FitSugar

Sitting 101: Desk Ergonomics

FitSugar — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 14:30:00 -0700

I consider myself an active person and am definitely happier strolling about than sitting, but I sit for a large portion of the day. I blog – how could I avoid a chair? Like most things, there's a technique to sitting. A well-designed workstation can help keep you pain free while you toil away during the day.

Here are a few things to consider about how and where you sit:

Adjust the height of your chair so your hips are between 90 and 120 degrees. If adjusting your chair means your feet no longer rest comfortably on the floor, use a foot rest.
Your keyboard should be in line or lower than your elbow joint. The open angle of the elbow will help reduce elbow, wrist, and shoulder pain.

I have a few more suggestions, so read more.

Keep your wrists straight and never bend them up to type. I find a good wrist rest to be invaluable for maintaining correct wrist alignment. Check out these stretches for your wrists – they will help, too.
The top of your monitor should be at eye level. If it is too low you could be setting yourself up for neck pain. Put a book or two under the screen to raise it adequately.
You should sit with your back straight. Use a pillow if you need low back support. Do not lean forward because that will close you hip joint down and stress your low back and neck.

Don't forget to move around as much as you can during the day. Adding little walks throughout your workday is an effective way to relieve pressure you might feel on your bum and spine.

Avoid Runner's Knee

FitSugar — Fri, 02 May 2008 05:30:00 -0700

If you are new to running you definitely want to be wary of developing runner's knee, an overuse injury that is twice as likely to occur in women than men. Known in the medical world as patellofemoral pain syndrome (PPFS), runner's knee causes pain in and around the knee cap (or patella). The pain is caused by tracking issues with the knee cap that irritate the bony groove the knee cap actually sits in. While there can be many reasons for this annoying and common problem that most often strikes newbies, it is most often caused by tight hamstrings and calves (the muscles in the back of the leg) coupled with weak quads (the muscle at the front of the thigh).

You don't need to avoid running to prevent runner's knee, but you should try to run on accommodating surfaces like dirt paths and asphalt, not concrete. Uneven terrain and hills can aggravate knee tracking problems, so be wary of hills if you are experiencing tenderness around your knee caps. Be proactive and strengthen your quads. And to see how, just read more.

Wall sits are an easy exercise that target the quads.

Stand with your back against a wall, placing your feet about two feet out in front of you. Feet should be hips distance apart.
Bending your knees, slide your back down the wall until your knees are at 90 degree angles. Your knee joints should be over your ankle joints, so you may need to inch your feet further from the wall to create proper alignment. Don't let your knees fall in on the midline of your body, or sway outwards.
Hold for one minute, do three reps.

Don't forget to stretch your hamstrings and your calves too.

Source

Strike a Yoga Pose: Head to Knee A

FitSugar — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 05:50:03 -0800

Looking to loosen up inflexible hips and hamstrings? Here's a yoga pose that's a popular stretch among runners because it'll target the oh-so-tight backs of the legs.

Sanskrit Name: Janu Sirsasana A
English Translation: Head to Knee Pose A
Also Called: Flag

To learn how to do this forward bend variation read more.

Begin in a seated position with both legs straight out in front of you.
Bend your right knee and place the sole of your foot against your inner thigh, pulling your heel as close to your body as you can.
Sit up nice and tall, lengthening through the spine and keeping your left leg straight. Then fold your torso over your left leg. Rest your hands on the floor on either side of your leg or on your shin. Or if your hamstrings and hips are more flexible, reach for your foot - the right hand holds the left wrist.
Rest your forehead on your leg and stay here for five breaths, being sure to continue lengthening the spine as you relax the shoulders away from your ears.
Then release your hands, sit up, and either take a vinyasa to switch sides, or just switch sides from here. This time the left knee will be bent, and the left hand will hold the right wrist.

Have any burning questions about yoga? Then post them to the Yoga Stretch and Tell group.

Smarter Eats: Use Chalkboard Labels on Jars

FitSugar — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:30:28 -0800

Take a peek into my kitchen cabinet for a healthy eating tip. If you can't tell from the picture those are jars with chalkboard labels. I've been using them for almost a year now and for two good reasons: health and money.

I love nuts but find that it can be easy to eat too many at one sitting. I use the chalkboard labels to remind myself of the nutritional breakdown of the stored nut and its serving size. For instance, on my almond jar I've written 20 almonds equal 180 calories, 14g fat, 7g protein, and 6g carbs. This method has been a really great way to keep me from overindulging.

Having these jars is also an incentive to buy from the bulk aisle. Most food, especially organic, is cheaper when purchased in bulk. Plus buying in bulk cuts down on wasteful packaging, and I don't confuse things that look alike. The labels create an easy way to remember cooking ratios - if I'm storing a whole grain or beans, I write the name of the grain and the ratio of the grain to how much liquid it needs to cook.

You can either buy chalkboard jars for cheap or make your own using chalkboard paint. As an alternative you can use paper or sticky labels but using the chalkboard method helps cuts down on waste.

Stretch It: Towel Foot Stretch

FitSugar — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:00:09 -0700

If you think about it, your feet take a lot of beating, from pounding the ground when running, to walking all over the city, to wearing high heels. They carry the weight of our entire bodies, so take time to give them some TLC. This stretch will target the muscle in the soles of your feet, but will also stretch your calves.

To learn how to do this stretch keep reading

Ease Sore Muscles With a Tennis Ball

FitSugar — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:00:57 -0700

Getting a massage is not always an affordable option to relieve sore muscles. I use The Stick at home but when I'm on the go it's not something I can take with me. Because of its size, a tennis ball provides on the spot muscle relief wherever you are.

Here's how I've been using mine:

For leg muscles I sit down on the floor with my legs outstretched and place the ball underneath myself where the thigh meets the butt. I slowly move from side-to-side and let the ball work itself over my muscles, placing my hands on the floor for support. This motion can be worked all the way down leg. After that's done, I turn over and place the tennis ball under the front of my thigh and start the rolling motion all over again.
For my back, I place a tennis ball between myself and a wall - this works especially well for the muscles near the neck and shoulders. Lean back into the ball and let it roll back and forth over your muscles.
Use a tennis ball underneath the arch of your foot to relieve tired muscles. Sit down in a chair and place the tennis ball under your foot. Put some pressure on the ball and let it roll up and down the muscles of the foot. This is an easy way to get a great foot massage!

The basic idea is that you can work a tennis ball into a trigger point with just a little bit of pressure. If you need to cover greater surface area, put a few tennis balls into a long sock and tie off the end.

Gear Review: Radiance Jacket by Mountain Hardwear

FitSugar — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:00:33 -0700

If you are looking forward to Winter but not the cold that accompanies it, Mountain Hardwear has constructed a jacket for you. The Radiance Jacket ($230) is pre-wired for the Ardica Moshi Power System ($145).

When fully charged, the battery powered energy pack will keep you warm for a little over eight and a half hours when set on the low setting and three hours when set for high. The heater fits into an internal pocket in the back of the jacket that sits between your scapula with extra heating coils in the front just above the pockets. Simply pressing the black button on the top of the jacket turns on the heater. The contrast between the lightweight jacket and the stiff battery is quite noticeable though. Known for their lightweight yet warm jackets (I ski in an older version of the company's Flip Jacket), the power system makes the jacket heavy.

I sat in my cold house (why houses in Northern California aren't well insulated is beyond me) and cranked the jacket to the high setting and was quite toasty. I was sweating in minutes. I have no doubt it would keep me warm on the slopes or sitting at a snowy football game, I am not sure I want to pay $375 to stay warm. Think of all the hot chocolate you could buy, even overpriced ski lodge cocoa, with that kind of dough.

If you're an electronics junkie, the jacket will charge them. To learn how read more.

The left pocket of the jacket houses a USB cable, they come with a variety of adapters making it useful for charging your iPhone, iPod, camera, or BlackBerry. The Ardica System takes more than a few hours to fully charge, but it can fully charge your phone multiple times once it's charged.

I think the concept of a warming jacket that helps you stay wired (or at least charged) is cool, but I am not completely sold on the technology. While the jacket is cute and streamlined - it would fit well under a shell to keep for added wind and water protection - but if it is so cold that I need a heater to keep me warm riding up a mountain, I might just opt for a lodge day. What about you? What do you think of the Radiance Jacket?

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Strike a Yoga Pose: Staff

FitSugar — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:00:49 -0700

Some yoga poses require flexibility like Tortoise, some are all about your strength like Scissor Legs Side Crow, and some demand extreme balance like Headstand Scorpion. Then there are poses that don't call for much but your stillness and attention to breath.

Sanskrit Name: Dandasana
English Translation: Staff Pose
Also Called: Stick

To learn how to do this simple pose read more.

Sit on your mat with both legs together so they're straight out in front of you.
Place your palms flat on the floor beside your hips, and actively press them into the ground. Keep both arms as straight as possible, and lengthen your spine, imagining it is a sturdy staff or cane someone would use to walk with. Roll your shoulders away from your ears and tuck your chin. Engage your leg muscles and flex your feet.
Stay here for five deep breaths, keeping your belly still and only breathing into your ribs. Then release.

Have any burning questions about yoga? Then post them to the Yoga Stretch and Tell group.

D-Mix Energy Elixir: Cool or Not?

FitSugar — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 09:00:54 -0700

There's a ton of energy boosting stuff out there - drinks, bars, gels, and chews, to name a few. Now there's D-Mix, an energy elixir that tries to set itself apart by billing itself as the "world's first customizable energy elixir." D-Mix comes in coffee and mint flavors and is a concentrated liquid serum, which, according to the website, you can pump into just about anything. They even provide non-alcoholic cocktail recipes that they think D-Mix will complement.

Each one-ounce bottle of D-Mix contains:

400 mg of energy (caffeine and guarana)
14 vitamins and minerals
5,000 mg of antioxidants
50,000 percent of vitamin B12
21 amino acids
23 fruits and herbs including acai and goji berries

We tried the mixes in our office, first on their own and then in water. Given all the stuff they're made of, I was surprised they weren't too medicinal tasting. Instead, they were similar to children's chewable vitamins, but with a fake-sugar aftertaste that sits on your tongue for a while. I think if diluted enough you'd probably not taste much of the flavor at all.

There's a little chart on the back of the bottle for the amount of liquid you should pump into your drink depending on your weight, but the idea is you can take in as little or as much as you want depending on your needs.

I can see how this product might take off, since the needs of a six-foot-tall bodybuilder are probably different than my own. But the slick marketing campaign and flashy packaging has me wondering if this is bad media hype. Would you use D-Mix?

Stretch It: Lying Ab Stretch

FitSugar — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:00:06 -0700

After an intense core strengthening session with your trainer, your abs are so sensitive, it can even hurt to laugh. So here's a relaxing stretch you can do to lengthen your abdominal muscles, and relieve tension in your middle.

For instructions on how to do this stretch, read more.

Lie on the floor on your back. Extend your arms overhead.
Keeping your bum on the floor, lift your belly up to the ceiling and slide your shoulder blades an inch or so closer to your hips. Keep your upper back on the floor as you arch through your lower back.
Stay like this for 30 seconds, reaching your hands and feet away from each other.
Then release your lower back to the floor and sit up.