One of recent articles talked about "Sitting Down on the Job" and the hazards associated with sitting at a desk.  In today's article I am sending along some workplace stretches that you can easily add into your day.  Not all stretches need to be done at once, but every couple of hours you should get up and move a little.  Take 5 minutes and pick a few of these stretches to do and you will feel much better at the end of your work day.

WORKPLACE STRETCHES:

Warm up by lifting shoulders to ears; hold for 5-10 seconds then lower slowly.  Roll your shoulders up, back and down 5-10 times.

Seated Forward Bend:
Sit on the edge of your chair.  Feet flat on floor.  Lean forward until chest over knees.  Let arms hang loose, fingertips on floor.

Seated Trunk Rotation:
Sitting – cross right knee over left knee.   Place left hand on outside of right thigh and right hand on your armrest.  While sitting straight, gently twist towards the right and look over your shoulders.  Repeat other direction.

Neck Stretch:
Reach left hand over your head and gently rest on right side of your head.  Stabilize your right side by grasping seat of your chair with your right hand and gently pull your head away from your right shoulder with your hand to bring the left ear towards the left shoulder.  Face straight ahead and repeat other side.

Seated Arm Stretch:
With your left hand to assist, bring your right arm with elbow bent across your chest, parallel to the floor.  Use your left hand to gently pull your right arm across your body.  Repeat on other side.

Seated Lateral Trunk Flex:
Sit well back in chair.  Reach both hands overhead and interlock fingers with palms facing up to ceiling.  Slowly lean over towards the right side, pause and return.  Keep both feet on floor.

Wrist Flexor Stretch:
With assistance of the left hand, gently draw the fingers on the right hand up towards the ceiling and then gradually straighten elbow while maintaining a stretch on the wrist.

Wrist Extensor Stretch:
With assistance of the left hand, gently bend the wrist so that the fingers are pointing down towards the floor and gradually straighten the elbow while maintaining a stretch on the wrist.

Standing Shoulder and Elbow Extension:
Stand facing the chair and reach behind with both arms, grasp hand interlocking the fingers.  Lift both arms away from he body while keeping the elbows straight and pause.  Release and repeat.

Standing Spinal Extension:
Stand facing the chair and place your fist or the heel of both hands on the back of your hips.  Gently press into your hips and lift your chest upwards.  Keep eyes straight ahead and chin tucked in.  Pause and return to starting position.  Repeat.  Breathe out as your lean back and in as you return upright.

Standing Hip/Knee/Quadricep Stretch:
Stand holding onto the back of your chair for balance.  Grasp your right ankle with your right hand.  Keep your hips, shoulders and face straight ahead and gently pull your heel towards your hips until you feel a gently stretch across the front of your hip and along the front of your thigh.  Keeps your abs pulled in.  Repeat on other leg.

GREATER THAN ONE THIRD OF THE WORKING POPULATION SAY THEY LACK ENERGY EITHER THROUGH OUT THE DAY OR IN THE AFTERNOON AND EVENING.  THIS LACK OF ENERGY IS A FUNCTION OF BRAIN AND MUSCULAR  ACTIVITY.  BRAIN AND MUSCLES NEED WATER, GLUCOSE AND OXYGEN.  TAKE REGULAR BREAKS AND MOVE MORE DURING THE WORK DAY.   BEST OF ALL WORK OUT OR EXERCISE REGULARLY TO REDUCE THE RISK OF WORK-RELATED INJURY AND IMPROVE YOUR OVERALL HEALTH AND FITNESS.   IT PAYS OFF-IN GREATER HEALTH AND WEALTH.

Till next time,
Narina

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Truth be known, I could make an excellent couch potato.  In fact, on some weekends it a battle for prime location on our couch with myself, my husband Robert, and the two champion couch potatoes – Max and Pebbles (the pug dogs).  But sitting for too long, especially when your job requires it, can be dangerous for your health.  Besides the problems related to inactivity in itself, sitting can cause a host of muscular problems.  This newsletter is a printing of a lecture I gave at our local newspaper for their office staff.  The lecture was entitled “The Hazards of "Sitting Down on the Job".  Who would have thought that office jobs could be hazardous to your health?  A person in a job that requires long hours of sitting is just as much at risk for health problems as those individuals doing manual labour or heavy lifting in their jobs.  Some of the risks associated with desk jobs are:

• chronic low back pain
  weak abdominal muscles possibly leading to back problems
  repetitive use injury such as carpal tunnel syndrome
  weak gluteal muscles possibly leading to low back pain

Let us take a more in depth look at the muscles affected by sitting down on the job!

Upper Crossed Syndrome:

Muscle imbalances are common in almost all of us.  Posture affects these imbalances and it is important to recognize postural problems and make corrections where necessary.  The first posture that is important is the position of the head.  Most people have a forward head posture.  This is caused by the invention of the computer and sitting long hours looking at computer screens.  If you look at the ideal posture, a line should fall down the side of the body from the midline of the ear, through the shoulder, hip, knee and ankle.  If the head is forward of this line, it plays havoc with the muscles of the upper quadrant.  This often leads to internal rotation of the shoulder.   This leads to shortening of the  pectoral (chest) muscles.  This also causes lengthening of the upper back muscles such as rhomboids and trapezius.

If a muscle is not at its ideal length (either too short or lengthened) it causes dysfunction at the joints these muscles surround.  This can then lead to headaches, neck pain, stiffness and tightness in the neck, tingling in arms or hands.  To alleviate this "upper crossed" syndrome, it is important to stretch the muscles that have been shortened (chest) and strengthen the muscles of the upper back (rhomboids, trapezius, rotator cuff).  Resistance exercises such as pulling exercises will go a long way to alleviating the symptoms associated with this common postural problem.

Hip Flexor Muscles:

These very powerful muscles located in the front of the body run down front of your hip area.  These muscles are responsible for lifting the leg during a walking or running motion.  These muscles are also prime muscles exercised during conventional sit up exercises.  As we sit for long periods of time, as in a desk job, these muscles tend to shorten as the leg is always in a bent or flexed position at the hip.  As a result, when one stands these muscles remain in a shortened position resulting in the pelvis being pulled forward.   This in turn pulls on the muscles of the low back resulting in chronic low back pain.  There are a couple of ways to decrease the effects of potentially shortening hip flexor muscles:

• Get up and move!  On breaks go for a short walk and on lunch hour, take the time to go for a brisk walk.
  Stretch, stretch and stretch again.  At least 3 times per week, stretches should be done to balance the effects of sitting.  This can take as little as 10 minutes once per day – a perfect activity while watching TV in the evening.

So, even though you may enjoy some well deserved couch time, remember you will need to counter balance that with some stretching and strengthening.

Till next time,
Narina
"Monitoring, Mentoring, Motivation"

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What is Balance?

Balance is the common reference when we talk about trying to stand on one leg, tripping on a curb or straining an ankle.  The actual term for balance is proprioreception or the position of a joint.   The body must be aware of the positioning of all joints during movement.  This is called Kinesthetic awareness.  Adjustments for changes in movement whether on stable or unstable surface is balance.  Balance can be learned, challenged and improved.

The body's proprioreceptive system is responsible for monitoring the movements of muscles and joints and relaying that information back to the brain.  It is this feedback that then tells the body to adjust for movements, gravity, unstable surfaces, etc.

Why is Balance Important?

Maintaining your balance in all situations is critical to preventing injury whether you are involved in a sporting activity or just walking around the house.  It is our balance, via our nervous system that reacts during times of instability to either help us move more efficiently or prevent a fall.  Falls, especially in the older individual can sometimes be the determining factor in the quality of life enjoyed.  Being able to respond to situations quickly and efficiently will quite often dictate if injury occurs.  One of the things noticed by most people when they begin a properly designed strength training program that encompasses balance training is that they can respond quicker to life's little trip ups.

How Can I Improve My Balance?

A good sense of balance will deteriorate as we age due to various factors:  inner ear disturbances, vertigo, muscle weakness or could be a by product of other medical conditions.  As aging occurs, most people will become less active leading to muscle wasting and weakness.  Participating in an exercise program will help to improve your balance.  Improving your balance system is quite easy.  It just takes a few minutes a day and can be done by anyone.  Training balance can be a simple as standing one one leg for 3-10 seconds or completing a complex exercise such as single leg squat touchdown or step up balance to overhead press.  Taking a few minutes every day
to help maintain a strong sense of balance or kinesthetic awareness should be a priority in everyone's life and especially the older individuals.

Here's an easy exercise you can try anytime. Stand on one foot.  Next, reach forward and touch the ground in front of you and stand up straight again.   You should be able to do this and maintain your balance.  Balance is one of those facets of life we tend to take for granted until something happens.  Most falls and certainly serious injuries from falls are preventable when your nervous system is strong and quick to respond.  Don't take balance for granted – train it now and it will keep you healthy and happy.

Till next time,
Narina

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One of our clients during her workout last week asked,  "What causes the muscles to tire during exercise?"    This is a great question, as we all experience muscle fatigue during our workouts.  You will be in the middle of a set when all of a sudden, there goes all your strength and no matter how you try you can't perform one more repetition.

Unfortunately this is not an easy question to answer.  In fact there are whole books, not just chapters written on effects of muscle fatigue and how to deal with fatigue during sport performance.  Obviously one of the limiting factors in any sport activity is the loss of strength, power or speed in a muscle.  This area of exercise physiology is constantly being studied and new discoveries on how our muscles work are happening constantly. 
If you did a Google search on muscle fatigue you would find thousands of sites or articles dealing with muscle fatigue.  If you then did a search on muscle fatigue and exercise you would also find literally thousands and thousands of sites and articles dealing with fatigue and how it relates to exercise.

Muscle fatigue is a very complex series of chemical, neurological and physical actions that occur during exercise or activity.  In doing an on line search for definitions of muscle fatigue this is what I found:

• A condition resulting from prolonged and strong contraction of a muscle.
• Studies during prolonged submaximal exercise have shown that muscle fatigue increases in a near direct proportion to the rate of muscle glycogen depletion. Muscle fatigue in short-term maximal exercise
  is associated with oxygen deprivation and an increased level of blood and muscle lactic acid, and an accompanying increase in hydrogen-ion concentration in the exercised muscle.  
• A decreased capacity to perform a maximum voluntary muscle action or a series of repetitive muscle actions. A fatigued muscle is unable to continue working even when the type of activity is changed. Muscle fatigue may result from depletion of
  phosphocreatine or glycogen, accumulation of protons generated by lactic acid, exhaustion of neurotransmitters, or some other mechanism. 

Here is a link to an excellent article that goes into more detail about muscle fatigue.  This excellent web site has several links that you may go to to help explain the  relationships around muscle fatigue physiology. 

http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=NCYiC&m=1fPIzMcMNKS.1C&b=FI5D1k7OUnDP3z3cCwNcQggue.htm

So, bottom line what does all of this have to do with your sessions at the gym.  After all that was what prompted the original questions – why do my muscles get tired when you work out?   You may  read through the Sports Medicine links in more detail, but simply how I look at in the gym….

We all get fatigued in the gym.  As we perform a set of a specific exercise whether it be bench presses, squats, lunges – doesn't matter,  the muscle will get tired and if you read any of the physiology you will realize there are many factors at work from depletion of ATP, lactic acid accumulation, etc.  But for me, I don't think so much about the physiology – calcium ions, lactic acid, hydration factors, stress, etc.  I just try to focus on doing the best I can each workout.  Some workouts are going to be great and you will wonder what did you do to have such a great workout?  What did I eat for dinner the night before, how much sleep did I get?  The questions are endless and if you could figure that one out and bottle it – well are your worries financially would certainly be over.

If you think back to when you first started training at the gym, your weights were a lot lighter than they are now.  The exercises were simpler, not as complex or demanding.  And the repetitions were probably higher with lighter weights.  But the reasoning for that is a whole other article.

What I try to think about when I am performing a set is to do as many as I can with perfect form.  Some days that set of lunges may be 8; some days it may be 6 and some days it may be 10.  Overall, though you will find a consistent number that you will be able to perform with good form before muscle fatigue sets in and your form will be compromised and that is where your trainers will step in and usually stop you.

I think one of the hardest things for people new to weight training to learn about, is when to push and what the "burn" is all about.  This once again could lead to a whole new article or even a book.  It is okay to feel the burn in the muscle; this is the muscle working and it not about to be injured.

Sharp pains are to be taken seriously and definitely any pain close to a joint needs to evaluated, but the burning sensation in the muscle is okay.  This burning sensation will stop once the exercise has ceased.  This sensation in the muscle is not usually an indication to stop.  Most of us will usually be able to perform 1-2 or more repetitions when this burning starts.

I realize I have probably got a little bit off topic here.  It is hard to talk about muscle fatigue without starting to talk about training programs, exercises, sets and reps.

I think it not so much that we need to know what causes muscle fatigue.  It is interesting to understand the physiology around muscle fatigue, but what really counts is the consistency of your workouts and the effort you put forth when you go to the gym. 

Muscle fatigue is expected and even welcomed.  Recovery is the next important step before returning to the gym to enjoy another great workout.

Till next time,
Narina

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