5 Steps To Staying In Shape At Your Computer
5 Steps To Staying In Shape At Your Computer
If you are like the majority of Americans, your day-to-day operations involve sitting at your computer for many long hours. It is an unavoidable fact that this type of daily routine can have a negative impact on one's physical and mental health.
Thankfully, there are a few ways in which you can reduce the strain put on your body by prolonged periods in a seated position. Here are 5 methods to help reduce tension from too much time behind a screen!
1) Try The Opposite – If you usually work for hours hunched over a desk with only occasional breaks, try taking five minutes to stand up and stretch every hour or so.
2) Stretch Your Body – If you have the luxury, do some light yoga or tai-chi to help loosen up your muscles and relieve tension in the body.
3) Tense Up And Release – Hold your elbows close to your sides and fingers extended, then tense up your glutes, chest, shoulders and neck muscles. Then use these same muscles to relax them as you breathe out. Repeat this cycle three times in a row then switch to stretching out your lower back and other back muscles. Do this as many times as necessary until tension begins to ease.
4) Take A Walk – Walk around the office or hallways to get some fresh air. This will help reduce blood pressure and improve circulation to your brain.
5) Do Something Light – If you get stuck in front of the computer screen for too long, try doing something with your hands like knitting or playing a musical instrument. Or try a game of Candy Land!
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<blockquote><body>Dysfunction is the single most important and yet least understood area of functional medicine. The ramifications of dysfunction and its impact on our overall health are perhaps more extensive than even many doctors realize.
The gut is the center of dysfunction. It is as important to our health as the brain, heart, liver and kidneys. The gut is a vital organ of sensation and information. It contains a dense and vast array of chemical receptors that are connected to five times more neurons than reside in the spinal cord. In fact, if you were to connect all the neurons in your gut together they would physically extend more than twice the length of your body. Yet despite their importance, many people are completely unaware of their existence, and how they can be used to reduce dysfunctions like inflammation, leaky gut syndrome, autoimmune conditions, poor adrenal function and chronic fatigue syndrome.
Fortunately, there are techniques for improving gut function that you can employ to improve your health and wellbeing. The following techniques can be used to increase gut sensitivity in your body.
1) Be aware of how you breathe – Breathing deeply into the diaphragm can create a feeling of fullness in the abdomen and help trigger digestive contractions which will initiate a peristalsis wave. When taking deep breaths, it is important to concentrate on breathing from the lower part of your lungs. If you only use shallow breaths (breathing into your chest), then this will inhibit activation of the enteric nervous system that is responsible for regulating digestion.
2) Place your hands on your stomach – By repeatedly placing your hand on your lower abdomen, you can stimulate peristalsis. You can achieve this by taking several deep breaths, and then placing a hand on each side of the abdomen. By applying pressure in both directions as if you were massaging the area, this will help to initiate a peristalsis wave from top to bottom.
3) Take fiber supplements – Roughage is essential for maintaining gut health, and helps promote regular bowel movements and prevent constipation. Soluble fiber like psyllium husk powder or flax fibers are especially good at this. A combination of soluble and insoluble fiber is considered the best type for promoting gut health.
4) Take peppermint tea – The popular "peppermint tea" remedy is a great way to promote peristalsis, but it should only be used in moderation as too much peppermint can cause your stomach to bloat. There are two effective ways of using peppermint: The first way is to use an appropriate amount of peppermint oil (1-2 drops) with hot water and lemon slice. The second method for using peppermint oil is just as effective, but much more convenient and easy to prepare. You can use a few drops of peppermint oil in water, or you can make a hot peppermint tea by adding several drops of peppermint oil to your usual hot water. The best way to do this is to warm the bottle in hot water, then shake well before adding the drops of oil directly into the hot liquid. Peppermint tea can also be prepared using an infusion method with fresh peppermint leaves.
5) Engage in sufficient sleep – Lack of sleep has been shown to have a big impact on gut function. Deficiency in sleep causes repetitive stress as well as physical exhaustion, which leads to a lowered ability for the enteric nervous system (ENS) to function effectively and stimulate peristalsis. This can be resolved by getting the required amount of sleep.
6) Chew well – Chewing food thoroughly is important for breaking down the food into smaller pieces, which makes it easier for the stomach to digest and stimulates digestive contractions. It also helps reduce inflammation in your gut by chopping up any large food particles that may be causing the problem.
7) Exercise your body – Exercising helps stimulate digestion and bowel peristalsis by exercising key muscles in the abdomen like transverse abdominis (TVA), quadratus lumborum (QL), multifidus spinae, diaphragm and pelvic floor muscles. These muscles work together to assist digestion and promote peristalsis through the GI tract. Yoga stretches have also been shown to increase digestive motility.
8) Combine dietary fiber with prebiotics – Fiber helps attract water, which helps move food along a more efficient route and along the digestive tract, stimulating peristalsis. Prebiotic fibers are beneficial in that they help produce billions of beneficial bacteria in the gut by feeding off of damaged or dead bacteria, therefore benefiting your health as well as providing you with added support.
9) Get plenty of hydration – Dehydration can inhibit digestion and bowel transit time by causing excessive abdominal pressure, decreased peristalsis and reduced secretion of saliva.