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The Dangers of Being Tied to Your Desk

More and more studies are revealing the dangers of constant sitting. Between driving a car, working at a desk, and relaxing in front of the television, the average person spends more time sitting than they do sleeping. Our technology-driven lives only add to the harm by reducing the need to do physical household chores, making us more sedentary than ever. Unfortunately, even people who exercise on a regular basis are at a much higher risk of obesity, diabetes, cancer, and early death than those who sit for fewer hours during the day.

For detailed information on the harmful effects of sitting, check out our blog, “Lose Weight, Feel Better, Live Longer...Just By Standing Up!” here.

Here are quick and easy tips that can shave hours off of your daily sitting time and improve your health drastically:

• Stand up during TV time. Remind yourself to stand when you’re changing channels or fast-forwarding. Or sit on a balance ball, where slouching means falling off, so you can sit actively.

• Enjoy your chores! Look at them as an easy way to improve your health and maintain your home.

• Put your computer on a crate on your desk, so that you can stand while working. Or you can take the extra step and arrange for a desk that hangs over a treadmill, so you can walk during your workday!

• Forget the phone and take a walk to your colleague’s office. Also, place your stapler, wastebasket, and printer at a distance from your desk to require a short stroll. You can even walk to the bathroom downstairs for a step workout.

• Remind yourself to stand when on the phone. You can even set computer reminders to stand every half hour!

For a healthful work space, take a look at our sit-to-stand desks and other ergonomic equipment! With our expertise and tools, we can help you on your path to a longer, healthier, and happier life!

For more information on this topic, read the January-February 2012 issue of the AARP Bulletin. We got this great information from Elizabeth Pope's article, "Sitting: Hazardous to Your Health."

Stay tuned for more tips and tricks from Ilona and the We've Got Your Back team!

 

To Stretch or Not to Stretch?

Stretching is a controversial topic in the exercise world. Experts have been debating it for years. Does stretching harm or help you? Do you stretch before or after exercise?

With so many different opinions, the Saratoga Ave. Back and Neck Center says that one thing seems certain: stretching should depend on the person.

If you are a naturally limber person, you are already enjoying the benefits that stretching would give you: the looseness and flexibility in your muscles. If you have naturally tight muscles, stretching may pull or strain a muscle, but if done properly, it can limber up your muscles to prevent injury during exercise.

Deciding whether to stretch before or after exercise depends on the individual person as well! Try a day of stretching before exercise, a day of stretching afterwards, and a day of stretching both before and after to determine which system works for you.

A stretching regime is meant to benefit you, so find the stretching system that works best for your body in order to keep it healthy!

If you want to learn how to stretch in a healthy and relaxing way, come into We've Got Your Back for a variety of tips, tools, and classes to help you stretch properly! You might even find the perfect gift for your fit loved ones this holiday season!

Stay tuned for more updates from Ilona and the We've Got Your Back team!

And don't forget to check out the full article here!

Lavender, Your All-Purpose, All-Natural Medicine

Lavender has extraordinary health benefits. According to Central Coast Lavender, it is a quick, easy way to eliminate common health issues. Here's how!

Get rid of headaches, respiratory problems, and muscle pains by massaging lavender into your skin.

By rubbing this herb into your temples, you can remedy migraines. Rub it into your neck, chest, and back to breathe more freely during a cold or if you suffer from asthma or bronchitis.

Lavender is a natural antiseptic, antibacterial, and antifungal substance with insect repelling properties too!

Lavender can even treat your skin! Massage it into problem areas to get rid of acne, burns, dry skin, eczema, itchy skin, sunburn, seborrhea, and skin inflammation.

Come into We've Got Your Back to learn more about the amazing healing properties of lavender! We've stocked up on Central Coast Lavender products for the holidays, so that you can feel relaxed and well during this important time. Whether you're looking for lavender butter, oil, incense, or an easy-to-use mist, we've got the right lavender product for you!

And don't forget to check out Central Coast Lavender for more information on the benefits of lavender!

Less Sitting Means Better Health...But How Do You Do It?

In our last blog post (read it here!) we shared the easy secret to living longer, feeling better, and being slimmer with you: standing up more often! Standing triggers lipoprotein lipase, an enzyme designed to burn fat. This not only helps you shed pounds, but decreases your chance of cardiovascular disease and increases your lifespan! And don't forget the benefits for your back. Your spine feels great in a standing S-curve, but is under a lot of pressure in a sitting C-curve. We know that standing up can be difficult to work into an office lifestyle, but Health.com's article "6 Ways to Sit Less Every Day" by Sarah Kehoe has great tips to improve your lifestyle!

1. Spend your phone conversations as walking time. Pace around or even just stand in place while chatting.

2. Take a short walk after meals. This will trigger lipoprotein lipase, and get your metabolism to burn those after-eating calories!

3. Perch on a bar stool. Sit on the front third with your feet a little over hips' width apart. This provides that comfortable S-curve in your spine.

4. No seat means no sitting! Leave your chair at home when you're going out. If you don't have a seat at the park, you'll spend the time standing up. Or bring a blanket, since you will naturally spend some of your time on the blanket and some of your time standing up.

5. Instead of calling your coworker, stroll down to his office. You'll burn calories by walking to and standing in his office, and your spine will have the pleasure of good posture.

6. Mix up your workstations by relaxing on the floor (sitting cross-legged aligns your spine naturally), stacking books under your computer for a standing workstation, or improve your work space with a sit-to-stand desk!

With these tips, and the expertise and equipment at We've Got Your Back, you can spend more time standing...and more time feeling and looking great!

Stay tuned for more tips and tricks from Ilona and the We've Got Your Back team!

And don't forget to read the full article here.

Lose Weight, Feel Better, Live Longer...Just By Standing Up!

What if we told you that standing up could burn hundreds of extra calories per day, strengthen your
back, increase your lifespan, and decrease your risk of developing cardiovascular and other diseases? Health.com's October article by Arianne Cohen, "Stand Up for Your Health," says just that. Standing up is an easy way to drastically improve your health! Here are the facts:

1. An enzyme in the blood vessels of your muscles isn't stimulated by sitting. When you stand, this enzyme is hard at work burning fat molecules. Just from sitting, this enzyme can decrease by 90% to 95% in fat-blasting activity. Worse yet, studies show that 60 to 90 minutes of exercise per day can't reverse the effects of spending all day in a chair. So stand up against fat!

2. Your body is programmed for your strong legs to support the weight of your body. When you sit, all that weight is transferred into your spine and pelvis, which aren't used to the pressure. Also, your spine is naturally in an S-shape (a strong shape), but sitting forces it into a C-shape (one that is weaker against pressure). Sitting pushes your body into unnatural spine positions, and can hurt your spine in the long run.

3. A large-scale, 14 year study following 70,000 women showed that women who spent 6 hours a day sitting had a 37% higher chance of death than those who spent 3 hours a day in a chair. And spending 6 hours a day led to 2.7 times higher chances of developing cardiovascular disease. Spending more time standing can put years onto your life!

Luckily, We've Got Your Back makes it easy to work standing into your busy schedule. With our great Sit-to-Stand work tables, you can do all of your typical sitting activities standing up! These desks are an excellent solution to balancing your busy life with the practice of standing up, which can lead to a longer, healthier life!

Stay tuned for more tips and news from Ilona and the We've Got Your Back team!

And don't forget to read the full article here!

Pain-Proof Your Laptop!

Laptops, e-Readers, and all of those convenient gadgets we own have one major risk: they lead to neck, back, and shoulder pain because they force you to sit uncomfortably! So let's enjoy our gadgets healthfully, with tips from Maridel Reyes' October Health Magazine guide "Use Your Gadgets Pain-Free."

For a back-friendly laptop:

• The design of laptops is the source of their potential for injury--they force you to hunch over so that you can type and see the screen at the same time. Put the laptop on a stand so that the top of the screen is at your eye-level. Say good-bye to hunchbacks!
• Better yet, plug in a separate mouse and keyboard, with the keyboard at elbow height for proper arm positioning to prevent fatigue.
• Prevent eye strain and glare into your eyes by adjusting the screen to around the same brightness as the room you are in. Sit with a window to the side of the screen to prevent glare. And don't forget to look away every 5 to 10 minutes to give your eyes a rest!

For an instant ergonomic tablet:

• Sit up with a comfortable seat supporting your back. To rest your arms, prop the gizmo up with a pillow on your lap, since clutching it for hours causes arm fatigue!
• Adjust the character size to prevent eye strain. You should be able to read the letters easily, and don't forget to give your eyes a break by glancing away from time to time!

We've Got Your Back is all about making your workspace comfortable and back-friendly! Stop by the store for more tips to save your back from gadget fatigue, or take a look at our useful office or leisure tools to help you enjoy your laptop pain-free!

Breast Cancer Risks--And All Natural Ways to Bring Your Risk Down!

It’s the month of October, and Breast Cancer Awareness is the theme of this time of year! All women should know how to keep themselves healthy and cancer-free, so make sure you talk to your doctor about checking up on your health. But there are ways to help prevent breast cancer from developing through natural, easy steps. According to Aviva Patz’s October Health Magazine article “Breast Cancer: What You Must Know,” there are five easy ways to cut your risk for developing breast cancer:

• Get Moving! Moderate to vigorous exercise (45-60 minutes a day, 5 days a week) shows a relationship with cutting cancer risk down by 25%!
• Shape Up! According to a recent study, obesity is the biggest avoidable cause of breast cancer. For heavier women, just a 5 to 10 percent decrease in weight can lower your cancer risk.
• Breastfeed! According to a recent study, moms who breastfed for a year (total throughout lifetime) had a lower risk rate than mothers who didn’t breastfeed.
• Veg-ify Your Diet! Studies suggest that a high-fiber diet reduces your risk of breast cancer, but one thing is for certain: a healthy diet full of veggies, fruits, whole grains, and beans can reduce your risk of all cancers by 60 to 80%!
• Stay Clean! We all have vices, but smoking and alcohol in particular are linked to a higher chance of breast cancer.

So enjoy a more exercise-filled, healthy lifestyle! These all-natural ways of hopefully preventing breast cancer are great, but keep in mind that nothing is more important than checking with your doctor regarding your cancer risk.

For more details about ways to cut your risk and other breast cancer breakthroughs, check out the full Health Magazine article. And stop by We've Got Your Back for tools to keep you on the right exercise path! We have the tools to help you shape up to enrich your health!

 

Walk--Don't Run--to Your Weight-Loss and Stress-Loss Goals!

Walking is an easy way to fit exercise into our busy lifestyles. But when you want to lose weight, walking to reach your goal seems impossible! Luckily, The Biggest Loser trainer Bob Harper has some tips that can turn your walking routine into an easy and simple fat-blasting one. According to Rozalynn S. Frazier’s ’s October article “A Whole New Way to Walk It Off” in Health magazine, Harper has 3 easy moves to incorporate into a walking routine in order to shed pounds more effectively. Here is his made-over exercise regimen:

• Do a short warm-up walk. After a few minutes, speed up. You should feel winded but still capable of talking in short bursts.
• After each 4-minute walking segment, do 1 “power minute.” You can choose from jumping jacks, sprinting, and walking lunges. You can just focus on one, but all 3 give the best results. 3 different moves prevent you from the “shape-up plateau.”
• Repeat this 5-minute cycle 9 times for a 45 minute workout. For best results, repeat it 5 times per week!
• After the workout, don’t forget to cool down with calf, hamstring, and quad stretches to loosen your muscles and prevent soreness.

Shedding pounds isn’t the only benefit of this exercise. Not only do the moves boost your cardio exercise and shape up your heart, but also strengthen your entire leg. Best of all, running can help lower cortisol, a stress hormone that is linked to weight gain. The higher your heartrate, the easier it is to beat the stress!

Nothing is more beautiful than walking in the fall colors. Now is the perfect season to walk off your pounds--and stress--with this workout regimen. With the help of We’ve Got Your Back’s pole-walking poles, classes, and tips, you can be in great shape--both in your body and in your soul!

 

Coffee's Health Benefits

 You don't have to think about skipping your morning cup of coffee, because interestingly enough, it has some proven health benefits. For example, coffee drinkers, compared to non-coffee drinkers, have fewer cases of certain cancers, heart rythm problems, and strokes. Overall, the benefits outweigh the negative effects of coffee on the body. Although coffee has been shown to raise blood pressure, it has also been shown to counter several risks in heart disease and strokes.

Here are some more of the perks you can get from drinking coffee, from Health Magazine. For instance, it can help fight disease! The caffeine in coffee protects your brain cells from diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. They also can help prevent liver disease.

In the same way that it can protect your brain cells, it can boost your brainpower. Taking coffee before a test can not only sharpen your memory, but keep you more alert. Just make sure you avoid caffeine at least four hours before bedtime.

The caffeine in coffee can also speed up your metabolism and fat burning, which not only helps you lose weight, but it puts you at a lesser risk for type 2 diabetes and obesity. Not only that, but black coffee is a drink with very few calories.

And coffee isn't the only thing that can improve your health and brainpower! Come into We've Got Your Back to see the easy tools for getting fit that we carry! With the help of LifeStrength bracelets, yoga mats, and pole walking tools, getting fit has never been easier!

 

7 Steps to Instant Calm (Health.com)

When you're busy with life's everyday tasks, it's easy to forget how much stress is really present in your life. Little bits of stress add up quickly and before you know it, the stress can overwhelm you. Even the smallest amount of stress can lead to a chain reaction of health problems, because although you may not be aware of the amount of stress you're under, your body is.

This is why it's important to make a plan or daily routine for your busy lifestyle. Check out these tips to "Instant Calm" from Health Magazine.

The first step to managing your stress is noticing it early enough so that it doesn't build up to the point that it becomes overwhelming. The signs of stress are not that simple, because your body can be very subtle. Stress also affects your sleep so sometimes no matter how much sleep you get, you still wake up tired. Keep yourself in check by looking for unusual changes in your habits or health that may be spurred by anxiety.

The next step is not to worry about what went wrong; that will only create more stress. Shift your focus to your body instead by sitting in your chair and really feeling the seat beneath you. Take long, deep breaths and relax. Exhale longer than you inhale to deepen your breathing, and slowly you will feel your worries begin to lift. Check out some more tips from Health Magazine's article:

It's easy to use stress as an excuse to skip exercise—you've got way too many other things on your mind, right? But working out actually helps balance stress hormones, Dr. Emmons says.

So take a break, and walk up and down a few flights of stairs, or sign up for that kickboxing class you've been dying to try. Then cool down from your routine with some mellow music: Make a special "soothing" playlist for your iPod, recommends Beth Hamilton, MD, co-author of So Stressed: The Ultimate Stress-Relief Plan for Women. Research suggests that your brain waves will sync up with the slow rhythm, putting you in a meditative state.

If you want to pursue your journey to relaxation, come by We've Got Your Back for the yoga, massage, and relaxation tools that can get you there!

Be sure to check out the rest of the article and stay tuned for more tips and tricks from We've Got Your back!