America is a hard-working, income-driven society. Most of us work about 8 hours, 5 days a week, with a total of 1-2 hours of commuting each day. From an anatomical perspective, most of this time is spent in one position: seated.
Why is this a bad thing?
Too much sitting often leads to something called “Upper and Lower Cross Syndrome”
Upper Cross Syndrome is a result of poor posture of the upper body. The cervical extensor muscles become tight, as well as the chest muscles, while the cervical flexor muscles become weak along with the scapular retractors. What does that mean and why does that happen?
It’s a result of prolonged poor posture. Nobody’s eyesight is perfect, so we tend to lean forward to focus on what we’re doing, whether it’s driving or working on the computer. The farther forward your head sits, the harder your neck extensor muscles must work to control your head’s posture, while the neck flexors are virtually doing no work to balance the position of your head. One’s shoulders tend to draw forward, especially while seated, which keeps the chest in a shortened position and elongates a group of muscles such as the rhomboids.
Lower Cross Syndrome is the same problem, but on the lower half of the trunk. The lumbar extensors and hip flexors become tight, while the abdominals and glutes become weak. This happens for the same reason as upper cross syndrome: prolonged poor posture. Sitting keeps the pelvis in a flexed position, which is going to tighten the hip flexors and reciprocally weaken the glutes.
So what can you do to prevent this from occurring? I know work is inevitable, as is the traffic that comes along with the commute, but there are many ways to reduce the upper and lower cross syndrome.
Step 1- EXERCISE! This is the easiest and most obvious solution. Exercise keeps the body moving, keeps the blood flowing, and prevents you from being stuck in one position for too long. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends at least 5 days per week of moderate intensity exercise.
Step 2- Take breaks from sitting! The main issue is that we stay stuck in the same position for too long and our bodies are forced to adapt. In anatomy, Wolff’s law states that bone will adapt to the loads placed upon it. In other words, the longer you stay in a certain position, the more accustomed your skeleton becomes to that position. Set a timer every 15 minutes and stand up, do 5 squats, walk to the bathroom and back, do ANYTHING that will regularly move you away from the seated position!
Step 3- Consider buying a standing desk. Standing is a more natural position for the human body. After all, millions of years of evolution brought humans to be bipedal.
Step 4- Stretching. Logically, this would seem like the easiest solution. However, it’s not that simple. If you stretch your chest for 2 minutes, does that really provide balance from the 10+ hours of sitting with your shoulders rounded forward? Not really. But, it provides a good starting point. Developing a habit of stretching every day, multiple times, can definitely provide relief from the constant seated position, and allows your body to be more mobile for when you begin that exercise routine I mentioned in Step 1 😉
Step 5- Postural Awareness. Arguably the most important, is to create an awareness of what your posture looks like. The ears should be in line with the shoulders, which should be in line with the hips, which should be in line with the knees, which should be in line over the ankles. Yes, it’s one big kinetic chain! Each link is just as important as the next.
-Sebastien Goodman
Ever wonder how professional athletes can keep training and improving their PR? How it almost seems as though they’re invincible? Did you know that you can be just like them by changing one particular aspect of your workout routine? Well, guess what! You CAN and all it takes is incorporating cross-training.
So, what is cross-training?
Cross-training is a type of training that involves combining exercises from other disciplines. It’s a way to supplement a person’s training by improving strength, endurance, and flexibility. In addition, it prevents injuries, muscular imbalances, and burnouts. In other words, it’s whole body fitness. It can involve incorporating weight lifting, yoga, spinning, swimming, and the list goes on and on. You don’t have to incorporate everything all at once but the important thing is to break up your routine by adding cross-training to your exercise program.
Still not convinced?
Here are the benefits of cross-training. One of the best benefits from cross-training is injury prevention! Yes, preventing those same nagging injuries from overuse and repetitive movements. Take for example, running. Who doesn’t love running, especially since the Gate River Run is just a couple of months away! The constant impact from the pavement, improper shoes, biomechanical irregularities, muscular imbalances, over-training are just some of the reasons that injuries (is. joint pain, low back tightness) occur or reoccur. By incorporating cross-training, such as swimming, biking, or weight lifting, you can minimize the impact and instead work on building the endurance and strength a different way, which in turn will maximize your running in the end.
Another great reason to cross-train is for rehabilitation purposes. Let’s take running again. Say your low back is tightening up while running. Well, instead of continuing to beat your body down, incorporate biking, elliptical machine and some core training. The key is to not exacerbate your injury nor prolong the recovery process. Letting the body heal and recover will prevent you from sitting on the sidelines.
Other great benefits of cross-training are increased motivation and active recovery. By breaking up the routine and allowing you to explore more areas of the fitness world and other sports, might just give you an added kick to your motivation. Active recovery during your workouts is great in being able to enhance your endurance and strength, which will be positively reflected in your running performance.
So, before you create injuries or make current injuries worse, consider adding some cross-training to your training protocol. You’ll be surprise how much more your overall performance will be!
Pinky Uttayaya-Andrews
Why your resolutions fail…..and how to fix them.
So here we are, approaching the second week of January 2018 and quickly the question turns to the inevitable…..
“How are your resolutions going???”
Silence…
Ummmmmmm…
Yeah, about that…
And that is if you even took the energy to “make resolutions” in the first place.
At this point the word “Resolutions”, when used around the holiday season, almost instantly conjures up a negative connotation, as if we are just expecting to fail at whatever it is we deem important enough to change. How did this happen and more importantly, what can we do to change the tide and make significant changes in our habits?
Let’s start by discussing the typical resolution. You know, the one you are chatting about with friends at 12:34am on New Year’s Night after the ball has dropped, in between your 3rd and 4th cocktail, when the excitement has worn off and you’d really rather be in bed. Yeah, those.
Typically these resolutions are vague ideas or concepts, like “I want to lose weight” or “I want to eat healthier” or my personal favorite, “I want to get fit this year!” (what does that even mean?). Clearly these ideas, from being so vague, have no endpoint or solid deadline. This means there is no sense of urgency, no pressure. If you fail, which you will, there really is no repercussion.
“I haven’t started yet, but I will once everything is back to normal”…….ok, sure.
If these ideas are unclear and have no deadline, they really can’t be measured in any way either. In my favorite example (done by super scientific-y studies), “I just want to get fit”, there is no endpoint and no way to measure actual progress. So how do you know if what you are doing to achieve this goal or resolution is actually working at all? If you are even doing something in the first place.
I think we’ve clearly defined what a resolution currently means to most people and the issues associated with it.
Now let’s focus on rethinking this idea and what we can do to fix it. Dare I say, resolve the issue……see what I did there?….
(and FYI we can start this any time, not just January 1st, the first of the month, a Monday…..Just start now, if it is that important to you.)
First, let’s start but simply changing words. Instead of Resolutions, why don’t we start using the word Target, instead.
If I say the word Target to you, what might be the first image that comes to mind? Hopefully, a big red bullseye is in your mind (at least that’s what the store’s marketing team hopes, as well). By using the word Target, you have a visual endpoint, something to work towards, something very specific you are trying to achieve and, not to be overlooked, it narrows your focus. This leads in perfectly to how we are going to set up your new life Targets.
Now we start the process of refining our Targets by writing them down and being as specific as possible.
“I want to lose weight” turns into “I want to lose 20lbs”
“I want to eat healthier” turns into “I want to eat 3-4 servings of fresh veggies per day”
“I want to be fit” turns into “I want to run a 5k race every 3 months, after never racing previously”….and yes, there is MUCH more to being “fit” and “healthy” than being able to run or lift weights or eating veggies, but that is another article all in itself.
Now that we have written down specific Targets, we have solved two of our three issues with resolutions. This exercise has:
1) Narrowed our focus.
2) Can be measured.
If you eat 1 serving of veggies per day, but your Target is 3-4 we know there is still work to do to reach our Target and we can adjust accordingly.
Now we add in the uncomfortable part. Deadlines.
This is where most people start to squirm, so feel free to wiggle in your chair a little bit.
Adding a deadline creates a sense of urgency. You MUST do said Target before said Target date, or else. It forces you to take action.
“I want to lose 20lbs” turns into “I want to lose 20lbs in 100 days”
“I want to eat 3-4 servings of veggies a day” turns into “I want to establish the eating habit of 3-4 servings of veggies a day within the next month”
“I want to run a 5k race every 3 months” turns into “I want to run my first 5k in 90 days”
This forces you to take action and set up a plan of action. If you want to lose 20lbs in 100 days, do you have a plan in place to lose 1-2lbs in 7 days? If not, that would probably be a great place to start.
So now our Targets are written down, pinpoint specific and have an honest,realistic deadline. Unfortunately, this still won’t work out for most people.
The major point that we have yet to discuss is your why. Why is this Target important to you? When we can find out the true why behind what you want to accomplish, you can take that why and keep it in your pocket, pulling it out when the plan gets rocky.
And it will.
This isn’t going to be all sunshine and roses. Life just isn’t that way and we all know it. So the Why is going to guide you through those dark times, when you need help, when you feel like quitting, when you question why you even started.
“I want to lose 20lbs in 100 days to be an inspiration to my children”
“I want to improve my nutrition habits so my entire family makes better eating choices”
“I want to run a 5k every 3 months in memory of my loved one who passed away from Cancer”
I don’t think I have to go into detail as to why the statements above are worlds more powerful than the statements we opened the reading with. Find your why. You may have to dig a bit deeper than is normally comfortable, but this is part of the change process. It will serve you almost as well as it will serve those whom you inspire.
To summarize our new outlook on Targets, the artist formerly known as Resolutions, they are:
- Written down- Look at them every single day. Make them the background of your phone, screen saver on your desktop, you get the idea.
- Specific- Number of pounds lost. Amount of weight you want to squat. Tons of broccoli per day. This allows for measurable progress and laser focus.
- Have a deadline- Make it realistic, but challenging. Take action NOW and build a short-term plan to reach the long-term Target.
- Tied into your Why- What will happen when you achieve this Target? How will you feel? How will it impact others around you? Think about that. It will guide you through the dark times.
This change in thinking is by no means the end all, be all of Targetting or goal setting or whatever term you choose to call it by, however, if these methods are put into place and monitored on a daily basis, I can promise a much better outcome. Much better than whatever happens after the 4th cocktail at 12:34am on New Year’s.
By Patrick Murphy
