Work in an Office & have Back or Knee Pain? Here’s why

If You Work in an Office and have Back or Knee Pain, then this blog post contains my four most popular blog posts that provides solutions for how to survive.  This will help you understand and deal with back or knee related symptoms you may be experiencing.

If I may, I would like to say a big thank you to you readers first before jumping in:  a couple of days ago ago my blog site https://jamieatlas.wordpress.com hit the 85,000 hits mark.

Imagine that – 85,000 hits on a website that contains nothing but my own content?  People coming to my site with nowhere to turn but to read the twisted meanderings of my own mind?  Surely there is something in the Geneva convention humanitarian laws that stops me from making people suffer like this 🙂

So to try and make up for my lack of obnoxiousness, here are 4 of my favorite posts on my blog website for you to read, should you feel the urge/courage to see the written carnage these poor readers have had to endure 🙂

Copy and paste the below links into your browser to read the actual blog posts:

have you seen my workout card? It's a red workout card...

A blog article for my officebound peeps:

Six ways to stop your office job from killing you

Sandra felt strangely suspicious that her boyfriends advice of 'walking around the house topless' would not actually do anything to help her back pain, but she tried it nonetheless...

Why high heels can play havoc with your lower back:

High Heels are Ruining your Posture and Feet: Here’s Why

"Well Doc, the knee hurts a little bit, but to tell the truth I am more worried about this strange red glow coming out of it!"

Ever wondered exactly how knee pain can come about?  Here’s a bit of information you might not have known about:

https://jamieatlas.wordpress.com/2009/03/02/knee-pain-often-comes-from-foot-problems-an-explanation/

"they may take away our lives.. but they'll never take... our right to read the Fitness Insights by Jamie Atlas blog! Rrrrhhhaaaaaaaaayyyy!

A personal favorite for anyone who has tried to change something in their lives but felt judged by others:

https://jamieatlas.wordpress.com/2009/05/20/your-weight-loss-mindset-pt-1-fk-you-for-judging-me/

Warning: this last ‘judging’ blog article in have listed above includes the word f**k – it’s kind of like the word f*$k or the word f$@k but not like the word s&*t or $#&^ (wow, don’t know what that last one even means…  Must be really bad if I had to block out all the letters though!)

Of course, if by some strange masochistic tendency you would like to read other posts I create, you could always be a good net citizen (netizen?) and subscribe to my blog…  ahhh, the strategy unfolds 🙂

If you are one of these folk, just click the link below to get an inconspicuous email in your email inbox whenever I write a new fascinating insightful blog post (don’t panic, it usually happens about once every week/2 weeks)

http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=wordpress%2FyQXQ

Thanks for checking out my blog and being a reader!  It makes me feel like you understand me a bit better… Now, if I can just get you to open up and talk more about your mother and why she doesn’t call me anymore…

Jamie Atlas

PS Oh, you clicked on this subscribe link, right?  Just double checking 😉

PPS Have I told you the new official webcam personal training website is up and running now?  You can personal train from your very own house and not pay high priced rates!

Orbis LifeFitness:  $5.99 Webcam to Webcam training and free orientations now available.
www.orbislifefitness.com

The Last Exercise Workout Program & Routine You Will Ever Need.

Are your results in the gym starting to stagnate? Feeling like you aren’t improving despite your best efforts? Losing motivation?

This youtube video explains how to get 52 workouts and 52 how to videos for each workout:

Is your workout feeling like it is not giving you exercise or results you need to keep your routine fresh?

As an exercise physiologist, I have had the opportunity to work with a large variety of athletes and people just beginning to exercise. I have noticed that many people do not change their workouts frequently, and when they do, they tend to change the workout in a way that actually increases their chance of injury! Not changing your workout is inefficient and potentially dangerous for the following reasons:

Your body adapts to the workout and your results fade

By not changing the exercises, your muscles adapt and your body uses less calories with each workout. Simply increasing the weight or changing an exercise is not enough. The science of program design is an exact one that requires certain elements to be changed at different times through your workout cycle.

By doing the same exercises over and over again, you use the same joints in the same way and increase wear and tear

If you use the same machines and cardio equipment, you can increase the risk of injury by overusing your joints in certain ways. You also ignore other muscles that do not get trained by certain exercises. It is important your joints can adapt as the body strengthens – if your joints are not working properly, working out will only increase the risk of injury even greater. To make sure you have a clear, scientifically structured path for peak results, I have designed 52 workouts that are to be done each week and progresses in the correct way to ensure proper progression and maximal results.

An example of one of the exercises used in the 52 workout program

Exercise workout programs are usually done incorrectly due to lack of/absence of correct instruction – go too hard for certain exercises and you may decrease your total calorie output due to over-exhaustion of key muscles preventing you from peak performance.

With each workout you get an easy to follow instructional video (in ipod and online format) explaining how to do the workout – every exercise and every stretch features important technique tips.

an example of one of the workouts offered

Purchase in the month of May and receive a bonus video that explains how to ‘tweak’ each of these programs to get the very best results, whether it is improving muscle tone, burning fat or working on your posture.

How much for 52 workouts and 52 how to videos? $104 – exactly $2 per workout.

If you are interested please email jatlas@orbislifefitness.com or respond to this post.

Yours in health,

Jamie Atlas

Functional Training: Why Your Body Needs It

Many people in the fitness industry struggle with the ‘F’ word. They know how to say it – but they dont know how to use it in their workouts.  We’re talking about Functional Training (no, not that other ‘F’ word, you sicko).  But why should YOU care about functional training?  Here;s an explanation:

If your motivation for exercising extends beyond your desire to improve your swimsuit figure, then chances are you have been trying to get more of the ‘f’ word into your workouts.

I am speaking specifically to how functional your workouts may (or may not) be.

Many of us want to integrate ‘real world’ movements into our workouts, yet most of the exercises we do in todays gym are anything but functional.

Your average person sits for 14 hours a day – and stands for less than 2 hours!

Here is a great example: How many hours a day do you sit? Really think about it? Chances are, you only get a few chances to stand throughout the day. And yet, when we go to the gym, what do we see? A range of exercise machines that will work you out while you sit!

Over 90% of the gym machines in your facility will have you sit to do an exercise.

If you wanted to be strong from a standing position, would it make sense to train standing? Would you use more muscles? Would you use more core if you were standing while you did an exercise? Would that mean you burned more calories and therefore more fat?

If you wanted to be strong from a sitting position, then by all means train from a sitting position. Just remember that your muscles will react completely differently when you try to use them from a standing position – you know which it is that you need most to play your sport, mr/miss weekend warrior.

Unless you are a wheelchair basketball fanatic, I am going to guess that standing/running/moving in multiple directions will play a major role in whatever you do out there in the real world.

So we have established that your body needs to be standing to be truly operating in a functional sense.

Chances are, even your warmup is failing to warm you up.

Watch the video I made below that explains an 8 minute full body functional warmup. It can also be used as part of a workout if you add dumbbells to these movements.

It is if you are remotely interested in any of the following activities, you might want to start thinking about what you can do.

Activities that are mostly rotational in nature that your average gym cannot train you for:

• The Tennis swing
• The Golf swing
• Tossing a Frisbee
• Swinging a Baseball bat

But also…

• Any throwing sport
• Any running sport
• Anything that requires you to rotate your body (care to see behind you? try looking without rotating or a rear view mirror)

And let’s not forget – sports or activities that require you to CONTROL rotation:

• Horse-riding (ever tried to stay still while a horse gallops underneath you?  It ain’t no merry-go-round ride, that’s for sure)
• Wrestling
• A basketball jump-shot

Any of the above apply to you?

Most machines have no concern for rotation. But is our ability to rotate important? Hopefully the list above convinces you that it is.

In simple terms, we move in front to back, side to side and rotation movement pattern in almost any functional movement pattern. Your workouts need to embrace true function if they are to deliver true results.

Your body moves in more than a front to back pattern. If you look around the gym you will see quite quickly that the majority of exercise equipment either pushes or pulls you back or forward, up or down. But rarely does it ask you to rotate your core. Or to move side to side.

Still dont believe me? Lets take a look at the old faithful bench press. A staple of any good workout, right?

When was the last time you laid down on a flat surface and pushed a metal rod off your chest?

I don’t really watch a lot of football, so I don’t know the rules. But I am pretty sure they play football standing – not lying down on a bench. I am also pretty sure they don’t get to carry metal bars onto the field (Not that it would matter with the amount of equipment NFL players wear – sometimes it seems they wear more padding than the Korean Riot Police!)

"Hey, you need me to spot this set for you? Oh it's totally cool lady, I'm glad to help out."

Although the above may be an excellent exercise for building a big strong chest, does the bench press qualify as ‘functional’? It would surely be functional if you used the same ‘function’ of the bench press in real life…

I’m not convinced that the bench press actually qualifies as ‘functional’.

Football is a sport that hails praise to the sacred bench press. In dusty gyms everywhere you can hear the sound of manhood being challenged: “Hey dude – how much do you bench?”

If my goal is either fat loss or functional muscles, does it make sense to work the chest standing, since it would work more muscles (and be more functional)?

"Hey man, you have something on your helmet - let me rub that off that for you"

If an exercise is to provide “real world” results – be it strength, flexibility or sporting prowess, it should match (or at least come close to) our real world needs.

If we take a look at the picture of a typical football tackle, you will notice four major differences that stand out immediately compared to the bench pressing picture:

The football player trying to make the tackle is:

1. Standing
2. Not holding a bar
3. Using more than just his chest muscles
4. Wearing more clothes than the woman doing the bench press (maybe it’s just really warm in that particular gym.. I mean like, really warm)

How about your workout? Is it functional? Or do you think functional workouts are just for fancypants pilates instructors? Does it make sense that working more muscle at the same time would burn more fat?

All great questions to ponder.  You may love your workout, but when it comes down to it, shouldn’t your workout serve not only your aesthetic goals, but also your life goals?  This article attempts to look at just a few ways you might consider ‘tweaking’ things to suit you better.

Yours in health,

Jamie Atlas