I know that I always preach that exercise, diet, and simple vitamin supplements can help people stay healthy and now I see that yet another study shows that older people can get healthier by taking some carbs and protein before getting exercise, this is also a good idea for anyone getting in shape.

Also the type of exercise that older people do is critically important.

A carefully framed combination of moderate exercise and nutritional supplements could help older people maintain an active lifestyle for longer.

A Manchester Metropolitan University study has found that taking carbohydrate and protein supplements just before and just after low-resistance exercise could boost muscle performance and slow muscle wastage in people over retirement age. Read the rest of this entry »

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Three new studies have suggested that consuming meals after exercising may go against the overall health benefits that physical work outs create.

The three studies, published by kinesiology researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, suggest that, unless you are a competitive athlete, consuming sports drinks or high-carbohydrate foods such as energy bars right after exercising may negate the health benefits that physical exercise creates.

According to Barry S. Braun, associate professor of kinesiology and director of the Energy Metabolism laboratory at UMass Amherst, most people who exercise are not competitive athletes. They exercise to help their overall health, seeking to manage their weight and reduce risk for diabetes, heart disease or other health problems. For them, the potent benefits of exercise are quickly reversed by consuming high-carbohydrate foods such as sports drinks and energy bars after workouts.

But, for ordinary people who are using physical activity to improve their health, exercise is a medicine. Though each ”dose” of exercise gives benefits, the effects are lost in one to two days. Like other medications, exercise also has interactions with food.

Recommendations for athletes seeking to optimize their performance may be precisely the wrong advice for people using exercise to improve their health. “The latter might be wiser to avoid sports drinks and energy bars during, and for one to three hours following, exercise to maximize the positive effects of each exercise dose,” said Braun.

In three recently published studies, graduate students under Braun’’s direction looked at how the total calories, the carbohydrate content, and the timing of post-exercise meals influence metabolic health.

To understand whether the negative effects of the post-exercise meal were due to the total calories or to the carbohydrate content of the meal, Braun’’s student Kaila Holtz tested two different meals given immediately after 75 minutes of moderately intense bicycle exercise. The meals contained exactly the same amount of calories but one was high in carbohydrates and the other was very low in carbohydrates. Her results showed that the effectiveness of insulin to clear sugar from the blood was greater after either exercise/meal combination compared to participants who did not exercise. The effects were larger, however, when the meal was low in carbohydrates.

These results suggest that, when the post-exercise meal is low in carbohydrates, more of the metabolic benefits of exercise are retained. Although there were a few subtle differences, the results were similar among all three exercise/meal combinations, suggesting that timing of the meals was not an important consideration.

Warming up before exercise is critically important for you so as to not injure yourself or pull muscles like I did on the weekend. There are a few steps to good stretching and if you do these steps you will have a good workout and not have to fear that you are going to pull, teat, or stretch muscles and stay healthy instead.

1. Start off with a good walk, jog, or run. Whatever you do first. The cardio helps the blood and oxygen flow through your body. Always remember when you do cardio, start off slow and then increase your pace, then slow down towards the end to prevent the blood from rushing to the legs.
2. After you have warmed up is the only time that you should stretch. Stretching is a physical exercise that when done cold can lead to strains and muscle pulls (I can vouch for that just a week ago)
3. Stretch one arm across your chest. Make sure it is straight as you go across. This is very important. Do this twice on each arm. Hold 10 seconds each. This will stretch you upper back and your shoulders.
4. Lift your arm up over your head and touch your shoulder blade with your hand. Make sure everything is straight again to get all the benefits. Do twice on each arm, hold 10 seconds each. This stretch is to stretch all the muscles going down your sides as well as the triceps of your arm.
5. Stretch your neck side to side and down. Hold each for 10 seconds.
6. Do a child’s pose. Sit on your knees and bend down and stretch your arms out in front of you. This stretches the upper and lower back, as well as the arms.
7. Finally stretch you legs by holding your foot to your butt and stretching your quadriceps, put your heel on a chair or table and lean forward so that you stretch your hamstrings, for calves just lean against a wall and move one foot back a couple feet and try to bring your heal down.

These are all of the basic stretches that I try to do every day. If you are looking for agility and a wider range of motion in your everyday life you will find that these stretches in no time at all will help.