Thus…

People who don’t have the luxury of a private office, often use the bathroom…to exercise at work.

But their creativity does not end there! I did a survey about your ways to exercise at work. The responses below sum up what I got:

1. Lennox, a physician, recommends Tread Desk to exercise at work.

Walking while typing! Credit: TreadDesk.com

” I am a 39 year old physician specializing in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, so as a doctor function, almost any treatment I prescribe involves exercise. Sadly, with a more-than-full-time job as a physician, and as the mom of a 3 year old, and having another business as well, I rarely have time to exercise unless it’s after 10 PM.

New studies show that even if you exercise, prolonged sitting decreases your life expectancy. The other physician with whom I work & I were both really concerned about the effects this prolonged sitting, not to mention the fact that we were both getting low back pain, so we recently purchased a Tread Desk. Now we take turns on the treadmill while we type our daily notes. I already feel better, have more energy, and feel more focused at work. It’s been such an easy way to add exercise time and actually increase my productivity at work too.”

2. Carrie, a twin Mom…uses 5 min Youtube videos to exercise at work.

“I sneak exercise at work as much as possible, it energizes me during the course of the day. I often utilize YouTube and do a short 5 minute Tracy Anderson Arm video, which is great.

[Why are you exercising/stretching?]

To feel a little bit looser after long periods of sitting at the computer, and to increase my energy level if I am feeling a little bit sluggish.

[Have you seen any improvements in your body or mind by doing so? If yes, what?]

Yes, mainly mental improvements. I feel more energized afterwards and better able to focus. The video I mentioned above has definitely helped my arms become very toned!”

3. Ian, a CEO, has fitness gear at work.

“I understand the importance of exercise for my health and well-being, but I can only make it to the gym twice a week because of my busy schedule.

Accordingly, I have a chin-up bar, dumbbells, and a punching bag in my office that I use at every opportunity on days I don’t make it to the gym. I also keep my mountain bike in the office so I can use it to go on local errands and still get a good workout of it. I am using the bike to peddle to the store to pickup lunch helps to get some cardio into my routine but is not enough by a long shot.”

4. Elizabeth, a PR professional, works with a personal trainer during lunch breaks.

Working out with a trainer at lunch breaks.

“My boss hired a personal trainer for me and my coworkers, at Marketing Maven Public Relations. This helps us all stay fit and energized throughout the week. Sometimes I work out with the trainer on my lunch-break, which always helps me recharge and refocus.”

5. John, a consultant, goes for runs!

“These days I’m the CEO so I go for a run or a long bike ride when I need to unlock some creativity. Exercise forces you to work both sides of your brain which I find helps me have those great aha! moments. No one can tell me that exercise is a waste of time and I know its worth it.

I used to balance on an exercise ball which is great for abs  and lower back. It’s a bit distracting at first but you get used to it and then I think its helpful because it makes your mind more active and present.”

6. Karyn, a real estate expert, uses SpinGym to exercise at work.

“I am 40 years old and a Real Estate Broker. I exercise at work all the time in an effort to stay fit. I am preparing for a fitness competition and don’t always have the time to get to the gym.
I use a product called the SpinGym.com to do my arms. It is a simple way to get my arm exercises in and easy to carry around.”

7. Susan, an online jewelry retailer, uses weights at the office.

“I recently brought an eight-pound weight into the office that sits under my desk to remind me to do bicep curls, tricep kick-backs and overhead presses to try to reduce the flaps on my upper arms. I do three sets of twelve on each side during the course of the day…

I’m hoping it makes wearing sleeveless tops and dresses a little more comfortable this year!”

8. Tyler, the VP of a fitness website, does push-ups to exercise at work.

Exercise at work...with push-ups!

“One of the benefits of working for a fitness website is the encouragement to keep fit and healthy all the time, even at work! Whether it’s random push-ups or a quick 5 minute walk and stretch, I try to include some exercise in my daily routine every few hours to keep myself alert. It really helps me focus and improves my productivity throughout a long day!”

Looking for more ideas to exercise at work? The “Office Time Out” android app may be just what you need for stretches, office exercises, and the ability to set reminders to get you off the chair!

Any other ideas to exercise at work? I’d love to hear them!

Photo Credits: trainer- familymwr ; push-ups – SparkFunElectronics

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Pick your kids up from school.

Grocery-shop at the super-market.

And then you have to cook dinner…

Ok you’d like to cook dinner…if only you didn’t have to chase your kids from one room to another!

You are tired.

But, there is good news.

Chores, running errands, and chasing your kids save your life!

According to the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, it is striking that the vast majority of daily nonsleeping time is spent in either sedentary behavior (58%) or light-intensity activity (eg, strolling, washing dishes, and gardening) (39%) and only 3% in health-enhancing physical activity time.

Because time spent on health-enhancing physical activity is just 3%, most variance in sitting time comes from sitting time displacing light-intensity activity. In other words, you sit when you are not running errands, or doing chores, or even enjoying a walk with friends or chasing your kids around.

Thus, if you have no errands to run, or no chores to do…you will probably end up sitting (even) more.

And too much sitting…kills. It is correlated with…Increased mortality (e.g., heart attack risk increase of 54%)…This includes sitting when watching TV, time spent in cars, and daily total sitting.

If you want to save your life, you have to decrease sitting time and increase exercise or light-activity time.

The more chores, the better! hehe

But you exercising…

Well done! Only that exercising is such a small percentage of daily time…While sitting takes up 58% of your day…You are still accumulating too many sitting hours.

Or, maybe your are not exercising…

Cool, but that does not mean that you cannot be more active and sit less!

According to this study on energy expenditure, an office worker that returns home at 5pm…:

• And sits on the couch watching TV until 11 pm, will need 30 kcal to maintain his weight. [Half an orange is about 30 kcal.]
• If instead of watching TV, he stands up and takes the weeds out of the garden, and paints a room, his energy needs will increase from 30 kcal to 750-1125 kcal.

Thus, the same office worker will need 1000 kcal more if he choses to do chores in the evening.

This is just 1 plate of delicious pesto pasta. One evening of errands equals 2-3 plates of pasta...guilt free.

Sitting all evening allows you to eat...half an orange.

Apart from decreasing his heart attack risk, he will also be able to eat 5 servings of pasta (= 1000 kcal), or 1 big piece of cheesecake without gaining any extra weight!!

(You guessed it right – I can eat almost unlimited amount of pasta, and I love cheesecakes)

Ok, ok he can skip the unhealthy food and nurture himself him with something healthy like broccoli. He will need about 2.5 kg of broccoli to reach 1000 kcal!!!!!

Save your life challenge: Replace sitting with light activity once a day.

Here are a few “save your life” ideas:

1. Stand up/Walk while talking on the phone.
2. Walk to your coworker rather than e-mailing them.
3. At work, go to a bathroom that is more far away.
4. Stand up and stretch during TV commercials.
5. Do a chore on foot rather than by car.
6. Take the stairs rather than the elevator.
7. Use the Office Time Out app and take more frequent, active breaks when at work.

Just pick ONE of those ideas and start applying it immediately! You are helping yourself be more active, sit less, and live longer!

P.S. Want to measure how you are doing? According to this study, every minute of sedentary behavior replaced with light activity would expend 1 additional kilocalorie (calculated for a person weighing 72 kg). Thus, if you, e.g., stand up for 10 minutes while you are on the phone, then you get 10 extra kcal lost. Fyi, 3500 kcal = 1 pound.

Photo credits: pasta – www.justgrobio.com ; half orange – jeroen bennink

Yoga? Or pilates?

Pilates? Like Yoga, right?

Or, maybe not?

Pilates and Yoga are said to be cousins, yet they are different at the same time.

Which one is better anyway?

Listen to pilates & yoga experts Suzanne Ludlum &  Ginger Garner in a Fitness Duel between pilates and yoga.

Which one is a better fit for you?

In this Health & Fitness Duel podcast, you’ll learn:

1. Why you should do yoga or pilates vs. other forms of exercise.
2. How many times a week should someone do yoga or pilates.
3. How yoga is different from pilates (e.g., muscles worked, equipment used, mind-body connection, time required, cost…etc).
4. What you should expect after your first month of pilates or yoga training as a beginner.
5. How to recognize when yoga and pilates are taught the WRONG way.
6. Who should NOT do yoga and pilates.
7. Which one is better: yoga or pilates?
8. How a yoga or pilates fan can maximize results.

About the experts:

Suzanne Ludlum

Suzanne Ludlum, RYT 500, E-RYT 200; Thai Yoga Massage Practitioner.  I believe that Yoga is for every body, no matter what your age or physical condition.  Practiced mindfully and safely, Yoga can transform your life.  I can be found on Facebook, LinkedIn, and on my website, www.trinityyogaandhealing.com or my blog, www.theimperfectpilgrim.com.

Ginger Garner

Ginger Garner MPT, ATC, ERYT500, CPI — is an educator in using yoga and Pilates as medicine, and is a orthopaedic and women’s health physical therapist. As a published author, Ginger pens the popular mothers health Breathing In This Life  and for Modern Mom, Fit and Fearless Birth. Ginger is an activist for improving health care in the US. She developed the first medical yoga post-graduate program, Professional Yoga Therapy, in 2001, and started one of the first holistic physical therapy clinics in the US. Ginger has written more than 30 educational programs in using yoga and Pilates for healing and a 4-volume text on the PYT method. You can reach Ginger at www.gingergarner.com and  www.professionalyogaatherapy.org. Follow Ginger on Facebook and Twitter, and Professional Yoga Therapy on Facebook.

Photo caption: Back-bend: gbSk

When at work…

• Do you feel stiff or have back pain?
• Do you feel like you have no energy left?
• Do you find it hard to concentrate and actually be productive?

Welcome to Zombie Mode my friends…

Zombie mode is when you accidentally wake up and find yourself…on Facebook (or if it’s prohibited in your office, then doing something equally mindless) and suddenly wonder…”What am I doing here? What did I do before?”

Zombie mode is almost unavoidable when you have to continuously sit on a chair for so many hours!

But zombie mode is NOT the only bad effect of sitting….A few other effects are…

• Back pain
• Postural imbalances
• Joint problems

And finally…the effects of sitting do not end on depleting your energy and affecting your back and posture. Sitting also affects your longevity.

I was recently very disappointed to realize that sitting is an independent heart disease risk factor. Yes, just like obesity, smoking, or lack of exercise. Sitting can actually increase your heart attack chances by 54%! Oh, and the worst part is that exercise does NOT protect you from sitting too much (same way that exercise does not protect you from, e.g., smoking!).

Most people that become aware of these risks become more mindful when it comes to their sitting time. They decide that they will start standing more, or walking more when at work. However, even though most of them remember to follow up on their decision during their first week, it’s really hard to remind themselves that they need to stand up more and sit less. Thus, starting week 2 they go back to their old habits of sitting…too long and too much.

A few other solutions have already been proposed to fight sitting. A standing desk, a stability ball, or going to the company gym during work hours are some of them. However, not every employer offers these solutions to their workers.

That’s why I developed the Office Time Out App!

The Office Time Out app helps you remember take a break and do something worthwhile in your break like stretching or exercising.

This is how it works…

You are on your desk working on your computer…

Suddenly your phone vibrates. Oh right, it’s the reminder you have already set.

You stand up from your chair, immediately do 1-2 exercises, and then sit down and keep working.

It’s that simple!

Time Outs don’t have to be long…They can just be 30 sec. The point is to GET UP FROM THAT CHAIR!

Take a look…

Selecting an office workout for your time out

A desk sideplank may be all that you need for your microbreak!

Setting reminders to get up from the chair and do something...

Want to see how many times you have helped yourself with exercise breaks? There is a tracker for you...

The Office Time Out Main Menu

So are you ready to fight sitting and be more active in your every-day life?

Are you ready to get rid of Zombie Mode?

Are you ready to claim more years in your life?

The Office Time Out app will help you feel better every-day at work AND live longer.

Office Time Out is now out for Android phones, and you can download it in Google Play.

Through our little chat, I discovered that her gym workout plan was not helping her appear more proportional: Instead it was ruining her posture, making her adopt a slouchy posture rather than having the strong, proud upper body she dreamt of.

Here is what she did:

• She would do a lot of cardio.
• She would exercise her arms (biceps only – i.e., front of her upper arms).
• She would exercise her chest.
• She would exercise her legs.
• She would exercise her abs.

Can you spot what’s the problem with the plan above?

I will help you…

It’s NOT balanced!

She exercises MOST of her body, but completely neglects her back, spinal muscles, triceps (i.e., back of her arms), and shoulders!

When exercising…you cannot just focus on a few muscles and forget about the rest of your body. Doing this will create muscle imbalances. Muscle imbalances will possibly create postural deviations, which will intensify muscle imbalances and which may lead to joint problems in the future.

Seriously, you don’t want to start exercising in Month 1 with a good posture, and find yourself slouchy by Month 3.

Here is why what she did was hurting her posture…

She was exercising her chest muscles but neglecting her back (and shoulders). As her chest muscles become stronger, they pull her shoulders forward. At the same time, since the back remains weak, the back does not have enough strength to hold the shoulders back. Thus, shoulders start rolling forward…And the slouchy look begins!

Here is how the slouchiness looks like in its initial stages (and here is how to check your own posture)…

Side View of Bad Posture

Side View of Good Posture

If you don’t take care of the slouchiness at that point, your posture may keep getting worse, slowly expanding to kyphotic or lordotic problems.

While focusing on a specific muscle group for a while is fine (and encouraged if you need to strengthen that particular muscle group), totally neglecting muscle groups may create problems for you!

The Major Muscle Groups Checklist:

Check whether you are working all your major muscle groups!

1. Am I exercising my shoulders?
2. Am I exercising my chest and upper back?
3. Am I exercising my abs (upper and lower) and spinal muscles?
4. Am I exercising the front & back sides of my legs: quads and hamstrings?
5. Am I exercising my buttocks?
6. Am I exercising my  inner thighs and outer legs: adductors and abductors?
7. Am I exercising the front and back sides of my upper arms (biceps and triceps)?
8. Am I exercising my calves?

This is a total of 13 major muscle groups. I have grouped some of them together, because if you are, e.g., working your biceps (i.e., the frontal muscle of your arm), then you GOT TO exercise your triceps too (i.e., the muscle at the back of your arm).

Body-weight exercises help you avoid accidentally ruining your posture

The advantage of body-weight exercises is that most of them engage various muscles at the same time, thus you are less in danger of muscle isolation – something that may happen more easily if you are exercising at the gym.

Golden exercise #1: Push-ups

Sofa push-ups demonstration

A classic chest exercise is push-ups. However, push-ups don’t just work your chest: they also work your abs and spinal muscles, your (frontal) shoulders, and triceps.

Actually, here is a complete list of muscles engaged when doing pushups:

Primary muscles

• Anterior and medial deltoids [shoulders]
• Triceps [arms]
• Pectoralis major and pectoralis minor [chest]

Secondary muscles (synergists or stabilizers)

• Rhomboid major and rhomboid minor [back]
• Erector spinae [spinal muscles]
• Rotator cuff [shoulders]
• Posterior deltoids [shoulders]
• Serratus anterior [chest]
• Rectus abdominus [abs]
• Transverse abdominus [abs]
• Gluteus maximus [butt]
• Quadriceps [front of upper legs]

Just pick a push-up variation that fits your fitness level and include it in your workout program!

Golden Exercise #2: Squats

Overhead squats demonstration

Similarly, squats is an exercise that engages most of your lower body muscles, not just your quads. Here is a list of muscles engaged:

Primary Muscles

• Gluteus Maximus  [butt]
• Quadriceps [front of upper legs]
• Hamstrings [back of upper legs]

Secondary Muscles (Synergists/Stabilizers)

• Erector Spinae [spinal muscles]
• Transverse Abdominus [abs]
• Gluteus medius/minimus [outer legs]
• Adductors [inner thighs]
• Soleus [calves]
• Gastrocnemius [calves]

Just pick a squat variation that fits your fitness level and you are ready to go!

Did you see how many muscle groups each one of those exercises engage? By including those two exercises in your workout plan you have made sure you work on most of your body’s muscle groups!

Actually, just by doing these two exercises you have touched upon 12 out of 13 major muscle groups: shoulders, chest, back, abs, spinal muscles, legs (quads and hamstrings), butt, inner thighs, outer legs, calves, triceps.

Action tip:

Don’t get overwhelmed with all this info. Just take a look at the Major Muscle Groups Checklist, and consider whether you are COMPLETELY NEGLECTING one of your major muscle groups. If you think you do, then a simple Google search (e.g., “calves exercises”) should give you what you need! Or, you can check Fitness Reloaded’s complete list of workout videos.

If you don’t feel confident with your workout plan, then you can just show it to a trainer and ask him/her whether you are on the right track.

Simple!:)

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“No, but I know I should…” patting his (beer?) belly at the same time.

You see, having a nice physique is almost equal to having a flat belly! That’s what people want! Yet, they approach it the wrong way.

They go to a gym and devote 30 min in ab exercises every time. They do crunches after crunches, often more than 400 in each workout.

Then, after a while, they approach a trainer and ask:

“I have been doing SO MANY ab exercises, yet my belly is still there: proud & fatty! I don’t know what else to do!”

Then they go back and keep doing what they have already been doing: more ab exercises.

Unfortunately, ab exercises is not the fastest path to a flat belly…

If you really truly want a flat belly, if you truly dream of fitting into your old jeans without having to lie on your bed and apply pressure to the zipper…If you want to stop sucking your belly when you take pictures… then you should avoid ab exercises.

Yes, that’s correct. I said avoid.

Counter-intuitive? Yes.

Effective? Yes.

Wrong? No.

Attention: I am not suggesting that you should generally avoid ab exercises. Ab exercises are great, especially if you need to strengthen your core in particular. Several medical conditions actually require ab exercises. However, when it comes to having a flat belly, ab exercises may just not be as effective!

Need a flat belly? Three reasons why should avoid ab exercises.

1. Ab exercises are inefficient for belly fat loss.

Your abs, or else, your core participates in most movements. Lots of exercises target your abs, even though they

Push-ups: Amazing exercise for your whole body!

are not known as “ab exercises”.

Abs in particular are inefficient because they only work your abs – you could use the same amount of time and work BOTH your abs AND other muscle groups!

This in return will bring benefits to you, as more muscle = more calories burned when you are NOT exercising:

Stronger muscles require more energy…That’s why you will be burning more calories if you are strong than if you are weak. That’s why big muscular guys eat A LOT. It’s not because they will burn all those calories at the gym…It’s that they need all those calories to sustain their muscles!

A few exercises that work your abs marvelously are:

Pull ins: Get your feet to the front, and then back, front, back, front, back...

1. Push-ups: Think about it. Push-ups are like the plank – it’s just that they have one extra movement: getting your body close to the floor and up.
2. Pull-ins: Again this is very similar to the plank – just a lot more exhausting because of all this jumping!

Why push-ups and pull-ins work like wonders:

1. They both work multiple muscle groups in your body: arms, abs, chest, back, etc.

2. They both contain a cardiovascular component, as they will make you heart beat faster as you do them! And a faster beating heart…burns more calories…More calories burnt = increased fat loss.

2. Ab exercises will make you feel like you have “worked”.

After completing 400 crunches you are meant to feel “proud” and tired from all this “work”.

Unfortunately, crunches is one of the worst exercises ever for belly fat loss. It’s a very superficial exercise.

Feeling like you have “worked” will deter you from doing more effective exercises, like push-ups and pull-ins. After all, you have already “worked” right? You don’t need to do anything else.

So you will just stick to your 400 crunches (and maybe some more exercises), without ever thinking that you could have utilized those 15-30 min of crunches in doing SUPER-EFFECTIVE exercises.

If you want a flat belly like this lady, then you have to start from nutrition.

3. Ab exercises divert your attention from what actually matters.

Since ab exercises make you feel like you “have worked” you may not realize that the are other things that you SHOULD be doing, if you ever want to see your flat belly go away.

And those things do matter.

No, I am not talking about using your time more effectively by doing exercises that work your whole body rather than just focusing on your abs (that was Nr. #1).

No, I am not talking about cardio.

I am talking about nutrition.

Nutrition is 80% of fat loss. If you want to keep eating what you are already eating, but lose weight, then you will have to exercise for HOURS and HOURS, and you may still get minimal results.

That’s because…nutrition is what matters the most.

I am not going to give you nutrition advice here, but I am going to tell you that if you want to get a flat belly, then nutrition is #1.

Once you do that, then and only then, should you focus on exercising.

So I should never do ab exercises?

No, ab exercises are great! Especially if you are a beginner, weak, or in rehabilitation mode, then abs may be exactly what you need.

In addition, if you are an athlete and need to specifically strengthen your core, then you cannot get away without doing ab exercises!

However, assuming that you are not a beginner and have no special needs, but want a flat belly, then doing ab exercise for hours won’t be effective.

Of course, assuming that you actually have unlimited time for exercise, then adding ab exercises to your workout program doesn’t hurt!

However, granted that most people rarely have unlimited time, if you do want to get a flat belly, then doing ab exercises should be really low in your priority list!

Final note: This article is debating minutiae.

Seriously, it is. What matters the most is whether you are exercising or not. If you are currently exercising then you are already helping your health tremendously by decreasing your heart disease risk and increasing the quality of your every-day life (i.e., more energy, better mood, better sleep, etc).

If you are currently NOT exercising, then don’t let all this talk about what exercises you should do confuse you and prevent you from getting started. Just start with anything! Anything is better than nothing! You can optimize as you get used to exercising and learn more along the way

Photo Credits: Six pack: jnissa ; Flat Belly: gareth1953 Friends I’m Back, My Worst Ever Predict

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Amazing strength, amazing back-bend.

Assumptions are part of life. We all fall into the their trap. Unfortunately, we fail to test most of them. The result? We hold ourselves back, we harm our health, we don’t let ourselves even just explore…how much we can do.

Had I known the things I am talking about in this post earlier (e.g., when I was a teen):

1. I would have exercised through all my teenage years – vs. not exercising at all, or just yo-yoing.
2. I would be in a better physical shape by now, doing at least 10 pulls ups and 30 pushups – I can currently do about 5 pull ups and 15 pushups.
3. I would have not gained weight during my first 2 years in the US – I had gained about 11 pounds.
4. I would be super flexible by now – I can currently do splits but I could also do over-splits and back-bends.
5. I would have found out what would have happened, if I had never stopped exercising.

But all the above are meaningless compared to:

1. I would have had more energy every day, feeling less tired with every-day chores.
2. I would have improved my sleep and thus, my every-day productivity.
3. I would have improved my mood, and maybe prevented some low phases of my life.

However, the above are just symptoms of a healthier lifestyle. Had I known those 5 things earlier, the real difference I would have felt is that…:

I would have realized that I could achieve anything I want!

I would have learned to look inside me to find strength rather than seek outside validation!

I would have felt empowered to pursue even the wildest dream!

The truth is that you CAN achieve a lot more than what you think you can…And this is a fact I learned through exercise.

 5 things about exercise I wish I had known earlier

1. Exercising is easy.

I spent most of my teenage years being swamped with schoolwork. I would be in school until 3 pm and then I would have classes and studying until 11 pm. I wished I exercised but I thought I didn’t have enough time for it.

Total B.S.

I did have 10 minutes a day. I just found that 10 min a day would be worthless.

Boy, I was so, so wrong.

At that point I didn’t realize that 10 min a day are actually enough.

With 10 min a day I could do 2 full workouts a week.

But I didn’t realize that.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, when I first came to the US I gained 11 pounds in 2 years.

Had I exercised for 10 min every day, I would have burned 6 pounds a year.

Had I exercised for 10 min every day for 2 years, I would have burned 12 pounds.

=> Had I exercised for 10 min every day, I would have gained no weight at all!

Most people tend to accumulate weight as years pass by, but they they fail to recognize the value of those small steps.

I am glad I know now.

Charles Atlas - super sculpted without a gym!

2. You can exercise at home

as effectively as at the gym.

I admit it. I did believe that in order to exercise properly I either needed to enroll at a gym, or at least sign-up for group fitness classes.

That is a non-harming belief as long as you:

• Have enough time to devote to the hidden costs of exercise, like going to the gym and back.
• Don’t travel – it’s hard to find a gym and get in a routine when you do.

Unfortunately, in my case both of the above applied. Believing I needed a gym was a harming belief for me, another untested assumption.

The truth is you can exercise as effectively as home as at the gym. If muscular people like Charles Atlas got their physique through body-weight exercises that can be done anywhere, then why did I believe I needed a gym?

I guess I didn’t know about Charles back then.

3. You can be flexible, even if you are not a ballet dancer.

When I was a teen I was secretly dreaming I had maintained the flexibility I had when I was in primary school and was in ballet school.

After all I could do splits and other cool stuff with ease back then.

However, I was not in ballet school anymore, and I felt I could not go back to that flexibility level.

I also felt that trying to get to that level would take me at least 2 years.

My thigh injury made flexibility an impossible dream for me, until I learned how to work around it.

Then, I went from being super-stiff, to doing splits not in 2 years…not in 1 year…but in 6 months!

You can do that too, you just need to learn how to get over your injuries, and how to stretch safely.

4. Age is irrelevant.

I’ll be honest, when I was a teen or an undergrad, I felt too old.

Yes I did! Isn’t that amazingly stupid?

I felt too old to become flexible once again (isn’t flexibility something you need to have as a child?). Too old to shape my body (isn’t this something that you do when you are still growing up?).

Then, I started exercising regularly and witnessed my legs shaping up & becoming leaner,and my posture improving. I looked much thinner even though I had lost no weight.

Why did I believe I was too old?

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

5. You can achieve anything as long as you make it a habit.

I used to think that some things need enormous effort to make them happen. Later on I realized that…

Wonderful achievements don’t need enormous effort, they just need consistent effort.

Consistent effort bears wonderful results even if it’s just a little bit.

For instance, after 7 years of having an injured thigh and being super-stiff, and after countless failed attempts to become more flexible, I felt that doing a split was close to impossible.

However, I started stretching consistently. I devoted 10 min to stretching 4 times a week, every week without fail.

And voila! I got to splits 6 months later.

Good things happen to people who apply consistent effort.

I wish I had known that earlier. I wold have felt so much more empowered.

But I am glad I know it now.

I am glad I know now all the above 5 things. Even if I was 95 years old, I would still be glad to know them.

Thinking about why I had not realized those things earlier, I only come to one conclusion: I was looking to what other people are doing and was granting that as correct.

The majority must know something that I don’t, right?

Well, I have realized that…the majority is not a good counsel.

I mean look at the habits of the majority: eating junk food, not exercising…

And yet I was looking to the majority for answers.

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.

- Mark Twain

So do you have any assumptions that are not tested yet? What a better week to test them than this one!

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Photo captions: Back-bend: gbSk; Charles Atlas: charlesatlas.com

Sometimes working harder...is NOT the answer!

You have tried to become a regular exerciser, yet it does not really work for you.

Maybe you have started exercising in the past but stopped after a while.

Maybe you are currently exercising, but you are yo-yoing – you know, exercise for two months, then take a break for a week, then exercise for another 3 months, and then take a 1-month break, etc.

The problem with yo-yoing (or ultimately quitting exercise) is that you lose your exercise momentum, as well as the results you have achieved. So you both lose the results you have achieved AND it feels harder to go back to exercising because you have lost your momentum. That sucks.

At this point, most people think they should “try harder”. I think they should “try smarter”.

How triggers can make (or break) your exercise success

Most people depend on willpower to make their exercise plan work. However, willpower is limited. It’s meant to run out after a while.

What happens when your willpower runs out? Do you quit? Do you take a break?

Or, do you have a system that carries you over?

Let me explain.

The reason you sometimes skip workouts, or the reason that you stopped exercising, may NOT be that you:

• didn’t have enough time,

• didn’t have enough motivation,

• were…lazy.

It may be as simple as not having established the right triggers…Just that. No time, motivation, or laziness trash. Just lack of triggers.

But what are triggers?

Triggers are calls to action. They can be -pretty much- anything.

• Your workout buddy who calls you to remind you of your exercise time.
• Your athletic shoes by the door that remind you to go for a jog.
• Your old jeans that don’t fit anymore – that make you want to get healthier and fitter.
• The old pictures when you were fitter – that make you want to get back in shape.
• A conversation with a friend about their recent transformation – now you want to replicate their results!

Triggers give you the impulse to do something. That’s why they are call to actions.

And this is why they should be taken advantage of

How to set up triggers to call yourself to exercise

 1. Remove Triggers that call you to other activities

Suppose you love reading the newspaper. You now decide that you will replace some of your newspaper reading time with exercise.

You go back home from work, you put on your athletic clothes, and go to the living room, ready to put on the exercise DVD to play.

You are about to look for the exercise DVD when you spot the newspaper.

Right there, on your coffee-table.

Boom, you now have the urge to go read that newspaper!

You have to fight it to resist!

Of course you have to fight – because newspaper reading is already a habit. A habit you want to change in favor of exercise.

You are now in danger of forgetting about your exercise plans and just reading the newspaper. This “economy collapse” headline is really calling you!

- “You will exercise now. You won’t postpone it again…”

- “But I am so tired…I could just sit on the couch. I deserve some relax time after such a hard day at work…”

You are already trying to talk yourself out of exercising! You wouldn’t need to get in this internal fight if you had been proactive:

Had you removed the newspaper from the coffee-table (which is a prominent space in your house) and put it in a place where it’s hard to spot, or had you not bought the newspaper in the first place, you wouldn’t need to fight with yourself right now. And you wouldn’t need to risk your exercise success.

You see, you already have well-established habits. In order to add more exercise in your life (which is a new habit) you need to alter some of your existing ones.

Had you removed the newspaper from the coffee-table in advance, you wouldn’t need to try as hard to exercise.

To make this process easier for you you need to FIND & REMOVE the triggers of the habits you want to change.

2. Add triggers that call you to exercise

Now that you have removed your old triggers, why not insert some new ones that actually make you exercise?

Here is my favorite:

Take your athletic shoes (or your jumping rope, or your yoga mat, or a dumbbell, etc) and place it in a prominent place inside your house.

E.g., you could put your shoes right in the middle of the living room. Or, just in front of the front door (so that you cannot get in or out without stumbling on them). Or, you could put your yoga mat on the sofa or on the coffee-table. You get the point.

This is a visual reminder to do your exercise.

• If you exercise you will put your shoes on and do your workout. Success!
• If you don’t exercise then you will need to take your athletic shoes away and store them back in the shoe rack.

I swear you won’t like moving your shoes away. Because moving your shoes away will be like “admitting failure”.

At the same time, with the shoes being in such a prominent place you do have pressure to make a decision. If you don’t, they will keep staring at you! And you will keep stumbling on them.

I hope you choose exercise

Exercise success is about trying smarter…not harder

You can make exercise MUCH EASIER:

1. Remove triggers that call you to your “old habits”, and
2. Add triggers that call you to do exercise!

Do these two steps and notice that you won’t have to fight with yourself, or drag yourself to exercise as much as you did before. There will be nothing distracting you from what you set-out to do: exercise!

Sometimes working harder…is simply NOT the answer to your problems

Any other triggers ideas that help you exercise? Please let me know about them here.

Photo Credit: Chris Fritz

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Luke Skywalker talking with Jedi Master Yoda

I recently started watching the Star Wars series. I had never watched a Star Wars movie before (yes, I know it sounds crazy, I don’t know how that happened!). However, after getting the Star Wars for Kinect, I had to watch the movies too!

When Luke Skywalker first starts training with the Jedi Master Yoda, Yoda tells Luke to move a spaceship out of a pond using the force (i.e., just with the power of his mind and the invisible power of the force). Luke says he cannot do it. It is too big. It is impossible. He tries, he moves it just a little, and then quits.

Disappointed, he walks away.

Then, Master Yoda takes action! Using the force he moves the spaceship out of the pond and on the land! Luke hears the noise and comes back to see what has happened. He is startled to see that Yoda has made it! It was not impossible after all!

You see, Luke’s mind was holding him back, and wouldn’t let him use the force to move the spaceship.

However, Luke Skywalker is not the only one who lets his mind get in the way.

We all do that.

And you know what? It’s ok that we do.

Our minds need training the same way our bodies need exercise.

Our minds pose barriers. However, we can train away our barriers the same way we train our muscles to lift heavier weights or just do crazy stuff we had never thought we could do. I have identified three different types of barriers. And yes, all of them can be trained!

Barrier #1: Lack of Skill

Until you actually get the skill, eating with your hands will be easier than using a fork!

Often, what holds us back is nothing more than a lack of skill. Our situation may require no changes at all, we may just need more practice.

Indeed Practice, Practice, Practice, is the motto of this type of barrier.

Example: When you were 3-4 you could eat alone using your fork. However, you were rather clumsy. Concluding that you were clumsy because, e.g., you didn’t have the strength to hold the fork would sound rather silly. It was just a matter of practice to improve the skill of eating with a fork. That’s it.

However, people often get confused with this simple barrier, thinking there is more to it than it really is.

For example, have you ever thought that exercise is also an art that needs to be mastered? Well, it is. This is why, e.g., people that have been exercising for years skip less workouts than people who are still new. The only difference between the two groups of exercisers is that people in the first group have practiced exercising for years, while the second group is still new. That’s it.

Still, several beginners will get demotivated by skipping workouts. They will think that they are not committed enough, or that exercise is just too hard. Some of them will conclude that just because it’s hard to stick to their plan exercise is just not for them and will quit, sacrificing their health as a result.

Hey folks, lack of skill is just lack of skill. Period. There is nothing else to think about it. There is only doing.

Practice, practice, practice.

Barrier #2 : Laziness

"I am lazy" (yawn)

People are inherently lazy. That is no secret. We had to be that way to survive: find the shortest and most efficient way to do things, find the easiest way to capture animals to eat, etc. Laziness gave us the motivation to actually do things smartly.

Imagine if we actually were not lazy. We would never accomplish anything and all our processes would be soooo inefficient! Or, most probably, we would already be dead. We would not even be born because our species would have been extinct. Another species that is more lazy than us would have prevailed.

However, laziness is…laziness after all and also has downsides. The downsides are that you may not do something that you know you should…just because you are lazy.

However, there is a solution. You my not be able to get rid of laziness (it’s in our nature after all) but…

You can use laziness to your advantage!

Let me give you some examples:

• A simple move like putting your priority #1 project on your desk the night before, can make you 200% more effective because you will now work on what is important to you rather than, e.g.,  devote the first 3 most productive hours of your day in e-mail. 200% more effective, just by having done that simple extra step the night before.
• Preparing your gym bag the day before may actually make the difference between the version of you that skips exercising and the version of you that actually exercises. This is why I advocate that you don’t necessarily need athletic clothes to exercise.
• Putting healthy food at a prominent place in your fridge and putting the unhealthy stuff at the back of your fridge, may be the difference between you eating healthy food rather than unhealthy. Why? Because you are too lazy to search all they way to the back of your fridge!

Barrier #3: Fear

Scared?

Sometimes pure fear gets in our way. This is exactly what happened to Luke Skywalker. He had the skill to move the spaceship, he was not aware of it though, and his fear wouldn’t let him discover just how powerful he was!

Fear is a primal emotion that cannot be reasoned with it. That means that talking to your fear won’t get any results…at all.

Picture that: You are in front of a lion, and you tell yourself not to be afraid. That it’s ok to run, but you don’t need to be afraid.

Will that have any results at all? No. Your whole body tells you that you have to protect yourself…RIGHT NOW, or else you will be turned into a meal! All the cells of your body are screaming! Plus, fear of a lion is super-healthy and good for you.

However, your unconscious cannot tell the difference between healthy and unhealthy fear.

The only way to bypass fear is to start small. Had Luke Skywalker started from moving objects that are not as big as a spaceship, he would have felt more and more confident in his ability to move objects using the force. Luke had actually started small, but he advanced too quickly to the spaceship level.

Luke was not ready for the spaceship yet.

The bad thing is that lots of people don’t respect this process. Since they know they could do something BIG, already, why waste time in doing small things?

They don’t understand the difference between being ready and not being ready.

Instead they:

• Don’t do anything at all – they feel comfortable in NOT doing anything, and are too scared to try the BIG thing. They disregard the SMALL things they CAN do, because they don’t understand their value. Yes, I am explicitly referring to the people that wished they exercised, yet don’t do it, because they don’t yet have 3 hours a week to devote to it. They have 5 min a week though, don’t they? Agh, 5 min a week is ridiculously small! So doing nothing it is…
• Try to do the BIG thing right away, even though they are not ready for it yet. This is exactly what Luke did. And we all know Luke did not succeed. Yes, I am referring to the people that start exercising 5 days a week for 2 hours each. They quit after a month or so. What a surprise!

Now you may be wondering…How do you know if you are ready for the next step?

There is only once answer: Trial and error.

• If you try to lift the spaceship and fail, you can either scale back (e.g., try to lift a table), or try to lift the spaceship again. Trying again and again will slowly make your mind relax in this process, slowly letting the fear go away.
• If you are not doing anything at all, then you can only go up. Just do something! Even just thinking about exercise is bound to make you fit! Really

Change is a process

Dealing with barriers will open the way to change for you. As your barriers go away, walking on this new path will get easier and easier.

This may feel uncomfortable. Even though the changes are good, you may feel awkward.

You may feel awkward enough that you may try to “cut back on the change” because it scares you. This is commonly known as fear of success.

It’s ok to scale back as long as you keep going.

Just remember this:

“It does not matter how slow you go as long as you do not stop”

- Confucius

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Photo Credit: Luke and Yoda: Philipcoppens.com ; Fork: ZeNahla ; Lazy: janoma.cl ; Scared: M-n-M

So if you have not yet gotten, it’s actually quite probable that at some point in your life low back pain will hit you as well. Especially, with all those hours we spend sitting with a lousy posture (sitting does not only contribute to low back pain, it kills).

However, you are not helpless in front of pain. Recreational physical activity helps reduce your chances of getting it:)

Physical activity that strengthens your core and hips also helps in recovering faster.

In this episode, I am showing you a quick workout of two exercises that you can do anywhere to help yourself reduce the chances of low back pain, or if you already in pain, recover faster from it.

Note: Consult a doctor before starting an exercise program. He/she knows best on what is right for your exact situation.

That said, let’s get going!

Workout Breakdown

1. The Clamshell: An amazing hip strengthener exercise

Lie down, legs bent & feet together: Raise your upper leg but keep your feet in contact.

2. Bird-Dog: An amazing core strengthener exercise

Back straight at all times!!! Your core stays STILL as you raise opposite arm with opposite leg.

That’s it! Doing 2-3 sets of these two exercise a couple times per week (= less than 15 min a week) will have disproportionate results in your lower back pain recovery or lower back pain risk reduction.

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