Your Top Health And Fitness Questions This Week

Each week our resident expert Samantha answers your health, life, and fitness questions right here. Samantha Ann Leete is a fitness model with a passion for brownies who helps others strike the right balance with her realistic approach to health and fitness.

Is it important to alter your fitness routine when you get older?

In your 20s and 30s it’s important to do weight-bearing activities like running, calisthenics and gym work. You want to build as much muscle as possible to stockpile against future atrophy as you age and ward off osteoporosis, which is more prevalent in women.

This is particularly important in your 40s, which is when you should start to add a few more stretching type exercises and go deeper into your range of motion when doing weights to build flexibility with tone.

Overall the prescription should be the same no matter what your age is: do a mix of cardiovascular exercise and weight bearing movements every week. Want to feel 20? Train like you are 20.

I’m confused because I heard sodium is dehydrating, yet it’s in drinks that claim they’ll hydrate me. What should I believe?

Actually, the salt doesn’t hydrate, it allows the body to retain enough fluids to hydrate, unless you ingest too much, then it causes you to retain too much fluid, causing all sorts of health problems like high blood pressure, bloating and other nasty stuff.

Salt is a deadly poison in large amounts, but we have to have some of it or we die. It’s all about balance. In fact, salt isn’t the enemy and many people were given it as a supplement years ago, especially during World War II. It’s just that today’s modern diet is jam packed with ready meals full of sodium, meaning most people’s go well over the recommended daily allowance.

After a two-hour workout (much longer than usual), I felt shaky. The next day I woke up feeling hung over and too nauseated to eat. What’s going on?

You’re shaky, dizzy and nauseated because your body’s telling you to relax. You’re dehydrated and have too much lactic acid in your system. You need to make sure you’re hydrated before strenuous workouts and have a little food in your stomach. Working out too hard for too long can deplete your electrolyte stores and lead to cramping and nausea. If you insist on doing a long workout, prep with fluids and food.

My healthy eating and exercise ambitions always fall short during the week of my period. Why do my stamina and appetite vary so greatly at that time and how can I prevent it?

You lose iron during your period and it carries oxygen around your body, and oxygen finances almost all movement. So with less iron, you have less oxygen and less energy. Low iron levels are also linked with a loss of appetite, creating even more lethargy. The fix? During and in the lead up to your period, eat plenty of iron-rich foods, like raw baby leaf spinach, organic red meats, poultry, lentils, tuna, oats and beans.

For the best energy-yielding meal ticket try this

• Breakfast: Oats with soy milk
• Mid-morning snack: Miso soup with tofu
• Lunch: Baby leaf spinach and tuna salad
• Mid-afternoon: Iron fortified cereal with soya milk
• Dinner: Steak and lentil soup

Find expert advice and more in every issue of TRAIN for HER magazine.