Corporate Fitness and Active Aging

Fueling your body before and after exercise is essential for ensuring you will have enough energy to both perform and recover. However, it is important to choose the right  foods, and to consume them at the appropriate time, to optimize your nutrition. What and when you eat varies depending on the individual and their preferences, the type of activity being performed, and whether the food is being consumed before or after physical activity.

Pre-Exercise Nutrition
Ideally, you should aim to eat within 1 to 3 hours of exercise. When you should eat will
depend on the amount of food that is to be consumed. Allow 3-4 hours for a large meal (400 calories or more), about 2-3 hours for a smaller meal (200-300 calories), and one to two hours for a snack (100-200 calories) to digest. Eating too close to physical activity may result in gastrointestinal discomfort or impaired performance. Everyone’s body is different, so try
experimenting to see what time frame is best for yours. Similarly, consume familiar foods that you know will not cause stomach discomfort during activity (common culprits include
fried/greasy foods and high fat/very high fiber foods).

Good pre-exercise snacks/meals include:
● Cereal with fat-free milk and a piece of fruit
● Whole grain toast with mashed avocado or peanut butter
● A fried or scrambled egg with whole grain toast
● Low-fat cottage cheese or yogurt with fruit
● A fruit smoothie

Post-Exercise Nutrition
Typically, it is best to eat within 1 hour of an intense workout. If you’re unable to tolerate
a large meal after exercise, a small snack or meal (100-300 calories) should suffice until you’re able to stomach something more significant. Despite being finished with your activity or exercise, it is still necessary to replenish your energy stores by consuming carbohydrates and/or fats with your post-workout meal. Additionally, obtaining enough protein is important for muscle recovery and repair.

Good post-exercise snacks/meals include:
● A protein shake or smoothie
● Chicken, tuna or turkey on whole grain bread/toast
● Low-fat cottage cheese or yogurt with fruit
● Low-fat chocolate milk
● Hard-boiled egg and string cheese

Don’t forget to hydrate! Consuming a large amount of fluid prior to exercise is likely to cause an upset stomach, so try to stay hydrated throughout the day before and after exercising, and keep a water bottle with you during activity when possible! A general rule of thumb is to drink at least 8 ounces of water for every 10-20 minutes of exercise you complete.

Exercising in the pool is great way to get in a workout! The water helps support you and allows you to challenge yourself! You can safely push the limits of your balance or get a thorough strength workout without putting too much stress on your joints compared to working out on land. Have you ever considered taking your flexibility workout into the pool? Increasing the range of motion within your joints and developing flexibility in major muscle and tendon groups can keep you mobile, promote better posture, and help prevent injuries. All these combine to reduce stress on your body!

People of any age can improve their flexibility and range of motion by practicing flexibility exercises! Seniors can start to see their flexibility grow within a month if they consistently practice two to three days each week, although stretching is most effective when done daily. Older adults should try to hold each stretch for 30-60 seconds and repeat each stretch three times. You don’t have to try to twist yourself into a pretzel to get a good stretch. Small movements or static stretches that help maintain or increase flexibility for each muscle group will do the trick. When you hold a stretch, you should never feel pain and you should breathe throughout the stretch. Hold a stretch until you feel tension in your muscles, but don’t pull so hard that it hurts.

When you first get into the water, be sure and warm up before you start stretching because flexibility exercises are most effective when the muscle is warm. Start by walking a few laps around the pool to loosen up. If you are exercising in a heated pool, that’s a bonus for stretching!

Take advantage of all parts of your pool. Do you have steps leading down into the water? Use the bottom step as an extra level while stretching! A safety bar along the shallow end of your pool? Perfect! Holding onto the bar can help you pull closer into a deep calf stretch. A bench seat along one wall? This way you don’t have to get your hair wet while doing seated stretches.

Try a few of these stretches in the water! Take deep, slow breaths, and stretch both sides of your body. Be sure and stay hydrated even when exercising in the water! If your pool is outdoors, don’t forget your hat and sunscreen.

• Stand at one end of the pool and face the wall. Hold onto the wall for balance. Position your toes and the ball of one foot on the wall. Keep your heel of the other foot on the floor. Straighten your legs, stand tall, and use your arms to pull your hips toward the wall until you feel the stretch in the calf of your front leg
• Extend one leg out in front of you propping the heal on the floor, straighten your knee as far as you comfortably can, and pull your toes up towards the ceiling. Stretch your arms straight ahead until you feel a stretch along the hamstring of your front leg.
• Stand with your feet about shoulder width apart and rest your arms on the surface of the water. Slowly rotate your torso side to side while keeping your hips facing forward.
• Try to clasp your hands behind your lower back and straighten your elbows. Lift your chest up towards the ceiling and raise your hands up behind you as far as you comfortably can.

The pool is a great addition to your fitness routine. Take your flexibility workout in the water and see what you can do in the water!

We all know it’s essential to stay hydrated in the summer and that the best way to do so is by drinking plenty of water. But is there a certain type of water, such as “alkaline” water, that offers better hydration? Here’s what our RD has to say.

Alkaline water is typically fortified with small amounts of “alkalizing” minerals such as calcium, magnesium, potassium, and/or sodium to increase its pH, making it less acidic. The pH scale is used to specify the acidity or basicity (alkalinity) of a water-based solution. The pH scale ranges from 0, highly acidic, to 14, highly basic. For perspective, some everyday liquids and their respective pHs include battery acid (pH = 0), tomato juice (pH = 4), baking soda (pH = 9) and bleach (pH = 13). While pure water has a pH of 7, alkaline water typically has a pH of 8 or 9.

Some individuals hypothesize that drinking water with a higher pH than that of the body’s blood - between 7.35 and 7.45 for healthy individuals - can help decrease acidity in the body by raising its overall pH. However, the pH of the body is tightly regulated by our kidneys and lungs and excessive acid build up is unlikely, unless an underlying health condition is present, such as kidney or respiratory failure, severe infection, uncontrolled diabetes, or physical muscle trauma. Even in cases such as these, a lot more would need to be done than drinking water with a slightly higher pH than that of the body. With a pH of closer to 2-3, stomach acid would likely neutralize the water immediately, regardless of how high its pH. And even if the extra “alkaline” in alkaline water was able to make it into our bloodstream, it would quickly be filtered by our kidneys and removed from the body by way of our urine.

Overall, alkaline water is still water; therefore, it is generally safe for consumption and serves its main purpose: to hydrate you. However, any out of the ordinary health benefits boasted on the label are likely just a marketing tactic. Nevertheless, alkaline water is a great choice for hydration, especially when compared to sugary, high-calorie beverages such as soda, sugary sports drinks, and/or juice. Be sure to stay hydrated this summer by drinking plenty of water - alkaline or not!