4 Reasons Why It’s Important to Have a Strong Upper Body

Having strength in your upper body is important for more than just opening the jar of olives. It can be hard work to get these muscles strong, but your chest, back and shoulder muscles are what attach your arm to your trunk, and they are all used when you reach, push and pull. They tie in directly with your core muscles, as you move your body around through space.

Here are 4 reasons to keep these muscles working, then a video to show you some upper body work to start:

  • building strength helps your bones: as we get older, our bones start to lose density. Resistance training can help, because muscles/ tendons pull on bones and makes them stronger
  • it can help prevent injuries: research shows that strengthening through your pecs, lats and rotator cuff muscles can help prevent injuries through your upper body
  • it can improve your overall posture: strengthening through your back muscles and upper body is never a bad thing, even if it just gives you confidence to know what you can do physically. It can give you energy to better hold yourself upright, and it can train your brain to better connect with these muscles
  • it just feels good: getting strong feels good in the body and the mind. It doesn’t have to be push ups and pull ups, it can be tennis, rock climbing, throwing a frisbee or ball.

See our You Tube Channel “Elevation Physiotherapy and Wellness” to see various One Minute Wellness videos on building upper body strength at home.

Your Oblique Abdominals Do More Than You Think– Here’s How to Get Them Stronger

We have previously mentioned how important it is to build strength through your core, as it acts as a canister that connects your upper and lower body. As you more your arms and legs, these movements either start in your core, or move through it. Relative weakness through this canister can affect how well your arms and legs function. If you are properly strengthening through your abs and the rest of the core muscles– including the pelvic floor– it jacks up the power that can be generated when you move. f you’re looking to build a stronger core, you’ll have to focus on more than just your six-pack muscles.

Your obliques, which are along the sides of your trunk, are very important stabilizers of your body– they help to bend your body to the side, help to rotate your torso left and right, and also act to resist your trunk from rotating. You need these muscles to be strong. Here’s how.

https://youtu.be/uiMHUaFxbmk

Abdominal Strength Matters in the Real World

The “core” that everyone talks about is made up of the abdominal muscles on the front, your obliques on the sides, and the deep back muscles. Think of the core as a canister that connects your upper and lower body. As you more your arms and legs, these movements either start in your core, or move through it. Relative weakness through this canister can affect how well your arms and legs function. If you are properly strengthening through your abs and the rest of the core muscles– including the pelvic floor– it jacks up the power that can be generated when you move. A strong core also improves balance and stability through your body, so it can help prevent falls or injures in sports.

A strong, flexible core is important in everything that you do:

  • bending forward to put on shoes
  • turning to look behind you
  • reaching for something
  • golf, tennis, swimming, running– you name the sport, they are all powered by a strong core
  • housework, gardening- bending, lifting, twisting, vacuuming, mopping

A plank position is a great exercise to help build strength and endurance through your abs and the whole of your core. Like every exercise, form matters! Once you have your form down, make sure you’re performing this consistently to build strength. It can get monotonous to do the same exercise all the time, so check out these plank variations below.

4 Reasons to Work on Your Balance… Not That You Need Reasons.

Balancing is a fundamental aspect of any movement we perform. It is one more of those things that you don’t realize its importance until you don’t have it. You need balance in every day movements like standing up from sitting, or to lean forward and reach for something, and certainly to dance!

You work stabilizing muscles to balance, and it also challenges stability in our joints and our vestibular system. Here are 6 more reasons to work on balance:

  1. You start to lose balance with aging: your brain, your muscles, and your inner ear are all coordinating together to balance. If you don’t practice balance, the integration between these systems can decline over time, making it harder for you to stay upright with good posture. Practicing balance activities keeps everything working much more smoothly and prevents much of this age-related loss.
  2. You can help prevent falls: with better balance comes the ability to more quickly react to unexpected slips. Knowing that you are adept to react to sliding or uneven terrain can help with the confidence needed to leave the house in winter!
  3. Make your body do something different! As adults, we live in the forward/backward plane of movement, and don’t regularly do movements side-to-side or rotations. Over years, this can make our joints and muscles stiffer or tighter when we do have to get out of our usual positions. Balance exercises make our bodies react, engaging different muscles and working our joints in new ways.
  4. Balance can help you recover faster from injury: not only have balance drills and exercises been shown to help prevent injuries, research shows that balance exercises in rehab can help you recover faster from injuries in the leg and foot.

You Now Have a Standing Desk for Work. What Now?

Do you have a standing desk ? Here are some considerations for your work day.

We’ve now all heard that sitting is the new smoking, and you found that sitting for hours on end during work made your back and neck sore. You now have a standing desk, but how long should you be standing? What height is best? What about how you’re standing? So many questions!

Some of these questions are covered in the short video above, but it would be important to gradually build up your standing tolerance at the desk. Start with about 15-20 minutes, then sit for a time, and alternate positions through the day. Eventually try to stand for 40-50% of your work day.

It can also be helpful to have a small step in front, and have the option to put one foot up for some of your standing time. Obviously, you would want to switch feet at times while standing.

A standing desk can be a great option to break up periods of sitting, and still be productive in your day!

Tired of Sitting all Day? Try This Option when Working at Home

Even if your work station is set up ergonomically, it is best to change up your position during your work day. Our bodies are meant to move, and so many of us have jobs that require us to be sitting for extended periods of time.

These days it is common to have a standing desk or platform, and that is a great way to change your position during work. Here is a nice variation to the standing option that isn’t an obvious solution. Give it a try!

Want to Kick Up Your Walking? Here’s How.

When you’re walking for exercise, there are a few ways that you can change the intensity:  you can walk faster, you can walk up a hill, or you can add an external weight—hand weights, wrist or ankle weights, or a weighted vest.

If you’re interested in increasing the intensity of your walking workout, here’s how to do it safely:

  • Use weights that are 3 pounds at the most. This will allow you to keep your regular walking pattern
  • Don’t exaggerate your movements. Using small weights is intended to increase the intensity of your cardio routine, it is not to turn the walk into a strength training workout.
  • You could hold a full water bottle in one hand if you don’t have dumbbells or wrist weights. It is fine to hold something in just one hand, it doesn’t have to be even on both sides.
  • Use a weighted vest, if you can find one! Some researchers believe this is better as it adds weight to your trunk, where it is more natural to move with it. They feel that a vest that adds 10-15% of your body weight helps to burn more calories without necessarily feeling like you are exerting more.
  • Don’t walk with weights every day—begin with 2-3 days per week with light weight, and progress to more frequent or longer walks over four to six weeks

Have fun with it! The goal is to keep your body moving, and using weights can add variability to your workout. It should not be painful or overly strenuous, and certainly should not be heavy enough that it changes your gait pattern. Go see what you can do!

After Months of Working at Home, How is Your Back and Neck Feeling?

So many people are working at home at the moment, and have set up their work station at the dining room table. All of these months later, perhaps your neck or lower back has become stiff or sore. Our bodies are meant to move, so if you are sitting for many hours for work, and not getting out like you typically would, then you could be too sedentary for these past months. You no longer have a commute, and outside of work you’re sitting in front of the television or reading—over all of this time, that can lead to a stiff or sore back or neck.  It can be easy to employ some strategies to make your work day efficient, and keep yourself moving as well:

Set up your chair: You do not need an expensive chair with all the adjustments to be helpful.  Important features would be a chair that is height adjustable, so that you can keep your feet on the floor. It is easy to add a supplemental lumbar support—even roll up a towel—and place it in the small of your back to support the natural inward curve that is in your back when you stand.

Fig. 1- standing back extension

Regularly move in your work day: They say that “your best posture is your next posture”, so set a reminder to beep at you every hour, and stand up momentarily and stretch your spine backward (Fig. 1), or lean backward over the top of your chair (Fig 2). Both of these movements are positions that should not be painful, but get you out of the common rounding forward position in which we tend to live. If you have a meeting with one or two other people over Zoom, why not make it a “walking” meeting?Move around the block to have the meeting, and then write any notes when you get back.

Fig. 2- neck extension

Vary your working position: As odd as it sounds, a nice alternative to sitting could be working on your stomach with some pillows under your chest to keep a slight arch in your back. You would keep your laptop on the floor or bed, and this position is nice to get your spine out of the typically rounded forward posture (Fig. 3). You can also stand for part of your work day by putting your laptop on a higher surface, or an external keyboard and mouse that allow you to work at the correct height. You could also make it a practice to stand every time you take a telephone call. If you have a wireless headset, you could walk around as you’re on the call.

Figure 3- prone on elbows

All of these practices are easy to establish in your work day to allow for more position changes and movement. As we continue to be at home more than ever before, your spine will thank you for it!