FAMILIES MAKING SMART "MOVES"

Making a commitment to be physically active is one of the best ways families can prevent or combat obesity and its consequences. Physical therapists support the Department of Health and Human Services' Physical Activity Guidelines, which states:

• Children should get 1 hour or more of physical activity a day.
• Adults should do 2 hours and 30 minutes a week of moderate-intensity, or 1 hour and 15 minutes a week of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity.

Physical therapists' extensive knowledge of pre-existing conditions (such as type 2 diabetes and obesity) allows them to help people of all ages and abilities establish life-long patterns of physical activity. For those who already are obese, physical therapists can devise safe exercise programs that reduce pain, restore flexibility, and increase strength and cardiovascular endurance. For people with type 2 diabetes, they can design and supervise exercise programs that reduce the need for medications, lower the risk of heart disease and stroke, and help manage glucose levels, among other benefits.

The following tips were designed by physical therapists to help families stay active and incorporate physical activities into their daily lives:

"Smart Moves" for Families

• Plan weekend family activities involving physical activity, such as hiking, swimming, bicycling, mini-golf, tennis, or bowling.
• Help your child plan physical activities with friends and neighbors, such as skating or softball.
• Have your kids brainstorm a "rainy day" game plan of indoor activities involving fitness games such as Wii Fit or Dance Dance Revolution.
• Remember that your family does not need to join a health club or buy fancy equipment to be active. Walking isn't costly and it's easy. So is designing a backyard obstacle course. Weights can be made from soda or detergent bottles filled with sand or water!
• Provide positive rewards for your child when he or she engages in physical activities, such as workout clothes, a new basketball, or an evening of roller-skating.
• Provide positive feedback about your child's lifestyle changes. Remember not to focus on the scale (for you or your child).
• Be your child's "exercise buddy." Plan daily walks or bike rides and set goals together for increasing physical activity rather than for losing weight. It's also great "bonding" time!
• As you schedule your child's extracurricular activities, remember to plan time for exercise and activity as a priority for the entire family. Don't just "squeeze it in."
• Encourage children to try individualized sports such as tennis and swimming. Studies show such activities are the basis of lifelong fitness habits.
• Parents and children can do exercises while watching television (or at least during commercials), such as sit-ups, push-ups, or running in place. Discourage snacking or eating meals while watching.

BODY MECHANICS AT THE OFFICE

Whether or not you realize it, you probably have a home office. You might not telecommute, and you might not have a corner, L-shaped desk or a computer with dual monitors, but most likely, there is a place in your home where you browse the web, check Facebook, answer emails, update your blog, or write the next chapter of your 200,000 word fan-fiction novel. There is a place in your home where you spend a lot of time sitting down, facing a screen. You’re thinking about it right now, aren’t you?

The fact is, people are spending more time in front of screens than ever before. According to a recent BBC article, adults in the UK are now spending more time on devices than sleep, and the New York Times reports that statistics in the U.S. are similar. Studies have shown, and it’s not too difficult to believe, that people are not just dependent on their devices, but also emotionally attached to the connectivity that they provide.

“But,” some might say, “I’m not wasting time on my device. I’m forced to be in front of my screen for work/school.” This may very well be true, but whether screen time is due to stacks upon stacks of paperwork or due to an unhealthy emotional attachment to connectivity with the virtual world, the result, at least for the human body’s ergonomic health, is the same. If we can’t tear ourselves away from our screens (for whatever reason), the very least we can do is make sure that our “home office” allows for the body posture that is least harmful to our health.

The Chair
Mayo Clinic says that the height of a chair should allow for feet to rest on the floor and for knees to be level with hips. A good chair also provides lumbar/lower back support. If your desk chair does not allow your feet to hit the floor, guess what - it's step-stool time for you! You should (preferably) have a desk chair with arm rests, and those arm rests should be used to keep your shoulders from lowering too far. What happens when you lower your arms too far for too long? It can, over time, lead to compression issues in the nervous structures in and around your neck, and stretch out muscles that need to be shorter to keep your shoulder joint mechanics on par. 

The Phone
Mayo Clinic also says that if one regularly uses a phone at the same time as a computer, the phone should have a headset so as to protect the neck from strain. Please, please, try not to hold your phone to your shoulder with your ear. We're all guilty of it sometimes, but efficiency comes at a cost.

The Monitor
The same article indicates that the monitor should be an arm’s length away and the top of the screen should be just below eye level. Where your keyboard should be depends on your diagnosis. Ask your PT for more information! 

Posture
No matter how flawlessly a workspace is set up, joint health still relies heavily on correct body posture. In other words, we can easily find ways to sit in our ergonomically correct home office that are not ergonomically correct. Three few helpful posture rules are:

1. Don’t slouch. It sounds obvious, but still difficult to remember!
2. Center your body in front of your monitor/keyboard.
3. Keep your thighs and knees level with your hips, if appropriate. And don't cross your legs! 

If your back pain occurs when your back is bent, you want to keep your knees below the level of your hips. If your back pain occurs when your back is too straight, you'll want to keep your knees above the level of your hips. A good general rule for those who are just correcting their posture for prevention's sake is to keep the knees level with the hips. 

Take Breaks
Taking a break to move around, even if it’s just to stand up and walk or stretch, is not only good for the body, but it’s been proven to increase the ability to focus, to decrease fatigue, and to improve mood.

So, do your best to separate yourself from your computer, phone, and television when possible, and when you can’t find enough willpower to say no to Facebook, or when deadlines are approaching, do your body a favor and relax or work in a position and location that optimize skeletal and muscular health. Get up and move around. Our social media gal, Anna, gets 10 minute breaks for every 50 minutes where the students are required to get up and walk around to refuel their bodies. We truly aren't meant to sit at a desk for 8+ hours per day. 

WHY YOU SHOULDN'T EVER SKIP YOUR STRETCHES

Here at Champion Performance and Physical Therapy, we have a number of patients who, while they eat healthy, exercise consistently, and get plenty of nourishment and water, are in pain because they're missing one of the most under appreciated aspects of physical health in their daily lifestyles - stretching. 

It may seem like the most basic additive, but you must remember: the skeletal body is a lever system manipulated by musculature. In other words, your skeletal system will not move without the help of your muscular system, and each bone is almost entirely surrounded by muscles for this purpose.

During exercise (and after your warm up), your body is warm due to increased blood flow, the muscles are loose and firing.  Afterward, the muscles will cool, and if not properly stretched, will stiffen due to the biochemical aftereffects of exercise. While an effective fitness program should absolutely consist of cardiovascular training and strength training, the flexibility component is often overlooked. 

This is where skeletomuscular injuries come into play, specifically those relieved via physical therapy. When muscles tighten and stiffen, they pull just slightly on the bones in their direction. For example: runners often have tight hip flexors and quadriceps (the front of the thigh).  These muscles attach and originate along the anterior aspect (front) and inside of the pelvis. When they stiffen, they pull the pelvis slightly forward. Over a long period of time, the pelvis will shift so far forward that it will start to cause low back pain that can sometimes radiate into the hips, and SI - sacroiliac - joint, which is the point of attachment between the spine and pelvis. This can even radiate down the leg and into the knees, as the muscular insertion for the quadriceps are just below the knee on the tibia (shin bone).  Often times when patients come in with knee pain and all X-rays and MRI scans show no injury, it is because the muscles have pulled the skeletal system just out of sync enough for you to notice. 

Flexibility exercises are not only an essential part of recovering from aerobic activity, but can reduce your risk for further injury. The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) encourages individuals to incorporate these exercises into their daily workouts.

EXPERT ADVICE
“Increasing your flexibility improves your ability to move easily,” said orthopaedic surgeon and AAOS spokesperson Raymond Rocco Monto, MD. “Some joints lose up to 50 percent of motion as we age. There are many ways to improve your joint flexibility including controlled stretches held for 10-30 seconds, stretches that rely on reflexes to produce deeper flexibility, as well as yoga and pilates.”

Before skipping flexibility exercises during your next workout, consider these five benefits of adding them to your workout regimen:

• Less back and joint pain: A 2011 study in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that regular stretching was effective in relieving chronic back pain. Other research has shown quadriceps stretches helped decrease knee pain.
• Better circulation: A 2009 study in the American Journal of Physiology discovered that torso stretches decreased stiffness and improved blood flow. This also may be why regular bedtime hamstring and calf stretches decrease the frequency and intensity of night-time leg cramps.
• Improved joint motion: Flexibility naturally decreases with age. Stretching can help restore lost joint motion and improve function.
• Better athletic performance: Like a good rubber band, muscles and tendons generate more force under tension when they are supple and compliant. 
• Improved muscle health: Mobility exercises can increase the amount of stress muscles can handle in high tension activities that involve jumping and cutting movements.

Get the most out of your flexibility training by following these simple guidelines:

• Always warm up before your stretch. Stretching cold muscles can cause injury.
• Stretch slowly and gently. Breathe into your stretch to avoid muscle tension. Relax and hold each stretch 10 to 30 seconds.
• Do not bounce your stretches. Ballistic (bouncy) stretching can cause injury.
• Stretching should not hurt. If you feel pain, take the stretch easier, breathe deeply and relax into it.
  
  Stretching is important and can be tough to master to maximum efficiency. The trouble is, it takes some time to stretch muscles back out to a healthy length. A combination of stretching, manual therapy to help relieve some tension in the joints that are being pulled on, and strengthening the opposing muscles to those inflicting pain should easily solve the problem and have you pain free within weeks. Here at Champion Performance and Physical Therapy, this is probably the most common cause of injury we see, and we approach it with a unique, biomechanically-based mechanism meant to relieve pain and tension through multiple planes of your body. Why?  Because your body doesn't move in just one plane. 
  
  Talk to your doctor today about what physical therapy can help do for you. For more information, visit us on the SW corner of 75th and State Line Road in Prairie Village, or by phone at 913-291-2290.

GOT 5 REASONS WHY THE GYM ISN'T AN OPTION FOR YOU?

Give me your best shot - I've probably heard it all.  Everybody has reasons why they can't get to the gym, why something else takes precedence, why they hate exercise and working out.  Truth is: it's good for you. Any exercise, any improvements to your lifestyle can help you live a longer, healthier life with more energy and a better emotional state.

The trick is efficiency. Being efficient in your workout requires that you know what constraints you have, or what prevents you from getting exercise or to the gym in the first place.
Some examples would include:

• Limited time due to work or family
• An injury or chronic problem that makes exercise difficult or painful
• Inability to stay motivated on your own
• Financial Instability
• Lack of confidence

Time Constraints

Limited time is a problem almost everyone you see at the gym suffers from; whether it be work related and your hours don't condone a scheduled exercise routine (popular in the medical field), or family and the number of children you have running around your home. The thing is - you can always make time.  Whether it be a quick workout at home, getting up early to run to the gym, or arranging to let the kiddos stay at a friends in the afternoon and alternating with another family, it is possible. There are multiple gyms around the Kansas City area that are open 24 hours/day, or that offer classes as early as 5:30 in the morning, or as late as 8 at night. The benefits of exercise not only improve your physical health, but emotional, as well.  Exercise activates your body's "happy" hormone production, which can lead to overall reduced stress. Not to mention - parent's, I'm looking at you - we all know how impressionable kids can be. The more active you are, the more active your children will want to be, and they carry those traits with them throughout their entire lives. 

Injuries and Chronic Problems

Injuries can make it difficult to exercise when you've been able to do a number of different workouts for so long, and now are limited to a fair few. We'd suggest asking for a referral to an athletic trainer or personal trainer at your gym, or asking your physical therapist who they'd recommend to get you back to performing those higher level activities.  There are a number of ways to see the same results with different exercise routines, you just have to find them! 

Chronic problems such as arthritis can make exercise seem very, very painful. The trick is to know what aggravates those symptoms, and what doesn't. Activities such as swimming are wonderful for arthritis, as they release the pressure surround the joint cavities in the body. Other non-impactful exercise routines can give you the burst of cardio without the hard impact on the joints, such as elliptical or a stationary bike. It is beyond crucial that any exercise routine include strengthening, whether it be resistance-based or weight-based. Weight lifting, resistance band training, or yoga are great additives to a workout sculpted around arthritic joints because the stronger those muscles, the stronger they pull on their boney insertion points, which naturally gives the joint cavity a little more room to breathe. 

Motivation

Struggle to maintain motivation? Getting into a workout routine can be very, very difficult. It's hard to go expend so much energy to not see changes overnight; but there are things you can do to help improve your chances of success.

Firstly - any habit implementation takes 3 weeks or around 21 days for the brain to accept and change it's default settings. This essentially means the first 3 weeks are going to be the hardest to drag yourself to the gym, but if you can make it through the first 3 weeks, it'll get easier.  

Secondly - any habit implementation is easier when it can be added into your daily routine at a specific time, as opposed to random time selections throughout your day. For example, I take my daily vitamins each morning immediately after brushing my teeth. When I found out I needed to take an iron supplement because I was borderline anemic (low iron in the blood), I added my iron supplement to my daily vitamin - and presto! After the first few days, it was habit already to be taking two supplements every morning instead of one.  The same concept applies here. If you add going to the gym before or after work each morning, and packing your gym back each night while laying out your work clothes, you may be able to trick your brain into adjusting to the change a little bit faster. 

Lastly - the easiest way to hold yourself accountable is to enlist someone else to help do it with you.  For the first few weeks while you're adjusting to your schedule, set up appointments with a personal trainer, enroll in workout classes and PRE-PAY (no one likes to waste their money) or recruit a friend to workout with you who already works out consistently. Not only can they help you brainstorm ideas that may be more conducive to the exercise you're looking for, but having someone else hold you accountable helps a lot.

Financial Instability

We understand that money can get very tight, so gym memberships may take a backseat when you're already stretching your dollar to the end of the month.  As easy as it would be to tell you what you already know, to really take a hard look at your expenses and where your money is going, it's best that we stick to our area of expertise.  What we suggest you do is start doing some research on your own, but in the meantime, do your best to improve your lifestyle with the little things. Go for a walk while you eat your sandwich over lunch, walk your dog instead of just letting him out into the yard (and bring your kids!), take advantage of the timeframes your children have practice/school and go for a jog around the neighborhood, take the stairs! There are a number of small changes you can do to help you get used to the exercise and increase your overall energy.  Another option would be getting a single personal training session, and explaining your situation; that you'd like basically an info session on what you can do to get the same workout at home without all the equipment of a gym. Most gyms don't require that you be a member to have a single personal training session.

Lack of Confidence

Body Image

As a person who, at one point, really struggled with their body image, I can honestly tell you that now, sitting on the other side of it, no one is judging you.  Most people go to the gym, put their headphones on, and work up a sweat without caring who's on the next machine over - myself included. Consistent gym members go for a number of reasons, but to increase their self confidence by looking down upon others is definitely not one of them. Please don't forget - if you continue to hide, your body image will never change.  At some point, you need to stop caring whether or not someone looks at you - changing your lifestyle to improve the way you view yourself and your body has nothing to do with anybody else.  Not only can exercise improve your body image by helping you change your body, but exercise allows your brain to flood your body of hormones that induce good moods, a decrease in stress, and lessen anxiety. 

Lack of Knowledge

If you're self-conscious because you've never really been a gym-goer, and aren't sure what you're doing or how to work the equipment - ask the staff! You can either set up a personal training session at your local gym just for some general information on how everything works, or ask a specialist who's on the floor if you're interested in trying something you've never tried before. If you're less bold and would rather observe, sit down on a machine you do recognize, and watch someone else use the machine you're interested in.