Don't Just Sit There by Katy Bowman, (06) Working Out on Company Time, Notes

Post date: Oct 6, 2016 10:05:28 AM

Don't Just Sit There by Katy Bowman

Chapter 6. Working Out on Company Time: The Subtle Stuff - The small movements we engage in throughout our day are just as important to our health as large movements and sensible workout routines. All sorts of health improving smaller movements can be done within the confines of a work space. Remember to always align body parts when you exercise. Subtle movement exercise prescription: do these movements the entire time you are working. Think alignment. The more you work on your body, the better transitioning out of a chair will go:

• • Gastroc Calf Stretch - This exercise unlocks the ankle and pumps blood into the lower limbs. We cannot do this exercise too much, especially to counteract heel wearing and chair sitting. It’s not only the shoes. Sitting in a chair requires the gastrocnemius (the calf muscle) to shorten more than wearing heels. Sitting with heels? Double whammy.

    • Use a towel or ½ foam roller. Step onto it with no shoes, keeping the heel on the floor.

    • Point the foot straight forward.

    • Keep the stretching leg straight at all times.

    • Keep the body upright with the shoulders and hips over the heels.

    • Step forward with the opposite foot. Only step as far forward as possible while still keeping everything else relaxed (no butt, quad or jaw clenching)

  • Soleus Calf Stretch

    • The soleus stretches when the ankle joint gets even smaller (increased dorsiflexion) requiring a bent knee. Standing on a half roll, bend the knee of the same leg while pressing the heel toward the ground.

  • Weight Shifting - Shift weight.

    • Be careful to unlock the pelvis and back the hips up.

    • Shift the weight side to side without bending the knees, just slowly push the feet into the floor. Use the muscles on the outside of the opposite foot to push. See if you are able to put the non weight bearing leg in the air without using the waist muscles. Practice weight shifting anytime you are standing around ‘doing nothing.’ No equipment required.

  • Foot Exercises - The foot has 26 bones, 33 joints and over 100 muscles, ligaments and tendons each. Modern footwear and constant flat level surfaces cause casting of the joints and muscle atrophy. To offset the static loading, these tiny parts must be mobilized:

    • Stand in alignment, weight pushing through the heels, spread the toes away from each other without lifting them away from the ground. Work on mobility in these tiny muscles and they will eventually wake up.

    • Now, lift the big toe off the ground. Keep the other toes down. Point the toe straight ahead. Keep the ball of the foot on the ground. Move to the other toes: lift each toe individually then put it back down.

    • Buy or build a cobblestone mat to work more parts. By mobilizing these even smaller parts in the foot we circulate more blood into the tiny capillaries and, therefore, less blood in the larger vessels of the arteries.

  • About the Eyes - When the eyes are engaged staring at a screen that is a fixed distance away for hours they become casted and therefore weakened. This makes them great in one way but weak in all others. Strength residing next to weakness in a structure makes that structure ripe for degeneration. The eye’s ciliary muscles are responsible for helping the lens change shape to focus on different objects. These muscles shorten with repetitive looking hours upon hours. The eyes become less able to focus on objects further away or quickly transition between focusing at different angles. The solution: cross train the eyes. Keep the eyes healthy. We want to see clearly so don’t take it for granted.

    • When working at a computer back off. Keep yourself as far away from the computer as your head ramping and arm length will allow. Rest. Give the eyes a break by staring at the furthest point away from you as possible. Take a quick glance every five minutes and more extended looks every 30 minutes.

    • Use a screen dimmer.