When most people think of muscle building, they think of strenuous workouts in the gym to train their stomach, legs, arms, upper body and bottom.Did you know that the term "muscle" is derived from the Latin "musculus", which means "little mouse"? People came up with it because that's what a tense muscle looks like under the skin.

A cute name for something without which we could not exist. Muscles work in vital organs such as the heart, lungs and digestion. They not only make our heart beat, they also drive us and provide warmth. Together with our skeleton, they form a marvel - our musculoskeletal system.

If our muscles atrophy or are used insufficiently or incorrectly, we are at risk of postural damage and pain.

So there are good reasons to support and strengthen our muscles. After all, we are getting older and older and still want to be active in old age.

Interesting facts about muscles

• There are around 650 muscles in our body
• The most important muscle is the heart muscle
• The strongest muscle is our chewing muscle
• The largest muscle is called the gluteus maximus - our butt muscle
• The smallest muscle is in the ear: it is called the stapes and is just under 1 millimeter long
• The fastest muscle is the eye ring muscle
• From the age of 30, we lose 1% muscle mass per year if we don't exercise regularly. The older we get, the more important it becomes to be active
• Around 80% of adults suffer from back pain once or several times in their lives. 85% of the pain is harmless and harmless, around 90% goes away on its own within a few days or a few weeks

Why are muscles so important?

Muscles are important for our health in many ways:

• Muscles prevent pain
• They help you lose weight
• Muscles produce heat and therefore make you feel cold less often
• They protect bones and joints

Building muscle through exercise

Often our time and life situation don't allow us to go to the gym every day. And we don't have to. Even small tricks in everyday life train your muscles and can prevent pain:

Tips for everyday life

• The classics

Climbing stairs instead of taking the elevator, cycling instead of driving, incorporating small exercises into everyday tasks, e.g. walking up and down on tiptoe while brushing your teeth. This is called the calf rocker and not only trains muscles, but also blood vessels.

• Smart hack

Train the largest muscle. You can do butt exercises anytime and anywhere: Simply squeeze your buttocks tightly together, hold for 10 seconds and relax again, repeat 10 times.

• Clever hack

Who needs a gym: use your own body weight - for example for push-ups or planks, turn water bottles into dumbbells, walk or jog in the fresh air to clear your head. There are also many free offers, whether as an app or video, for every age group and fitness level to to do great mini-workouts at home.

• Office fit

Stand up more often, e.g. while on the phone. Take a short walk during your lunch break - physical exercise also boosts your mental performance.

Quick office exercise for in between: sit upright, rest your arms on the table or your thighs and lift your bent knees off the floor. Hold your legs in the air for 10 seconds, 5-10 repetitions. Make sure that you don't bend your back too far backwards.

Regeneration when building muscle

It is important that you allow your muscles time to recover, because they need to be able to regenerate in order to grow at all. After each training session, the stressed muscles should be allowed to rest for at least 24 hours, preferably 48 hours. If you continue training too soon, you run the risk of overtraining. Overtraining does not give the body the chance to regenerate its performance.

Incidentally, sore muscles are part of muscle building. You feel muscle soreness when your muscles have micro tears. It is important not to overdo it, otherwise there is a risk of muscle injury. If you have sore muscles, you should give your muscles a break and not continue training straight away.

Recovery can be accelerated by getting enough sleep (at least 7 hours) and taking a cold shower after training.

What do our muscles need?

The right nutrition for building muscle

Muscle tissue consists of water and is therefore dependent on an optimal supply of fluids.

We can also do our muscles good by eating the following foods:

• Salad and vegetables (high water content)
• Eggs (contain essential amino acids, building blocks of protein - this supports muscle building)
• Low-fat quark (good ratio of calories and protein)
• Chicken breast (low in calories and high in protein)
• Pulses such as lentils or beans (contain vegetable protein and zinc)
• Berries (their antioxidants and vitamins support muscle growth)
• Fish (an important source of protein)
• Nuts, e.g. almonds (contain protein and important polyunsaturated fatty acids)
• Olive or rapeseed oil

Vitamins and minerals

Vitamin D is very important for bones and muscles. However, our body can only produce the so-called "sun vitamin" if there is sufficient sunlight on the skin. As our daily lives often take place in the office, the intake from food alone is often insufficient. In addition, the body's own production of the vitamin decreases with increasing age.

This can be compensated for with food supplements such as our vitamin D3 drops VITA D3 liquid.

Muscle strength is a fat killer

Our body needs energy (=calories) around the clock. The muscles consume a large proportion of this. If we simply consume fewer calories, this can slow down our metabolism - we lose weight more slowly or not at all. It is better to increase the calorie requirement through muscle training: The more muscle mass you have, the more calories you burn. Clever, isn't it?

Regardless of age, situation and condition, we should always remember who is carrying us through life. So let's do something good for our muscles more often!