Daily Shower and Office Break Exercises

These are “isometric” exercises that can be done at least three times per day to strengthen all of your muscle groups.

Take advantage of morning showers, work breaks, long elevator rides, whatever, to perform these exercises.

The below may sound complicated at first, but add an exercise a day or so, to make learning it manageable. Make these a daily habit, and you will feel stronger and healthier within days.

Tighten and release muscles for say 10 or more counts, then contract and do not release them for 10 or more counts, unless otherwise noted, and short of any pain. Pain from a previous exercise should be allowed less forceful tightening, or temporary suspension of that particular exercise.

If you discover enhancements to the below, after your experiences with them, please advise.

1. "Back Smush": Arch the back so that lower back muscles, deltoids (upper back), triceps (back of upper arm), etc. are tightened. Stretch your head backwards, unless you feel dizziness, then move your head upwards. Continue breathing. 
2. "Front Smush": Arch forward so that abdominal, pectoral (breast), and biceps, etc. are tightened. Again, alternate your contraction focus among muscles to maximize effects to all groups. Continue breathing.

3. "Squeezer": Raise the arms straight out and contract the trapezius muscles (upper shoulder), gluteus maximus (butt), and quadriceps (top, front legs). Again, alternate your contraction focus among muscles to maximize effects to all groups. Continue breathing.

4. "Who's Behind Me?": While standing upright, slowly rotate from side to side (look straight behind, if you can) back and forth several times.

5. "Neck Clicker": Rotate, wag, and nod head and neck (not too fast or forceful) to eliminate bone clicking of the vertabrae.

6. "Shoulder Clicker": Rotate, wag, and nod shoulders and spine (not too fast or forceful) to eliminate bone clicking in the shoulder area.

7. "Right Lunge": Stretch left Achilles tendon. Stick both arms out to the side for balance and rotate both hands up and around as strongly as possible 5 times to exercise lower arm muscles, feeling all muscles contracting around the arm. Bring left leg forward and up as far as possible, as if to start a karate kick forward, or complete kick forward, if room. Rotate left leg backwards as far as possible contracting hamstring (upper back leg muscle), as if to start karate kick backward, or complete kick backward, if room.  Add rotations of the foot in both directions if you can.

8. "Wrong Lunge": Repeat Lunge exercises as above with left leg forward.

9. "Weight Up; Window Down": Spread the feet at shoulder width apart and pretend (make it real) to lift a very heavy barbell from the floor up to the upright position,while breathing in, then push the heavy barbell above your head as far as possible, while breathing out, then move your hands as if you are going to lower a sticky window and forcefully pull the window down to your waist, while breathing in, and then forcefully push it slowly down to the floor, while breathing out. Done correctly with isometrics, it will seem all too real, but again, stop short of pain.  Perform several times, but stop short of pain.

10. "Knee Bend Arounder": Slightly bend your knees, place your hands on them, and rotate them around several times one way, then the other way. Then, gently snap the knees backwards several times.

11. "Swivel Hips": Place your hands on your hips and rotate your hips around several times one way, then the other way, slowly dipping down and slowly coming up. Do not bend your knees more than 90 degrees, or less if you experience pain or have had knee injuries. Stop this exercise with any knee pain.

12. "Brain Balancer": Here is a new one, I just discovered. Pinch your right earlobe between your left thumb and forefinger. Pinch your left earlobe between your right thumb and forefinger. Begin shallow knee bends with feet shoulder width apart, breathing in while going down and breathing out while coming up. Do not bend your knees more than 90 degrees, or less if you experience pain or have had knee injuries. Stop this exercise with any knee pain. This exercise is reported to balance both sides of your brain through acupressure, as a bonus.

Once you have done these exercises a few times and make it a daily habit, it becomes easy. and you become stronger and fitter each day you do this.

"Beality"

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This article is not intended as medical advice and is not medical advice. This article is intended to provide only general, non-specific health information. The specific facts that apply to your health conditions may make the outcome different than would be anticipated by you. You should consult with your health provider familiar with your health history prior to using this information. This blog does not create any health provider/client relationship.

Never the Twain Shall Meet – Vacation and Work in the Electronic Age!

Vacations are vacations, and work is work. Right? Wrong!

The Electronic Age has changed not only the way we work, but also the way we vacate. Many commentators have portrayed it as the ruination of our vacations and an intruder into every facet of our lives. Perhaps some features of the Electronic Age will lead to that conclusion. The cellular telephone, and now the smartphone, come to mind, both of which attempt to command your attention at the most inconvenient times.

However, the Electronic Age need not necessarily be the pestilence of the vacation. It can, properly managed, be a tremendous tool in our quest to keep up with our jobs and the world.

Email is inherently that tool. Email need not be responded to at the instant it is sent. Email must await connection to the Internet, which is, of course, under your control. Email need not be responded to at all. We have the luxury to peruse incoming emails and decide which of them are of sufficient urgency to respond to immediately, and which of them are not of sufficient urgency (which will be most of them, fortunately, taking into account the importance of family and vacations) to save on the notebook hard drive to respond to later.

All right, you are now saying to yourself, “Why would I interrupt my vacation for any work-related matter?” If that is the case (and you are earning enough money), I can only congratulate you. For the rest of us, there are always matters pending, as we walk out the door for vacation that will leave us sleepless, if something comes up while we are vacating that requires our special attention, and we are out of contact.

Voila . . . email! Here is a technology that enables us to screen for these critical work matters at our convenience and allows us to respond immediately to those (hopefully) few matters that absolutely require our individual and immediate attention. The purpose of this article is not to clutter up your next vacation with electronic noise, but to give you the tool to manage your vacation in the context of the ever-increasing work speeds and loads.

Leave your cellphone off, however. Cellphones demand attention, when on, and it is a rare person who can not answer. Unless you dump everything immediately into voicemail, you cannot screen out the critical matters from the other matters at your own convenience. If you need to respond to a critical matter sent to you by email or voicemail, you can merely call from anywhere in the world using an international cellphone, or a prepaid cellphone procured at your destination, or worst case, a landline telephone and credit card, should you absolutely, positively need to immediately contact someone about a work-related or other important matter.

How often you check your email on vacation is up to you. How often you answer your cellphone is probably not up to you. Turn off your cellphone . . . better yet . . . don’t even take it! Rely instead upon the email features of either your notebook computer with modem, the hotel’s business center, or the local cyber café down the block in the town of your vacation dreams.

Beality