Corporate Fitness and Active Aging

With the warmer summer months, it's the most prominent time when dehydration can become a big health issue and roadblock, especially if you are exercising outdoors. The heat and humidity can make it difficult to maintain a healthy balance of fluids in the body. That's why staying hydrated is not only important for your health but also for your fitness goals. 

The Importance of Staying Hydrated

Water is essential for the proper functioning of our bodies. It regulates body temperature, helps transport nutrients, and removes waste. When we don't drink enough water, our bodies can become dehydrated, which can lead to serious health problems. Mild dehydration can cause headaches, fatigue, and dry skin, while severe dehydration can lead to heatstroke, seizures, and even death.

During the summer months, we are more likely to become dehydrated because we lose more water through sweating, and we may not be aware of how much water we are losing. Additionally, the heat can cause us to lose our appetite, which can make it harder to stay hydrated.

Exercising in the Heat and Hydration

Exercising in the heat can also have a significant impact on hydration levels. When we exercise, our bodies generate heat, and we sweat to cool down. This process can cause us to lose a lot of water, which can lead to dehydration if we don't replenish the lost fluids.

When we exercise in the heat, the risk of dehydration is even greater. This is because we lose more water through sweating, and the hot air can make it harder for our bodies to cool down. Additionally, if we are not used to exercising in the heat, our bodies may not be able to adjust to the higher temperatures, which can make us more susceptible to dehydration.

Staying Hydrated Through Water and Electrolytes

Drinking enough water is the most important thing you can do to stay hydrated. It's important to drink water before, during, and after exercise, especially if you're exercising in the heat. Aim to drink at least eight cups of water a day, and more if you're exercising or spending time outside.

Electrolyte replacement drinks like Gatorade, Powerade, Body Armor, or PRIME can also help you stay hydrated. When we sweat, we not only lose water, but also lose electrolytes like sodium, potassium, and magnesium. These electrolytes are essential for proper muscle and nerve function, and if we don't replace them, we can become dehydrated. You can use electrolyte replacement drinks to replenish these electrolytes.

5 Strategies to Stay Hydrated

Here are five strategies to stay hydrated during the summer months:

1. Drink water before, during, and after exercise. You should aim to drink at least eight cups of water a day, and more if you're exercising or spending time outside.
2. Use electrolyte replacement drinks. These drinks can help replenish electrolytes lost through sweating.
3. Plan your exercise routine. Try to exercise early in the morning or later in the evening when temperatures are cooler. If you must exercise during the hottest part of the day, take frequent breaks and drink plenty of water.
4. Wear appropriate clothing. Choose lightweight, breathable fabrics that allow sweat to evaporate, which can help you cool down more. Additionally, wearing a hat or visor can help protect your head from the sun, which can also help regulate your body temperature.
5. Eat hydrating foods. Besides drinking water, you can also eat foods that are high in water content, such as watermelon, and cucumbers.

Staying hydrated is essential for maintaining good health and achieving your fitness goals, especially during the summer months. Drinking enough water, replenishing electrolytes, and planning your exercise routine can help you stay hydrated. And don't forget to wear appropriate clothing and eat hydrating foods! Remember, staying hydrated doesn't have to be a chore. It can be fun and easy to do. So, drink up, and enjoy the summer sun!

Are you striving to accomplish a new health goal this new year? Whether it is eating healthier, exercising more, or beginning a new health routine, you will need to create habits to help you achieve your goal. When deciding on which habits you want to form heading into the new year, you may want to first consider WHAT a habit is. A habit is a behavior that is repeated on a regular basis whether it is an action, routine, or lifestyle and often we don’t even think about it.

So, why do you want to form that habit? How will it help you accomplish your health goals? Finding the motivation to form healthy habits can sometimes be the most challenging part of accomplishing that New Year’s Resolution you’ve been promising yourself. To be successful in forming that healthy habit, you first need to understand what motivates you and how that will impact the outcome. To find your motivations, first ask yourself:

What are you motivated by internally and externally?

• External Motivations:
  • Seeing physical results – weight, circumferences, toned muscles, mileage
  • Paying for a service to help you in achieving your goals
  • Receiving a discount for striving to be healthy – going to the gym, attaining healthy lab results
• Internal Motivations:
  • Boosting your confidence and feeling good about yourself
  • Feeling better – more energy, stronger, healthier

Every individual is motivated differently. We can identify those external motivators easily, but really homing in on the internal motivators will help you stay on track and maintain motivation for longer. On the days that motivation might be hard to find, there are a few tips you can follow to really help put your best foot forward towards accomplishing your goals.

• Include Others or Find an Accountability Partner – This will provide not only accountability but a support system as well. You will be more likely to follow through if you know there are others counting on you.
  • Examples: attend group fitness classes, work with a personal trainer, partner up with a friend or family member for workouts, meals, or whatever health habit you are trying to form!
• Visualize Your Success – Imagine what your life will look like once you are following this new health habit.
  • Keeping the positive picture in mind can motivate you to turn that vision into a reality.
• Keep Track of Your Progress – Find a way to track your results so you can visually recognize your hard work.
  • Set up check points for yourself to create accountability.
  • Celebrate your successes and reflect on your setbacks.
• Be Patient and Give Yourself Grace – Remember that changes take time and not every day will be full of huge strides forward.
  • Embrace the changes and be patient with your results.
  • Recognize the little wins each day that you work towards forming a new health habit.

 Finding motivation to form new health habits can be challenging, but it’s not impossible. Keep the above tips in mind, and your chances of success will improve. This is your year; share your habit you are focusing on in the comments!

We are on the brink of a New Year and those looming resolutions start filling our head with what we should do or consider changing.  Keep a positive mindset to not allow resolutions to fall to the wayside in the New Year, allow them to become lifestyle changes.  Know that when you fall short, it's ok to give your self a restart.  Check out these nine nutrition-related New Year's resolutions to not only set, but stick to. 

1. Maintain or achieve a healthy weight. While this is a common goal for the New
   Year, maintaining or achieving a healthy body weight is essential for reducing
   your risk of many health related complications, including heart disease,
   decreased immunity, diabetes, certain cancers, osteoporosis, and infertility. Learn
   how to assess your weight status here.
2. Move more. Moving more often and participating in regular exercise can help
   you achieve and/or maintain a healthy weight, reduce your risk of chronic
   conditions, and even improve your mental health. The CDC suggests working
   your way up to anywhere from 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity exercise to 150
   minutes of moderate-intensity exercise each week.
3. Increase your fruit and vegetable intake. Fruits and vegetables are low in
   calories, but high in fiber, vitamins, and minerals, making them an excellent
   snack or side dish! Despite all of their benefits, only 20% of Americans meet their
   daily fruit intake recommendations, while just 10% eat enough vegetables!
   Adults should aim to consume around 1 ½ - 2 cups of fruit and 2 - 2 ½ cups of
   vegetables per day. Visit MyPlate.gov to determine what counts as “1 cup” of
   your favorite fruits and vegetables.
4. Eat and drink fewer added sugars. Added sugars are sweeteners and syrups
   added to foods during preparation to increase their sweetness. Added sugars
   contribute calories, but offer no other essential nutrients. When consumed in
   excess, it can be difficult to achieve a healthy eating pattern without taking in
   excess calories, which can result in weight gain and obesity, heart disease,
   and/or type 2 diabetes. Added sugars include brown sugar, corn and maple
   syrups, honey, molasses, and raw sugar. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans
   suggest limiting added sugar intake to less than 10% of total daily calories, or
   about 50 grams of added sugars each day for someone consuming about 2,000
   calories per day.
5. Cut back on your salt (sodium) consumption. Consistently high intakes of salt
   can lead to high blood pressure, a risk factor for heart disease and stroke, two of
   the leading causes of death for adults in the US. Despite the American Heart
   Association’s recommendation to consume <2,300 mg of sodium daily, the
   average adult actually consumes closer to 3,400 mg of sodium each day, almost
   150% of what is recommended! Although it is a common misconception to
   believe that salt intake can be controlled by simply removing the salt shaker from
   your table, about 75% of salt intake actually comes from prepared and packaged
   foods, such as pasta sauce, soups, canned foods, and condiments.
6. Consume less saturated fat. Like salt, excessive consumption of saturated fat
   can affect your LDL, or “bad”, cholesterol levels and increase your risk of heart
   disease. Saturated fats are primarily found in animal products, including beef,
   pork, lamb, poultry (especially with skin), eggs, cheese, butter, and other full-fat
   dairy products. They are also found in tropical oils, such as coconut, palm and
   palm kernel oils, and many baked and fried foods. The American Heart
   Association suggests consuming <5-6% of total daily calories from saturated fat.
   For an adult who consumes around 2,000 calories per day, that is around 120
   calories, or about 13 grams of saturated fat each day (9 calories/gram fat).
7. Cook at home more. In addition to helping you save money, cooking at home
   more often can help you reduce the total amount of calories, fat, and sodium
   consumed at that meal, making it easier to manage your weight and overall
   health.
8. Limit alcohol intake. Alcohol is associated with various short- and long-term
   risks, such as accidental injury, violence, certain cancers, high blood pressure,
   and mental health issues. Alcohol is also a source of calories and does not offer
   any nutritional benefit. Most professional organizations agree that men should
   limit alcohol intake to <2 beverages per day and women should try to consume
   <1 alcoholic drink per day.
9. Drink more water. Adequate water intake is essential for maintaining healthy
   digestion, removing wastes from the body, and preventing dehydration. The
   amount of water you should consume is based on many factors including your
   age, body size, and activity level, as well as the climate in which you live. The
   easiest way to determine if you are drinking enough water is to observe the color
   of your urine. If you are consuming enough, your urine should be a pale yellow,
   whereas if you are not, it will likely be a very bright or dark yellow. Speak to your
   physician or registered dietitian/nutritionist to determine your individual fluid
   needs.
   
   

I recently shared insight on why there is a strong need for corporate fitness and wellness resources for employees while they work remotely during COVID-19 closures and extended work-at-home models for many employers. After all, working from home was already a growing trend before the pandemic. The way organizations support a culture of well-being needs a broader reach now more than ever to help employees live well. While options to extend that reach may feel limited, there are a variety of creative and impactful ways to meet those needs.

One service solution NIFS launched for our corporate clients this summer was NIFS’ Personal Fitness Quest (PFQ). Employees signed up for this virtual program to connect weekly with their fitness specialist for complimentary personal training and coaching. Participants complete a pre- and post-assessment along with goal-setting as part of the program. When we asked our staff what their members want to achieve during their PFQ sessions, overwhelmingly employees were asking for accountability. Others had goals for easing back in after surgery and looking for more variety in their routine, but most people praised the program for the accountability it provided them.

Here’s what our fitness specialists are hearing:

“People are struggling with consistency in their routines, or lack thereof. They want someone to hold them accountable. Once engaged, the members have been thankful for the support.”   

—Matthew, NIFS Manager, Indiana

“Our participants have struggled the most with prioritizing their workout and they’ve been lacking the motivation to get back on track with a fitness routine. Our participants really like having those weekly calls because that’s what keeps them accountable and they’re able to stay motivated.” 

—Aislinn, NIFS Manager, Indiana

“The feedback for PFQ has been very positive. Members enjoy being able to connect with a fitness specialist weekly to keep them accountable and answer questions.” 

—Jordan, NIFS Manager Pennsylvania

Here’s what our members are saying about their experience:

“PFQ is fantastic to be able to schedule a guided workout at a time that works with my schedule, and to have one-on-one direction and encouragement. It helps keep me motivated to work out and be ‘ready' for the next week. You did a great job of targeting the workout to what I wanted to improve.”

—PFQ Participant, Indiana

“I think you’re doing an awesome job virtually training! The process we have works really well for me, especially since you taught me some quick warm-ups in the first session outside. I only have positive feedback to share. Thanks for being flexible and creative to stay effective!”

—PFQ Participant, Indiana

The PFQ is one of many programs under NIFS’ virtual service model, HealthYou. HealthYou helps us provide a range of fitness and wellness services to employees of client locations without an onsite fitness center, or with a large demographic of employees who work remotely and have difficulty taking advantage of their fitness center. Group fitness classes, wellness programs like PFQ, and Healthy Lifestyle sessions from NIFS’ Registered Dietitian are all accessible with NIFS’ web-based tools; so while it may feel difficult to make an impact, NIFS helps you broaden your organization’s reach and connect your employees with the resources they need to live well.

This blog was written by Emily Davenport. To learn more about the NIFS bloggers, click here.

Including a corporate fitness center in your menu of employee wellness benefits is worth considering. It takes away a few common excuses people use for not exercising by being convenient and low or no cost for employees to use. But if you think that simply putting a fitness center into your office space is a key answer to lowering your health care costs, you’re mistaken. And, if lowering your health care costs is your primary motivator for funding a corporate fitness center, you may want to reconsider that position because generating ROI figures specific to your onsite fitness program is almost impossible.

If you're still with me because you think a corporate fitness center is on the list of the right things to do to help your employees be well, then consider the myths below that may hold back the success of your worksite fitness initiatives.  

#1: If we build it, they will come.

No, friends, “they” won’t. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that just under 22% of adults age 18 and older self-report meeting the physical activity guidelines. Because that data is self-reported, it’s probably inflated. If this snapshot is representative of your workforce (and it probably is), then your employees aren’t as active as they should be for optimal health. But simply putting a fitness center in your building won't automatically make inactive employees start exercising. Solely dedicating a space and putting some equipment in, is no guarantee that it won't quickly become a ghost town.

One key to making your fitness center more effective is providing engaging and qualified staff to both manage the center, AND provide key services/support for employees. Without fitness center staff, you are building a corporate fitness center for the 15-20% of your workforce who are already regular exercisers. That said, if you built your corporate fitness center to be a nice amenity and you don’t really care if it’s being used, then carry on. But, if you’re truly interested in helping people adopt physical activity into their lives, consider getting the right staff in there to pull your fence sitters (“Maybe I’ll try it Monday”) off the fence and into the fitness center.

#2: If we can find the right carrot, more employees will participate.

One manager’s “carrot” is another employee’s “stick”. A lack of employee engagement can’t be fixed with HSA money or t-shirts. It’s likely that your employees aren’t participating for reasons much deeper than the extrinsic rewards you’re willing to lay at their feet. 

An individual’s ability to be well goes WAY beyond biometric screenings and an HRA. Research tells us that zip code does more to determine our health than our genes. Employers have zero control over both of those. So, while you’re designing the perfect incentive strategy to get your employees to participate in the annual wellness program, they’re wondering how to keep food on the table and how pay their bills. They're worrying about junior's performance at school and they pray daily that he gets to and from school safely. If that isn't enough to have on their plate, they’re suffering the weight of serious stress brought on by working more than one job. 

In the midst of all of the stress of their personal lives, there isn't a consideration of using your corporate fitness center. Worse yet, every Fall, when you tell them the money that’s at stake if they don’t successfully complete elements X, Y, and Z of your wellness program, they only feel more burden and frankly a necessity to participate in the drudgery that is your wellness program. They NEED those HSA dollars so they’ll scrape by figuring out a way to complete all of the wellness program components. And they’ll resent you all the way. There’s nothing healthy about any of that.

#3: If we ask employees what they need, they’ll put forward ridiculous suggestions we can’t use (so we don’t’ ask).

I can’t say this is 100% false. Case in point, we have one client who has a few employees who annually ask for a pool at work via our satisfaction survey. The client is never going to act on that request. But, it would be equally ridiculous to assume that all feedback is as myopic as this. 

If you subscribe to the ideology that healthy and happy employees are the core of your successful business, then you value what your teams have to say. Sometimes, their needs for improved health shows up in their data, so you don't even have to ask. In other cases, they have fabulous ideas for elevating your organization that would never otherwise have made it to the surface if you didn’t ask.

We make it a habit to solicit feedback from fitness center members, and in many cases, they've asked for services that we were able to implement to the benefit of all of the members. For example, in response to a member request, we now routinely have a large bottle of sunscreen available for members who want to run/walk outside. We also started building a library of grab-n-go workouts on laminated cards that members could use to get through a quick session without a scheduled appointment with a trainer. Eventually, we built those into on-the-road kits for employees who traveled; they could check out a travel kit before their trip and return it when they got back to the office. You could argue that these ideas should have been on our radar, but they weren't and we never would have met these needs if we hadn't asked for feedback. 

#4: If our fitness center isn’t being used we need to change our management partner.

Maybe your fitness center is struggling because of the management company, or maybe it's the right management partner but the wrong staff for your culture. But, before you assume that low participation in your fitness center could be fixed by swapping out the vendor, take a holistic view of what's happening in your work environment.  

Here's why: if your employees have very little autonomy in their jobs, then the corporate fitness center isn’t even on the employee’s radar. They punch in and punch in without looking back. It doesn’t matter how engaging and inviting the fitness center staff is, how great the services are, how fun the group fitness classes are, and how easy it is to join the fitness center. If their work environment offers no flexibiliy, they will not use your fitness center. 

Your fitness management vendor cannot rise above your organization's cultural barriers to magically draw employees into the fitness center, and a vendor switch is a major ordeal. So, exercise caution and take a hard look in the mirror before you fix a vendor relationship that may not be broken.  

***

Your employees lives are complicated and their work environment is part of that sticky picture.  Some of them are likely fighting to make it each day, in ways that you may have never considered. If you’re committed to a strategy for employee well-being that is truly about lifting your employees up, then you have to bust through these myths to get to the real barriers that make it hard for people to make a healthy choice. For more on addressing social determinants of health in your wellness program, try this article. If you're looking for a few quick tips to infuse a little more movement into the workday for your employees, grab our quick read below.

Sherri Pryor came to me in our corporate fitness center after starting this journey on her own.  She was determined to continue to make positive changes in her life.  She was definitely apprehensive about talking to me at first.  However, she has overcome her own insecurities to become a stronger and more confident version of herself than the woman that first came to me three years ago. There have been goals set, goals achieved, and goals missed, but through it all she has always kept a positive attitude.  This attitude has helped her become the best version of herself she can be.  Here is her story!

My Success: Making exercise a part of my life

I started this process in early 2012; I was committed more than I had ever been in my life to making changes, exercising more and improving my personal wellness. I was tired of feeling like I had no control over how I felt and looked. There are so many things in life that we truly can’t control. Making time for exercise and doing things to improve your overall health are not on that list. It was hard at first; but it got easier with time.

Two things were always in my head: 1) It’s hard! It takes time and effort and my plate was full with a family and a full-time job. I was convinced I couldn’t fit it in and still get everything else done, 2) I can’t stick to both exercising AND making better food choices. I had always been able to be successful at one or the other but only for a limited amount of time.

One step at a time worked for me… I started making better food choices. I lost a few pounds and started feeling better. Sixty days later, I started going to the gym. And finally…I asked for help. Working with a personal trainer made such a difference. I learned so much about how to maximize the time I spend there. I felt accountable because he was putting in the time to help me every week, but I did not feel pressured.

I’ve experienced one set-back along the way; but instead of giving in to the negative feelings that came with that I tapped into the positive feelings I had become familiar with to that point. I kept going to the gym. I kept hitting the salad bar at lunch, even if I had had a chocolate chip cookie the night before.

In the beginning, it was about losing weight more than anything. Today, I consider success making exercise part of my life; not just a means to an end, like losing weight or training for an event. Those things are awesome and have definitely played a part along the way for me. But it’s how it has improved the quality of my life. I would say the same for wellness. Success comes when the changes you make become part of your life/lifestyle. They stay with you.

I enjoy exercising now and I WANT it to be part of my life; the same with wellness in general. I want to feel healthy and energetic. And those things have come because of the changes I made starting in 2012.

Interested in helping your employees reach their goals in regard to living a healthier lifestyle.  Checkout our webinar series and learn how you could have a successful corporate fitness center.

*Weight loss claims or individual results vary and are not guaranteed.