FitRep for March 26 - Off Duty, Military Health and Fitness - Navy Times

FitRep for March 26

Fruitful energy gels

Cycling company Louis Garneau recently launched its nutrition line. The first product to hit stores will be the LG Energy Gel, with an electrolyte sports drink and other products to roll out soon after. “Unlike other energy gels,” Garneau says in its press release, “LG Energy Gel contains real fruit juice which gives it a clean, simple, and natural taste with no chemical, bitter or harsh aftertaste.” The six flavors are citrus, concord grape-apple, goji-blueberry, strawberry-dragonfruit, tropical fruit and wildberry pomegranate. Even better? LG Gel’s package looks like it can actually be opened with one hand while you’re on the go.

Give your DNA a workout

Exercise changes more than your mood and your body — it even changes your DNA, new research suggests. In the latest issue of Cell Metabolism, scientists say that when healthy but inactive people exercise for a few minutes, an immediate change happens in their DNA, ScienceDaily reports. While the underlying code remains unchanged, the DNA molecules within muscles alter in ways that indicate early reprogramming for improved strength. “Our muscles are really plastic,” Juleen Zierath of Karolinska Institutet in Sweden told ScienceDaily. “We often say ‘You are what you eat.’ Well, muscle adapts to what you do. If you don't use it, you lose it, and this is one of the mechanisms that allows that to happen.”