References

The Journal of Physiology:
“Lymph flow dynamics in exercising human skeletal muscle as detected by scintography.”
Reference: Havas et al. (2002)

Sports Medicine:
“A Narrative Review of the Psychophysiological Effects and the Effects on Performance, Injuries and the Long-Term Adaptive Response.”
Reference: Hooren and Peake (2018)

Journal of Sport and Health Science:
“The compelling link between physical activity and the body’s defense system.”
Reference: Nieman (2020)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095254620300600

Physiotherapy:
“Does Intercostal Stretch Alter Breathing Pattern and Respiratory Muscle Activity in Conscious Adults?”
Reference: Unknown

Journal of Sport and Health Science:
“A tocsin to our aging, unfit, corpulent, and immunodeficient society.”
Reference: Nieman and Wentz (2019)