Corporate Fitness and Active Aging

This blog was written by Veronica Hofmann. Meet our blogging fitness specialists at the NIFS website.

There are so many sports drinks and supplements on the market that it is almost impossible to choose which one is best for an after-workout refuel. There are dozens of flavors and brands of protein shakes, waters, and carbohydrate drinks.

Recently something very simple has been advertised as being a better choice than all of these. Almost everyone has had it before, and many probably still enjoy it frequently without even realizing the benefits it could have when used after exercise. Are you ready? Low-fat chocolate milk!

Yes, believe it or not, science has shown that low-fat chocolate milk contains the perfect balance of carbs and protein that can quickly restore your muscles to their peak potential after you exercise. Low-fat chocolate milk will help you build lean muscle as well as rehydrate after exercise and has been proven to work better than other commercial sports drinks. It also naturally contains some of the electrolytes that are added to recovery drinks.

I was happy to find this information because I try to include only natural foods and drinks in my diet. When looking at the ingredients in sports drinks and protein shakes, there are many unidentifiable ingredients.

I started to include low-fat chocolate milk into my diet for many health reasons. (And hey, let's not forget it's delicious!) I was then randomly contacted by the Refuel with Chocolate Milk tour and asked to work at a local triathlon at their booth near the finish line. They had an amazing setup and I learned all about why low-fat chocolate milk is now a preferred way to refuel after exercise! What perfect timing!

I have been spreading the word about the benefits of chocolate milk for after-workout refueling and it would be a great topic for a corporate wellness program lunch and learn. I am sure encouraging people to drink something that is super yummy and beneficial would be easy!

This blog was written by Megan Jack. Meet our blogging fitness specialists at the NIFS website.

Spring is in the air, and you know what that means: golf season, an event of particular importance to corporate health and wellness clients. The single most important thing you can do to improve your golf game this year is to improve your flexibility.

The Benefits of Flexibility

Limited range of motion and lack of flexibility is responsible for keeping most golfers from reaching their full potential. Simply, the easier and more fluidly your body can turn, the better, more powerful your swing. Stretching is a key element in both injury prevention and peak performance. A proper stretching regime benefits the golfer by

• Developing a smoother swing
• Delivering more power to the ball with less effort
• Reducing aches and pains

Developing a Proper Flexibility Program

Before beginning your round of stretching, complete a warm-up consisting of 5 to 10 minutes of aerobic exercise (walking, cycling, etc.) to raise your body temperature. Studies show that a proper warm-up will increase muscle extensibility and let you stretch more safely and effectively. Stretch prior to play, during play (when you feel you need to stretch), and post play. Follow this flexibility regime:

Knee to Chest: Stretching lower back and gluteal muscles

• Lie on back with body extended.
• Bend one knee, bringing it toward the chest.
• Grasp with both hands behind the bent knee.
• Hold the stretch, breathing for 20 to 30 seconds.
• Repeat on other side.

Cat and Camel: Stretching upper and lower back muscles

• Kneel on all fours.
• Slowly round the back, arching it upward and bringing the head toward the floor.
• Hold the stretch, breathing for 20 to 30 seconds.
• Slowly scoop the back, bringing your abdomen toward the floor.
• Hold the stretch, breathing for 20 to 30 seconds.

Figure Four: Stretching hips and gluteal muscles

• Lie on back with both knees bent, feet flat on the floor.
• Cross right leg over left knee.
• Grasp with both hands behind the left knee, pulling the knee toward the chest.
• Hold the stretch, breathing for 20 to 30 seconds.
• Repeat on other side.

Hurdler’s Stretch: Stretching hamstring muscles

• Sit upright with right leg out to the side.
• Bend left the knee, bringing the left foot in to touch the right inner thigh.
• Reach toward the right foot, holding the stretch and breathing for 20 to 30 seconds.
• Repeat on the other side.

Quad Stretch: Stretching middle and upper quadriceps

• Stand holding onto a wall for support.
• Bend left leg, bring foot toward glute, and grasp left foot.
• Keep knees together and flex your gluteal muscles.
• Stretch, breathing for 20 to 30 seconds, and repeat on the other side.

Pec Stretch: Stretching pectoralis (chest) muscles

• Stand facing an open doorway or corner.
• Bend elbows to shoulder height at sides and place palms against the doorframe or wall.
• Lean body forward, stretching and breathing for 20 to 30 seconds.

Consider starting a golf league within your company. It’s just another way to incorporate worksite wellness into your program!

This blog was written by Mechelle Meadows. Meet our blogging fitness specialists at the NIFS website.

Warmer weather is finally pushing its way into the nation, and many of your corporate fitness members will be itching to take their exercise outdoors. While outdoor workouts are a fun alternative and offer a great way to mix up your programming, even 75 degrees can dramatically intensify a workout.

As you’re rolling out new programs for the summer months―including outdoor boot camps, circuit classes, and training runs―remember to urge your members to take heat precautions.

Here are some tips to design safe outdoor workouts at your corporate wellness center:

• As suggested in this article, try to plan activities or classes around the peak temperatures of the day. From 10am to 2pm, the sun’s rays are the strongest, but the heat can linger throughout the afternoon. Try early-morning or later-evening class options.
• Build more rest/water breaks into your classes than you normally would. With hotter temperatures, the body will perspire more, so remind your participants to always bring a water bottle to these outdoor workouts. When planning the class agenda, build in periodic water breaks for at least a full minute each.
• Keep sunscreen handy. At our corporate fitness center, we keep a few bottles of SPF 30 in our first-aid kit.
• Monitor your participants closely for symptoms of heat exhaustion. Dizziness, confusion, and pale skin can all be signs that a person is overheating. If a member mentions that he or she has stopped sweating and feels a dry, salty layer on the skin, this can be an indication of dehydration.
• Urge your runners to take their pace a little slower than normal. In temperatures over 60 degrees, runners cannot be expected to set record times. Jeff Galloway, author of several marathon-training books, suggests that for every 5 degrees above 60, runners should decrease their mile time by 30 seconds.

Here’s to a safe and happy summer!

This blog was written by Megan Jack. Meet our blogging fitness specialists at the NIFS website.

The deepest part of the abdominal wall―and the most important, specifically for postpartum exercise―is the transverse abdominis. These muscle fibers run horizontally across the abdomen and perform abdominal compression, which draws the belly inward and narrows the waist. It is sometimes referred to as the “internal girdle.”

The Flat-Belly Muscle

After pregnancy or excessive abdominal weight gain, the transverse acts as a splint helping to close any abdominal separation. It is the body’s most important core stabilizer and is responsible for “re-flattening” the abdominal wall. With pregnancy, the abdominal wall has been pushed outward for nine months. It is important to first retrain those muscles to pull back in toward the spine.

A common mistake postpartum is to jump right into crunches, which strengthens the external layers (rectus abdominis). External layers can then overpower the transverse, leaving it functionally weak. This in turn causes the abdominal wall to bulge outward, specifically below the waist. So I encourage my corporate fitness clients to train those abs from the inside out. 

An Exercise for Tightening Your Core

It is never too late to retrain and balance out all of your core muscles. Try the following exercise from BeFitMom.com, beginning with 3 sets of 5 repetitions held for 5 seconds, and progressing to 3 sets of 8 repetitions for 10 seconds.

1. Lie on your back with knees bent and feet flat.
2. Place a Bender Ball between your knees.
3. Place an object such as a toy block or two hockey pucks taped together on your stomach in line with the hip bones.
4. Without holding your breath, squeeze the Bender Ball between your knees and draw the pucks down into the abdomen without initiating a crunching action. Some visualization cues to think about: “Navel to spine” or “zipping up a tight pair of pants.”

As you pull your belly in, you should notice the pucks or block sinking. If they rise as you complete the exercise, stop, reset, and try again.

This blog was written by Dan Walker. Meet our blogging fitness specialists at the NIFS website.

Last time we looked at three of the top benefits of utilizing your company’s corporate fitness center: cost, convenience, and the environment. Today we will look at three more reasons why you can’t afford to pass up what your company has to offer in its fitness center.

Expertise

This isn’t entirely universal, but most corporate fitness center staff members are college educated and certified through a reputable organization such as the ACSM, NSCA, or NASM. This ensures a high level of expertise in helping you to exercise the right way and reach your goals.

Guidance

Many gyms have thousands of members and simply aren’t able to do much more for you than take your membership dues each month. But in corporate fitness centers, programming, classes, and education are top priorities with the goal being to get as many members as possible plugged into what is offered. Your company really sees a return on investment only if your health is improved through what the facility has to offer. You can rest assured that you are their top priority, not making money off membership dues.

Stronger Relationships

Working out with your coworkers gives you a chance to spend time with them in a new and different way. Taking group fitness classes together, working out with someone, or buddy training with someone else are all great ways to build teamwork and rapport outside the office. Often enough, different incentive programs and friendly competitions take place throughout the year, giving you yet another way to build a bond with those you work with.

The health benefits of regular exercise, which you can get at any gym, are well documented. But corporate fitness centers offer much more than your average commercial gym membership. Among those benefits are a better price, a more convenient location, a professional environment, expert staff, more guidance in your fitness journey, and a chance to build better work relationships.

If you aren’t already experiencing all the benefits your company’s corporate fitness center has to offer, go check it out today!

This blog was written by Megan Jack. Meet our blogging fitness specialists at the NIFS website.

Remember the old adage “you are what you eat”; it's more like “you smell like what you eat!” The foods we eat have a direct effect on our body odor.

We all think of perspiration as the main culprit for a person’s odor. (Think of the guy next to you at your corporate fitness center sweating up a storm and smelling less than fresh.) However, sweat itself is odorless. The odor comes from the bacteria on the skin and the toxins your body excretes. Some our favorite foods are responsible for those “stinky” toxins.

Foods That Make You Stink

According to Discovery Health, the following foods are absorbed by the blood and lungs, causing bad breath and body odor for several hours:

• Garlic and onions
• Mint and turmeric
• Blue cheese (and other fermented foods)
• Cabbage and cruciferous vegetables
• Vinegar

Even foods without a pungent odor can cause a strong bodily smell. A 2006 study conducted by Charles University suggests that men following a vegetarian diet were judged as having a more pleasant and less intense body odor compared to meat eaters.

Processed Foods Also Cause Body Odors

Another odor culprit is processed foods. These foods contain little to no fiber, and high amounts of sugar, hydrogenated oils, and refined flour. They leave a great deal of waste product behind after the body absorbs the nutrients. This waste product is then excreted by the body and can create a moderate to strong odor.

Eat a diet high in plant-based foods to keep your body odor in check. More often than not, if the food you eat has a strong smell, you will too.

This blog was written by Kara Gootee. Meet our blogging fitness specialists at the NIFS website.

With spring around the corner, everyone is itching to get outside and enjoy the sunshine. After being cooped up all winter long and stuck on the treadmill, it’s time to change your workout and take it outdoors.

When considering your workout, why not take into account the activities you enjoyed as a kid? Here are five activities that will not only have you acting like a kid, but will also burn those calories!

• Biking is not only easy on the joints, but is also a good way for the less active to get back into exercise. An hour-long leisurely bike ride can burn up to 290 calories while working the legs and glute muscles.
• Softball leagues are getting ready to start, so grab your co-eds or create a corporate team and join a league! A one-hour game of softball will have you working your shoulders, back, arms, legs, and core while burning up to 360 calories.
• Tennis works your back muscles, shoulders, arms, legs, and core while increasing your cardiovascular endurance. A one-hour doubles match can burn 300 calories, whereas playing singles can help you burn nearly 450 calories while covering the court!
• Basketball is another great cardiovascular activity that will provide you with a full-body workout as your run up and down the court shooting your best jump shot. Grab your buddies for a pickup game to burn 420 calories during an hour-long game.
• Volleyball is a great family and friends game that can burn up to 250 calories for an hour of recreational play. Volleyball is another great league activity. Grab your coworkers and join a league for some fun outside of work!

Look for events in your area in which you and your coworkers can take your skills to a friendly competition. The Indiana Sports Corporation puts on the Corporate Challenge in Indianapolis every year, encouraging 4,000 + employees of approximately 100 local companies to train for different events. Much like field days we had as kids in school, there are a variety of events that promote corporate wellness and encourage employees to obtain healthy lifestyles.

*All calories are estimated based on a 160-pound individual.

This blog was written by Mechelle Meadows. Meet our blogging fitness specialists at the NIFS website.

Little did we know when the iPhone was introduced that it could one day transform our total body fitness. Robert Jay Martin has attempted to do just that with his new app, the iLog1, available for iPhone, iPad, or iPod.

iLog1 Tracks Health Stats and Reports Trends

I’ve come across several phone apps and online tools that can track both diet and exercise, but the iLog1 goes a few steps further to enable the user to record their sleep habits, body mass index (BMI), daily mood, and even housework or other chores. The best feature is that the iLog1 charts all of this data to display trends. In any scientific research, or even an individual’s lifestyle change, it’s the trends that are the most telling.

The iLog1 also offers enough customization to be used by skilled athletes, fitness newbies, or even a large company looking to track how many employees participate in corporate health incentives.

Introducing iLog1 into Corporate Wellness Programs

Corporate fitness management has, in the past, used systems of handwritten food journals, paper exercise logs, or maybe certain computer programs to track diet or exercise progress. How could we introduce applications like these into our corporate wellness programming?

While we are not pushing any certain product or brand on our clients, as you’re doing a one-on-one consultation with a member, it could be worth asking whether he or she already owns an iPhone. If so, the iLog1 could be a valid solution to helping the client manage and track his or her fitness goals.

In the corporate world, I believe employees value the convenience of needing only one hand-held device to quickly enter their health stats throughout the day. One quick glance at the iLog1 could tell the user how many calories are left in the day’s budget before going out for a lunch meeting. As busy employees are checking e-mail on the iPhone or iPad, they could also check their iLog1 and be reminded to fit in those 30 minutes of cardio before they go home.

Survival and success of corporate fitness programming depends on offering impactful information and guidance in a technologically savvy, gadget-loving world. Convenience sells!

This blog was written by Dan Walker. Meet our blogging fitness specialists at the NIFS website.

As a Health Fitness Specialist working in the area of corporate fitness, I’ve seen firsthand how beneficial corporate fitness centers and company wellness programs can be. Today I’ll take a look at three of the top reasons why utilizing your company’s corporate fitness center is a no-brainer.

1. Cost: Corporate fitness centers usually offer a significantly lower cost of membership than commercial gyms, if not offered to you for free altogether. Your typical gym membership will cost around $50 per month. If you choose your company's facility over the local gym, you will save $12,000 over a period of 20 years (if it’s offered to you for free)! Even if you had to pay half of the normal fee ($25), you would still save $6,000.
2. Convenience: Whether your company is made up of one building or an entire campus, the fitness center is usually only a short drive or walk away. This sure beats fighting traffic before work, and especially after work when you’re tired and already don’t feel like going to the gym. Sometimes convenience is all someone needs to start and actually stick with an exercise routine.
3. Environment: Most corporate fitness centers have significantly fewer members than your average gym, simply because only employees (and sometimes family) are allowed access. Don't underestimate the value of not having to fight the crowds to get in a good workout. And as much as we all love the children in our lives, not having to fight with them over workout machines (like you might have to with the local high school kids at a commercial gym) can be a real relief.

These are just three of the great benefits of corporate fitness centers. Next time I’ll take a look at a few more of the reasons why I feel passing on your company’s fitness center is a mistake you don’t want to make.

This blog was written by Megan Jack. Meet our blogging fitness specialists at the NIFS website.

Some people believe that there is a benefit to working out on an empty stomach. This concept is derived from the idea that exercising first thing in the morning or in a “fasted state” will cause your body’s energy systems to burn more fat instead of carbohydrate stores. 

Why the Empty-Stomach Workout Doesn't Work

As a corporate fitness manager, I hear this theory on a weekly basis, and it is simply just an urban fitness myth. The main problem is that fat as a fuel source is not the same thing as burning fat off of your body. Fat burning has more to do with the total amount of calories burned than the type of energy your system uses.

Another key problem with this theory is that many times without adequate nutrition, you will not be able to exercise as long or as hard. As a result, you will burn fewer calories.

Benefits of Eating Before Exercise

According to an article by Paige Waehner on About.com, there are additional benefits to eating prior to a workout:

• “It boosts recovery and strength gains.”
• “You can sustain longer, more intense workouts.”
• “It helps you avoid feeling dizzy or nauseous from low blood sugar.”
• “It makes workouts more enjoyable” (because you’re not constantly hearing your stomach growl).

Some of my corporate fitness members feel too full or weighed down with a full meal prior to exercise. Some need a snack prior to strength training, but are fine completing a cardio workout on an empty stomach. What really matters is to find something that works for your body and for your schedule.

Most importantly, don’t go hungry simply because you think you’ll burn more fat. Focusing on your growling belly can cause your workout intensity or duration to suffer and that will in turn reduce your caloric burn.