DESK JOB HORRORS!! GET OUT OF THE NIGHTMARE!!

Are you feeling like your body isn’t sitting quite right? Feeling aches and pains Just by sitting down? You might be a victim of a desk job!!!

Do you spend the whole day in a chair and in front of a computer screen?

Back Pain desk

It’s not uncommon for a person with a desk job to spend 10hours in a chair, back hunched and arms in front. This is what we call a sedentary work lifestyle. Spending day after day for years behind a desk can cause problems you wouldn’t think would happen to you because working behind a desk is a lot safer than being on a construction site right? But over time, bad posture takes a serious toll on your spine, shoulders, hips, and knees. In fact, it can cause a whole lot of structural problems that will lead to back and joint pain, reduced flexibility, and compromised muscles, all of which limit your ability to burn fat and build strength.

Anyone sitting at a desk for a large part of the day has a much greater tendency to get the dreaded shoulder hunch, tight hips and a bottom that is inactive. Rounded shoulders are caused by sitting hunched over at a desk forcing the chest muscles to tighten, which can internally rotate the shoulders forward and the muscles in the upper back weaken and loosen. Tight hip Flexors and inactive glutes are caused by sitting for long periods of time which places our hip flexors in a shortened, tightened, active position. Shortened muscles that stay shortened for hours at a time get stiff and overactive. At the same time, your hip extensors are being lengthened and weakened. Your glutes and hamstrings are all stretched out, which leaves with you inactive glutes.

Put your posture back in it’s place now!!

Tips to nip these issues in the butt!!!

1) Start your morning with quick and effective activation exercises
2) Move around and Try to change positions as often as possible whilst at work
3) Spend 5-10 minuets on your lunch break and go for a quick brisk walk
4) Take 2 minuet breaks throughout the day to have a stretch and loosen tightened muscles
5) Make it a team time in the office for all your colleagues to join in on daily stretching
6) Make time in the day to spend 30-60 minuets doing a complete body balanced workout

ROUNDED SHOULDERS

Back pain desk 2

THE PROBLEM: Weakness in the middle and lower parts of your trapezius (the large muscle that spans your shoulders and back)
FIX IT: Lie facedown on the floor, with each arm at a 90-degree angle in the high-five position. Without changing your elbow angle, raise both arms by pulling your shoulders back and squeezing your shoulder blades together. Hold for five seconds. That’s one rep! do two or three sets of 12 reps daily.

TIGHT HIP FLEXORS

THE PROBLEM: Forward hip tilt (aka anterior pelvic tilt) is associated with tight hip flexors. Tight hip flexors prevent the glutes (butt muscles) from firing/activating, which forces the hamstring muscles to become overworked and excessively tight. If you have tight hamstrings, the root cause may be tight hip flexors and an anterior pelvic tilt.

FIX IT: Stretch your hip flexors with static lunges, activate your glutes with exercises like glute bridges, and foam roll and stretch your hamstrings.

5 Steps you must do to achieve the best version of you!

1. Take 30 minutes of me time to reflect: Start by taking half an hour out of your schedule to look at what was achieved last year, what worked and what didn’t and how you can make simple changes that will ensure an even more successful year this year!



2. Set aggressive goals: By aggressive I do not mean go and punch someone, unless they don’t like minions and then feel free to knock some sense into them Mwhahhaa Banana (inside minion joke). I mean be ruthless with what you really want to achieve pick big nuggets and write them down! Then put your written down goals somewhere you will view them every single day! If you are not constantly practicing the art of reminding yourself what you are trying to achieve you will get distracted and you will fall off the wagon!

Minions

3. Create a success plan: This is the how you are going to achieve your goals, every single step you feel you need to take. This takes a little longer but will show you exactly how achievable it is and how your goals will fit into your current lifestyle. You may need to talk to someone, like your trainer to help build this in particular! Seek advice from experts is the best bit as the more detail in the plan the more achievable it will be and there will be no surprises!



4. Take action every day: Ask yourself the big question every single morning when you rise from bed – How will I take one small step to get closer to my goal today? Then do it! Remember knowledge has no power without action! You will first have resistance to taking action, but like training you will get better at it, take stronger action and even crave action taking.



5. Review: Make sure you check in weekly and monthly to understand your patterns to help overcome any obstacles that may pop up, and then find a way to overcome it. Every single thing you feel has been overcome by someone else you just need to find out how they did it and fix the issue. Make sure nothing stops you from achieving what you truly want, it is allowed to slow you down but it can’s stop you!

3 Reasons why a goodnights sleep is essential for optimal health and how it can help with weight-loss!

Inadequate sleep has been linked to increased risks to varying illnesses. You’ve probably all heard that it is important to aim for 8 hours sleep a night to reduce risk factors for many chronic illnesses such as diabetes, high blood pressure and weight gain to name a few. Let’s have a more detailed look at how and why sleep effects our health.


Lack of sleep can lead to increased hunger

While you sleep hormones are constantly being regulated, two in particular that are related to satiety (feeling full) and stimulating hunger are leptin and ghrelin. Lack of sleep has been found to decrease the amount of leptin, which is responsible for supressing appetite, lower levels of leptin lead to increased levels of ghrelin thus stimulating hunger. While getting enough sleep results in decreased hunger and therefore can help you lose weight and food cravings.


Sleep is a time for rest and restoration for the body

Sleep induces the release of growth hormone, this hormone is responsible for cell regeneration, reproduction and growth. These processes are essential for building and repairing muscles (especially after a hard workout!). If we can build our muscle mass we can also increase our metabolic rate, with a heightened metabolism we burn more energy resulting in easier weight loss! Also by allowing our muscles adequate recovery we can improve performance and reduce soreness.


8 Hours sleep can reduce cortisol (stress hormone)


If you are reaching your 8 hours a night then you will help keep cortisol at bay. If you’re not, lack of sleep has been shown to raise cortisol. Raised cortisol levels slow down the metabolism and leads to protein getting broken down to glucose. This is bad for two main reasons. Firstly excess glucose will get stored as fat. Secondly protein getting broken down equals muscles getting broken down and the ability to build muscle is thus reduced also. This is not ideal when trying to build muscle or lose weight!


Remember sleep is essential for our health so make sure you’re getting enough shuteye!

The bootcamp workout is a Key to healthy sleep. Redfrogfitness provide a good fitness program. For more information please visit.. http://www.redfrogfitness.com.au/

Depression and Anxiety – Your biggest enemy or your biggest ally???

Every 1 in 3 people suffer from depression or anxiety. Fact. Let that sink in for just a moment. If you do not suffer from either depression or anxiety, odds on someone in your immediate family does. Pretty alarming isnt it? Well how about if I told you that the highest cause of death between Australians aged between 15-44 years old is suicide? In 2012, the average suicide rate was 11 per 100,000 people. That equates to almost 7 deaths per day in Australia due to suicide. In 2012, there was 2,535 reported cases of suicide in Australia. 1,901 males and 634 females. Quite shocking isn’t it?

Depressed

We all know someone who has experienced or living with depression and likely have experienced bouts of anxiety from time to time. We have all these facts staring us right in the face, yet depression and anxiety is rarely talked about. A black shadow cast upon society and no one really dares to speak of it or even acknowledge its existence. People are ashamed to admit they have these issues and generally suffer in silence or suffer by masking the pain. Depression is a torturous disease that is relentless and never goes away no matter what happens in our lives. You can have good days yes but generally that black shadow is lurking in the background, in the back of your mind and it feels like its impossible to shake.


I, for one suffer depression. It has stopped me from doing bigger and better things with my life, has ruined previous relationships I have had and has made me question myself on countless occasions. However, we have a choice in life. Adapt or perish. We can choose to let this disgusting black shadow engulf our lives in sadness and uncertainty, or we can fight back and not let it rule our lives. Here are your only two choices. Fight, or lose.


Exercise and fitness has always had its place in my life. However, little did I know that the psychological benefits that come from exercise would by far exceed the physical benefits. I always liked to exercise, however I didn’t know that i NEEDED to exercise. As I got older and struggled to battle my depression, the only time I felt great about myself was when I was playing sports, or going for a run, or lifting weights. The benefit of working out was actually helping battle my depression and I didn’t even consider how important exercise was for me in regards to my mental health and wellbeing.


Working out can lead to increased levels of hormones and changes in the neurotransmitter levels. Exercising regularly can lead to increased levels of dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine and glutamate in the brain. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that plays an important role in the central nervous system. Low levels of dopamine usually trigger off depression, whereas high levels of dopamine are produced with pleasurable activities such as eating, exercising or sex.


Serotonin plays an important role in learning and memory, particularly in the acquisition and retrieval of short term memories but also low levels have a link to depression and does play a role in it. Usually people with lower levels of serotonin are more likely to be linked with depression as opposed to someone with higher levels of serotonin.


Norepinephrine is generally responsible for the “fight or flight” response where adrenaline is released into the blood stream and thus increasing heart rate, glucose levels and blood flow which enhances alertness and arousal. However, Norepinephrine has therapeutic uses as well and if not enough is present, it can lead to issues such as lack of motivation, lack of energy and depression.

Anxiety

It has been proven that one hour a day of exercise of physical activity can boost the levels of all these hormones and it is an alternative to taking antidepressant medications which can chemically raise these levels as opposed to them occuring naturally. The benefits that exercise can have on your mental wellbeing is well documented.


As a long time sufferer of depression and anxiety, exercise has been a substantial help to me and has boosted my moods and confidence levels astronomically. Sometimes the most rewarding sessions are the ones that you cannot be bothered doing. You might feel flat and tired at times, but the best thing for you to do is to muster up the strength and energy and battle through a gruelling session. Your brain will thank you for it.

So, if you are also the one who is suffering from the depression or anxiety and need our help then click on the link http://www.redfrogfitness.com.au/