Supporting you to look after your posture and be more active

How to ensure the safety of employees while working from home

jennygebka@ntlworld.com (Jenny Gebka) — Wed, 16 Jun 2021 16:25:37 GMT

Looking after workers physical health will ultimately support productivity and reduce absenteeism

Whether a one-man (or woman!) band or you’ve grown to a small team, you’ll know that every working minute counts. So you can ill afford being less than on top form or worse, losing working days.

Our physical health has never been tested so much as during the Covid pandemic! The clear links to mental health makes looking after yourself physical even more important. Key to our well-being during various layers of lock-down has been home and locally based exercise, but would you even consider how sitting at your computer is affecting your health at work?

We sit for an average 9 hour per day (NHS) of which on average 5 hours 41 minutes (Science Daily) are at our desks. Balance that against what the most dedicated of us would spend on exercise – 1-2 hours per day? – and you can see how important how we sit is to our physical well-being.

So what problems can arise from sitting too long? Recognisable symptoms such as: headaches, back and joint pain, breathing difficulties, enhanced anxiety or stress of everyday work and even organ dysfunction can all be attributed to poor posture. Relieving the cause of these symptoms will protect your workforce into the future.

Not knowing how to ensure the safety of employees can be concerning. If you struggle finding time to check up on your workers – maybe they are working remotely for example, so you don’t get to see them daily – and want to keep them safe but don’t know how, then you might like to know professional help is at hand.

How to keep your office-based workforce healthy and safe

Jenny Gebka, from Adaptive Pilates has first-hand experience of the ergonomic set-up of workstations and is passionate about preventing health issues. Her background is in posture recovery and rehabilitation exercise; she now teaches APPI modified Pilates after a career in corporate life.

Her knowledge will support your workers to be more productive, reduce the risk of days missed due to pain, injury or other debilitating illnesses.

This is done via a combination of:

setting up their workstations correctly around them;
discussing ways to keep physically healthy while working remotely;
carrying out individual workstation checks with personal recommendations on how to maintain good posture;
and exercises to keep them on top form throughout the day.

She works with you, your team or wider supply chain, whether at home or in a remote or normal office, to promote good health across all the people your business relies on.

To see what services are available please take a look at https://www.adaptivepilates.co.uk/employee-well-being .

No space at home for mat Pilates? Think again!

jennygebka@ntlworld.com (Jenny Gebka) — Mon, 30 Nov 2020 15:47:36 GMT

You can still do Pilates even if you only have standing room!

I got a mercy call on Saturday morning: could I change the face-to-face session booked for Monday morning to be all in standing?

My client was having some building repairs done and the problem was worse than initially thought, hence they’d overrun. This meant she couldn’t get into the room we normally use (as the floor had been taken up!) so would have to do it in the kitchen or find another room that wasn’t stacked full of furniture.

Now I’m used to creating bespoke sessions, based on my client’s circumstances. Clients I work with may have sprained an ankle or wrist, pulled a muscle or been ill since our last session, so I always check for any changes a couple of days beforehand. That way I can design each session around what issues they may have at that particular moment.

However, being asked to accommodate a lack of space isn’t so common! I often have to help clients move the odd table or rug out of the way to allow us to fit side by side. I've even worked with my client in a small sun conservatory and me in the lounge (this was before everything had to be done online!). So I normally find a way around any challenges and am able to fit the session in somehow.

Today's client and I have been working together on and off over three years, so I didn’t want to let her down. She has a condition that makes balance very challenging, so my first thought was to ensure whatever we did meant she didn't fall over. So, pulling on my thinking cap and recalling the numerous adaptations of traditional Pilates exercises I’d learnt and rarely used, I came up with a set that would still support the aims of her Pilates program, without having to clear enough room on the floor.

Her reaction: “thanks ever so much” made it all worthwhile! It wasn't just her appreciation – as I’d worked part of my weekend to re-organise her session – but also the fact that the adaptations I’d made to the exercises meant that she can now use them anytime she finds it hard to get onto the floor. Carrying out the movements in standing, (rather than spending half the time on a mat on the floor) also helped to bring more variety into the routine. I was able to give her some really good stretches in sitting, which she said she hadn’t thought of doing for herself.

So having a challenge such as less room to use can sometimes be instrumental to more creativity and fitting Pilates into your life even when you have the constraint of limited space.

10 Tips for home office working

Mon, 06 Apr 2020 16:46:56 GMT

What do you need to think about when sharing work-space?

We are all making some big adjustments to our lives at the moment and fighting for space in the house can have a major impact on family life. Here I look at tips for setting up home offices to support harmony as we work closer over the medium to longer term.

Not everyone has the luxury of one home office, never mind another for working partners or kids being home schooled. Offspring who are still living at home are compounding the problem of availability of space.

While we can get by with lying on the sofa or squatting at the dining table for the odd half an hour on a Sunday evening while get ahead of our emails, this is not a brilliant scenario for full time working.

Although I can’t conjure up any additional space or advise you what equipment to buy, I can make suggestions about how you position yourself and how to arrange your workstation.

So here goes.

1. Try to find a space that is separate from other home workers, especially if they have to use the phone for their work.

2. How many times have you seen people tuck their phone between their ear and shoulder? This is really bad for your neck: it’s therefore worth getting a hands free kit or putting your phone on loud speaker.

3. Make sure you have a comfortable chair – you’ll soon find dining chairs aren’t supporting you in the right places and they’ll cause your back to ache.

4. Opt for a large screen that is separate to your laptop if you can. This will prevent you getting eye strain from staring at the small screen.

5. Get a separate mouse and keyboard if working from a laptop, so you can independently move them around, independently from the screen. Some people find a wireless mouse more comfortable.

6. Seat yourself so you don’t have any bright lights shining on your screen: check for sunshine during the day and electric lights for late evening working. Also ensure there is nothing shining on the wall behind your screen either: too much of a difference between the two can strain the eyes and cause headaches.

7. Some prefer to work while listening to music. That’s great, but to prevent winding up other members of your family with your own favourite genre (relations need to be kept sweet – we could be in for the long haul) try using plug-in earphones.

8. Take frequent breaks from sitting down: why not take or make a phone call while standing? Get away from your screen every 40-45 minutes: set an alarm if you have to! Let your eyes focus on the middle distance – maybe you can admire a tree in your garden or watch your dog run down the garden after a squirrel.

9. It’s useful to split your activities between left and right, so you’re not constantly reaching and twisting in one direction. For example: put your phone on the left and your diary on the right, keeping your computer (or main activity) central.

10. Most of all, you need to sit in a balanced manner to promote good posture and prevent aches and pains at the end of each day.

If you're finding you have aches you weren't experiencing before home working, contact me for a no-obligation chat. I may be able to find some simple ways to alleviate the problem. https://bit.ly/HomeOfficeSetUpCheck

Please let me know if you find any particular tip useful or have others that you're happy for me to share.

What's changed in the new Guidelines on Physical Activity?

Mon, 24 Feb 2020 18:33:53 GMT

Goals: if you can't achieve something, do you just give up?

If goals demotivate you, you’re not alone! Official guidelines which set out in 2011 to show us how to look after ourselves in terms of physical activity have been criticised for being too goal orientated and were updated in September 2019.

The previous guidelines prescribed 150 minutes of moderate exercise (or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise) plus two sessions of strengthening per week, and the overriding rule that we shouldn’t be sedentary (sitting or lying down inactive) for long periods of time.

You would have thought that with all health organisations offering pedometers and a plethora of apps to encourage the measurement of steps, distance and time engaged in activities, it would have been easy to achieve these levels. But it’s still been tough for a lot of people and they have simply given up!

I have deliberately taken time over this post. When you see how important being active is I hope you’ll forgive the length.

A worryingly 1 in 4 women and 1 in 5 men in England are classed as physically inactive (doing less than 30 minutes moderate exercise each week). And only 31% men and 24% women undertake muscle-strengthening activities for the recommended twice a week. In addition, 29% of people over 16 average 6+ hours sitting down during the working week, which increases to a staggering 35-40% at weekends. So the more spare time we have the less physical activity we do!

Why weren't the previous guidelines followed?

Research carried out since 2011 cited a number of reasons the guidelines have not been followed. Chief Medical Officer, Professor Christopher Whitty believes too much emphasis was put on cardiovascular activity (getting out of breath). In our busy lives the length of time previously required to do an activity was too challenging; the level of intensity and how to achieve it too confusing; the strengthening element often ignored; and with all the other distractions in our lives we have simply forgotten how important it is to get up and move!

In addition, those with physically or mentally limiting illnesses and those with short or long term physical difficulties (such as recovery from surgery or complications while pregnant) found the targets were inappropriate for their abilities.

So it’s no wonder these goals haven’t been met!

Why do we need physical activity?

Our bodies are designed to move: not only our physically, but movement also affects other systems such as our digestive and nervous systems. Unfortunately, our modern-day lives have become less manual; we have machines to wash, clean, harvest and transport.

Now don’t get me wrong, they are brilliant inventions and give us more time for other, more enjoyable activities. But unfortunately they have made us lazy and instead of replacing these manual labours with active pass-times we have taken up computer games, watching television and driving everywhere. Massive generalisation, as I know a lot of people who do fit in activity, but it is just that: fitted in between desk work, travelling by train or car and slumping in the chair exhausted when we eventually return home.

Numerous research projects have been published to show how physical activity of different types can promote better health and in a lot of cases overcome health problems. See the chart for a selection.

Good enough reason? Add to that the need to take control of your own health as the NHS is being stretched beyond recognition - it’s a compelling argument!

How do we comply with these physical activity guidelines?

Firstly, I want to dispel a myth here: physical activity doesn’t necessarily mean sport! So if you’re not into sport don’t think this doesn’t apply to you! There are a lot of other activities that count. One of the easiest ways to being successful is to fit more activity into our lives so it becomes a habit, rather than having to specifically go out to do it, which becomes a chore!

Reducing the time, increasing the frequency - If you’re about to give up because you can’t fit 150 minutes of activity into a week think again! The guidance now says that you can reduce the amount of time you carry out a particular activity as long as you increase how often you do it or how much effort you put in. It also gives more examples as to what you can do at different levels and acknowledges that for some any activity can be difficult. The mantra is: ‘ Some is good, more is better ’. Daily is best! As little as a few minutes doing an activity that gets you out of breath or makes you feel warmer is a good start.

Progressing the intensity of activity - Activities used to be classified by intensity eg brisk walking was ‘moderate’, whereas running was ‘vigorous’. But surely what one person calls moderate activity might be classed as very vigorous to others! The guidelines have taken this into account by grading intensity into what makes you out of breath and/or when your muscles tire. They now classify: moderate activity to be when you breathe faster, feel warmer and can still talk (but not sing); vigorous activity to be when you breathe hard and fast and can only say a few words without taking another breath; and very vigorous to be when you can only perform short burst of the activity at maximum effort before having to take a rest.

Analyse your own activity levels in context to your starting ability. As you improve you’ll find you can increase the level of activity. A periodic review will allow you to see how far you’ve come – so it motivates you to do more! Careful how much you push: there’s no point injuring yourself as that will do nothing for your ability to keep moving or your motivation.

Fit the activity into your life: walk to the local shops, pump your arms or keep the pace while holding a conversation; don’t make excuses for not going upstairs (again!); kick a football with your children or grandchildren, rather than watching them play – they’ll love it; dance to your favourite songs while doing the washing up – it’ll make the task less arduous.

For those who are more able but deficient in time, it has been recognised that short burst of vigorous (or very vigorous) activity can compensate for reduced length of activity. Gradually progress how much effort you put in. From jogging add in some sprinting; if swimming fast, try beating the clock with a few timed lengths; try upping your level of aerobics to high impact; if cycling to work see if you can do stages of it quicker or take a hillier route, for overall improvement.

Strength and balance is increasingly important

CMO Christopher Whitty says this is the most significant change to the 2019 update.

The subject of physical health often comes to the surface when we realise we are finding it difficult to do something we used to take for granted. However, we actually need to strengthen our bodies at every stage of life: for healthy development when young, through maintenance in our mid age, to preservation in older age. ‘It’s never too late’ to start!

The guidelines expand by saying it’s not just muscles that need strengthening. For muscles to tense and lengthen the sensory system needs to be active. This part of the nervous system gives us spatial awareness, helping us to coordinate our bodies and promote natural movement.

Repetitive and long-term use of the same muscles adds stamina. Muscles around the pelvis, intrinsic to the back and legs are instrumental in keeping us upright. These need a lot of stamina to prevent us falling over.

Falls are often associated with the later stages of life, when poor bone condition can cause breakages. Another myth I’d like to dispel is that bones are not solid or dead; they are very much alive and need to keep rejuvenating themselves. To be more effective in later life, therefore, bone density needs topping up throughout life. Carefully increasing the load on bones (using weights or resistance bands) ensures bones create and maintain internal geometry and connections keeping them strong.

If goals were demotivating you before, what's stopping you now?

In summary, the overall message of the guidelines is to get more active. It doesn’t matter how much you do currently, your health and longevity of life is likely to improve if you increase physical activity. Being more active promotes better physical and mental well-being and can prevent diseases. Health benefits are even greater if you get up and move around rather than sit down all day.

We therefore need to break down whatever is preventing us from being more active - whether that is getting more realistic with our goals or merely creating small but significant changes to our daily lives which will, in turn, make a massive difference to improving our own health and possibly for those around us.

So, what’s stopping you now?

Get in touch if you need help becoming more active.

Reference :

UK Chief medical Officers' Physical Activity Guidelines (in full): http://bit.ly/2019HealthUpdates Graphics courtesy of Public Health England.

A few steps that won't feel like exercise!

Wed, 13 Nov 2019 18:24:05 GMT

You don't need to 'exercise' to improve your posture

Ever heard the following excuses for not doing exercise: ‘I don’t like sport’; ‘I don’t have time’; or ‘I don’t know where to start’? I’ve been looking for ways to get people moving better and what better way than incorporate movement into everyday life, so it doesn’t feel like exercise!

I decided to look at what we normally do throughout the day and see if we can make small changes that in time will become our new norm. Here are some really basic tweaks that will have a long lasting effect.

Take standing, walking and sitting. These are normal, everyday events for most people: we either learnt them by copying others or just by giving it a go back in our childhood days: we don’t often think about how we actually do them, until we can’t do them anymore or have to relearn them.

From my own experience, I had to relearn how to walk at the ripe old age of 36, after sustaining an injury! We were fortunate enough to go skiing and on the penultimate day I took a tumble! I know it’s a dangerous sport and many would say I knew what I was getting into by going in the first place, but, the injury I sustained could have happened to anyone, maybe by simply falling over in a car park. I’ll spare you the gory medical details, but internal tissue damage affected my outer hip muscles so much I eventually had to have surgery, followed by physiotherapy to learn how to re-educate my muscles to walk again. I saw this in a positive light, since I could iron out all the mistakes and bad habits I’d picked up over the years.

My recovery to get back up and walking again made me think of how much we take for granted. Perhaps we should start being more aware of how we move and correct any minor issues before they become a problem!

Back to my subject: my ethos is that if you work on everyday occurrences you fit better posture into your life rather than putting it off because it's something you do when you exercise. And for regular exercisers, rudimentary amendments could prevent future injuries.

So here are some pointers for you to take into your everyday lives. The more you practice the more it becomes a habit and less like hard work or EXERCISE!

Standing Still

Yes, it takes effort to stand still! Have you ever wondered how the Queen’s Guard at Buckingham Palace can stand so still for so long? I was intrigued by this and couldn’t understand how they could possibly stand stock still, without a murmur of a wobble - until I did Pilates. Their incredible balance comes from toned muscles from their very centre, radiating throughout their body to their extremities. I don’t think a Guard shifting from foot to foot or wriggling to alleviate tired muscles would look half as impressive!

Our feet are (usually) the only part in contact with the ground, so we firstly need to plant a stable base: put your feet hip-width apart; pretend you are a tree and sway your body slightly to the right and then the left, finding the mid-point (Fig 1) where you feel the same pressure on both feet; then sway your whole body slightly forwards and backwards, finding the mid-point between the pressure under your heels and the balls of your toes (Fig 2); spread your toes out as far as they’ll go and again even the pressure between the balls of your big toe and your little toe.

Walking Tall

While you’re walking round town, taking children to school or popping down to the local shop, think about making yourself as tall as you possibly can. Feel like there is a Helium balloon attached to the back of your head, floating gently a little higher towards the sky with every step. Your rib-cage and pelvis should also feel light and resist the heavy burden of gravity. This will keep your back joints open to facilitate bending and twisting, as well as preventing impinged nerves from shooting pains down your arms and/or legs.

Sitting Stacked

Our sedentary lifestyles mean most of us sit for far too long: working at our desks, watching television or socialising. We sit slumped in our chairs with our knees or ankles crossed, round-shouldered from reaching for the mouse and our chins poking forward to stare at the screen. The posture we adopt in sitting is therefore becoming more and more important.
We have evolved to be an upright species, walking on our hind legs: the lower part of our backbone, for example, is thicker at the bottom to take the weight of the upper body. If we veer away from that upright position it puts undue pressures on our skeleton and soft tissues. Our head, for example, weighs between 10-12lb (about 5Kg): for every 1/4” (6-7mm) we lean forwards we add an equivalent of 2 x 2lb (approx. 2 x 1Kg) bag of sugar to our chin – that’s making our head up to 40% heavier! Think what that does to the tension in your back muscles trying to hold your head upright – no wonder we get back ache!

Making sure elements of our bodies are stacked on top of one another when sitting allows a more balanced stance, where no additional weight is pulling our backs into unnatural shapes. So, what do I mean by sitting stacked?

If you think of your head, shoulders, ribs and pelvis as four cylinders, these need to be neatly balanced on top of one another (Fig 3). Sit comfortably with your weight evenly distributed between each cheek. Think of that Helium balloon gently raising your head upwards. Working up from your bottom, check your ribs are central to your pelvis (side to side and front to back). Your shoulders then need to be central over your ribs; and your head central to your shoulders. This puts your back in a lovely neutral position, so it doesn’t tire so quickly. You will still need to get up and walk about every 40 minutes to keep the circulation going, but this posture will make you more comfortable whether you are sitting, standing or even walking around.

See how you can incorporate these small steps into your life to improve your posture without having to EXERCISE!

What are your reasons for not exercising?

What are the benefits and drawbacks of exercise classes?

Wed, 29 May 2019 16:11:36 GMT

Are group classes for you?

As a personal Pilates instructor, you’re probably thinking this article will be biased against fitness classes. However, I come from a place of experiencing and appreciating both group and one-to-one sessions so I can see the benefits and drawbacks of each. In this article I express my own view of the advantages and disadvantages of going to class exercise: I acknowledge that each participant’s experience and reasoning will be different, so, please feel free to share your thoughts.

Whichever way you approach it, becoming more active is the major benefit of doing any additional exercise and is an ethos very close to my heart.

Fitness Motivation

Ahhh! How many of you have paid for a gym membership only to realise it’s out of date by the time you get around to using it? Motivation to take part in any exercise program is often low, even though the mental and physical benefits are enormous. Local campaigns such as #thisgirlcan have been designed to make it easier to find suitable activities and doing it with someone can also spur you on: it is a well-known fact that you are more likely to keep the activity up if you attend with a friend. The peer pressure and unwillingness to let them down can really motivate you to even turn up. There is also a wider sociable benefit – in getting to know other attendees you can sharing common interests and make new friends – another driver to go to classes.

Group Exercise

Group activities by definition involve a number of people all doing what the teacher at the front of the class is doing, at the same time (apart from the rebel participants and we all know a few of those!). There is comfort in knowing that future classes will follow along the same format and similar routines each week.

Invariably only one level is catered for and there is an expectation that everyone is at the same level of fitness and will keep up with others in the class. So it is important to check that the class caters for your level and ability before attending. If you are unable to get on or off the floor easily, struggle with coordination or are just starting back to exercise after a time away, group classes may not be the best for you.

Depending on the size of the group, and how brave you are when deciding where to position yourself in the hall, the spotlight is taken off you to ‘perform’. The front row may get the benefit of seeing the routine first hand, but moves often get translated, like Chinese whispers, towards the back of the class.

Generic Fitness Programs

The down-side is that the tutor can only give generic exercises, rather than individual attention. Professional teachers will acknowledge any issue you raise with them prior to the session and may even mention to be cautious with a certain movement during their routine. They won’t, however, have the luxury to change their program just for you or to check you are doing the moves correctly throughout! Imagine the reigning chaos if the teacher left their podium position, with the class having no-one to follow!

Regular Times

The other good thing about exercise classes is that they are usually at a particular time and place on a regular basis. If you have a particular slot in your diary in which to fit exercise into your busy life, then this format could work well for you. Bear in mind, you might have searched and found the ideal class, only to realise it’s not on at a convenient time – just when you need to put the kids to bed or it’s only on during your normal working day.

Classes often follow school holidays, so you may have gaps in your exercise program.

Commitment

There is often a requirement to commit to a number of session (although there are classes where you can pay as you go) – some offer discounts to persuade you to attend a block or term. I have a lot of sympathy with those running classes, as it is often more to do with the fact they have had to commit to the hall owner for a period of time, than wanting to lock you in and make you pay for a whole term, even when you will have to miss one or two dates out of the term. I suppose the PS of this point is the lower cost, as classes are obviously cheaper than private sessions as the tutor’s costs are spread across the number of people attending.

When Classes Work!

In summary, I strongly believe that classes are excellent for people who are experienced at the activity, such as yoga, Pilates or Tai chi (unless attending a beginners’ class). They are then able follow a teacher safe in the knowledge that they are performing each exercise correctly, so won’t hurt themselves. You need to be happy to do generic exercise within rigid time slots. They suit people who need the motivation of a group to get them to do any physical activity. I really enjoy classes for these reasons myself!

However, if this doesn’t sound like you, an alternative way of exercising might suit you better.
It’s a decision only you can make and I recognise everyone’s needs and circumstances are different.

Let me know if you’re a class goer, gym addict, home exerciser or prefer individual tuition!

Next time I’ll run through the pros and cons of one-to-one sessions.