Quick Fixes to Bust Through Brain Fog

Sit Pretty

Yes, your mom was right, your posture does matter. Even if you have a standing desk like Xdesk, chances are you’ll find yourself sitting occasionally. When you sit, make sure that your knees are at a 90-degree angle with your feet flat on the floor, and sit tall to ensure your hands lay comfortably on your keyboard. This will help improve circulation and even breathing, which both can help your brain function more effectively.

Stand Up and Move

Standing, even for just a few minutes throughout the day, can counteract the negative side effects of sitting, including brain fog. Adding that simple form of physical exercise can help burn off the stress hormone cortisol and stimulate new brain cell formation—both of which can lead to brain fog. If you have an adjustable height standing desk like Xdesk, just spend a few minutes standing, or get up and go walk around the office for a minute or so. Even better, take a step outside. Sunshine and fresh air can do wonders for your mood and help clear your mind.

Nosh Nutritiously

Contrary to popular belief, that soda or cup of coffee actually won’t really help you beat brain fog. The sugar and caffeine might give you a temporary boost, but you’ll likely feel even worse once it wears off. Avoid the sugar crash and just eat a healthy snack. Fresh foods—not packaged or processed—are best. Snacks with protein, like beef jerky and hard-boiled eggs, or good kinds of fats like nuts and cottage cheese, and great to give your brain and body much needed nutrients without the insulin spike and inevitable crash caused by carbs and sugar.

Stretch it Out

Stretching is a great way to get energy circulating in your body. Stretch your arms over your head, touch your toes, rotate your head different ways to stretch your neck, whatever feels good to get your blood flowing again. There are even some really simple yoga poses you can do at your desk.

Tips to Keep Your Brain Healthy and Prevent Brain Fog

Say No to Sugar

Sugar and sugar-containing products are some of the worst culprits for brain fog. This includes carbs and starches, which elicit a similar response to sugar in your body. Combat the draw of the vending machine by keeping healthy, nutrient-rich snacks available at your desk. In addition to the high-protein and healthy fat options from above, you can try fresh vegetables like carrots, celery, and bell peppers with hummus.

Exercise Regularly

One of the most important things you can do to keep your brain healthy and performing at its best is regular exercise. Physical exercise can increase endorphins and deliver more glucose and oxygen to your brain. Even if you can’t squeeze in a consecutive 30 minutes or so at the gym, just break up the sedentary parts of your day with a walk or stretches to experience similar benefits. The main point? Get moving!

Supplement

Sometimes, brain fog can be a side effect of missing nutrients. If you struggle with brain fog often, it might be worthwhile to visit a nutritionist to evaluate your diet and see if you need any supplementation. Some common brain-boosting supplements include:

Vitamins D and B-12: These are both essential to brain health and supplementing common deficiencies.

Omega-3 Fatty Acids: These are found in high concentrations in the brain and are crucial to memory and overall brain health and function.

MultiVitamin: This will help fill in any nutritional gaps for when you don’t eat as well as you should.

Hydrate

Research has shown that dehydration can lead to fatigue. Make sure you drink enough water throughout the day that you don’t feel thirsty. And no, this doesn’t mean coffee or tea, which both can actually dehydrate you!

Having an adjustable height desk like Xdesk makes beating brain fog easy. Breaking up your time spent sitting with short standing intervals is hugely beneficial to your overall health, productivity, and yes, brain clarity. Let us know your go-to ways to beat brain fog!

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To make the switch to an adjustable desk a bit easier, follow these simple steps to start standing full time:

1. Transition Your Chair
Before you ditch your office chair, hold it! Making the switch to a standing desk is all about timing. There are numerous studies that show how bad sitting is for your health, but standing during the entire work day isn’t ideal. Instead of throwing out your chair altogether, make it a gradual process.

If you have an amazing, cushy office chair, replace it with something that isn’t as comfortable – so you’ll want to stand and stretch every so often. Once you’ve graduated to standing, remove the office chair and replace it with a stool, only to rest your legs and feet while you’re making the complete transition to standing.

We know how someone can develop a love affair with his or her comfy chair, but it’s time to end the relationship and move on. If you can’t bear to see it go, take it home to relax in after a long, productive day of standing.

2. Wear the Appropriate Shoes
If you stand all day once your desk is assembled, your feet and legs will take notice. To combat this problem, make sure to wear comfy shoes while standing behind your adjustable height desk.

Don’t worry about having to sacrifice for fashion – if sneakers simply won’t work with office attire, just keep them in your office to change into once you feel your feet start to ache. Sneakers are even more important if you invest in a treadmill desk, no one wants to be the guy or girl with an injury from tripping over their shoes while walking!

3. Use a Floor Mat
Think about adding in extra comfortable accessories when you switch to a standing desk. A floor mat is a great option, since it cushions your feet and offers support. The type and brand depend on you and your budget, as some can get pretty expensive. The GelPro mats are a place to start. You may not want to go back to anything else once your feet rest on this gel-filled beauty.

4. Start Slow
As mentioned, starting gradually is the key to switch to a standing desk full time. Once your office chair and mat are in place, stand for 15 minute intervals and sit for 30. When you’re ready, switch to standing 30 minutes and take a break every 15. The constant shift may seem unnatural at first, but pretty soon it’ll be a normal reflex.

To help move things along, set a timer on your phone or computer to remind you to stand. Once standing at your adjustable height desk becomes easier, set higher goals. Stand for an hour, or sit down after you finish a lengthy task.

5. Standing Full Time
If you start slow, one day you may find yourself standing the entire work day! Those days will continue to increase the more you make gradual transitions at your adjustable height desk. After you’ve switched to standing the entire work day, you’ll notice better productivity and less fatigue.

While standing full time, focus on your posture, keep your shoulders back and feet shoulder width apart. Along with posture, position your arms at a 90 degree angle when typing. The NextSpace Ergonomic Keyboard Platform will help with this, since it adjusts and swivels according to the user’s needs. And your computer screen should remain at eye level between 20 and 40 inches away from your eyes (to help prevent eyestrain).

The post Switch to a Standing Desk in 5 Steps appeared first on Xdesk Blog.

To top things off, we’re proud to say that the Xdesk Terra has been named the best standing desk by numerous reviews, and was featured in several new publications including:

Wired Magazine: Working Tall: The Ultimate Standing Desk Setup

The WireCutter: The Best Standing Desks

Cult of Mac: The Xdesk Terra Standing Desk is Perfect for Health Conscious Apple Fans

Gear Patrol: 12 Guys of Christmas: The Designer

To learn more about Xdesk and see it in action, watch the video below:

The post The Best Standing Desk: A Video appeared first on Xdesk Blog.

You know that sitting all day is bad for your health, but it’s not a crime to sit down and give your legs a rest every once in a while (gasp!). So why not change the way you sit, for better posture and better focus? A kneeling chair could be the answer.

The kneeling chair has become a popular alternative to the traditional desk chair. When you’re ready to take a break from your standing desk (and hopefully you’re making small sit to stand adjustments throughout the day, for the best outcome possible), try using a kneeling chair. But what is this new wave office chair and how does it help improve sitting?

If you’re the typical office worker, you most likely use a chair that lacks the proper tools for the best comfort and back support. The basic kneeling chair rips away the back completely, and puts the user in the – as you may have guessed – kneeling position. Now there’s no room for slouching or straining your lower back muscles. Other models have a small backrest for lumbar support (the most important element to sitting)

The kneeling position has been slightly modified in these desk chairs, with your body set at a 110 degree angle. This is slightly larger than a 90 degree or less angle in traditional office chairs. This angle is ideal for sitting in an open, relaxed posture. And it supports the natural curvature of the spine.

In a kneeling chair, the hips slide forward and align with the back, neck and shoulders, to help evenly distribute your weight and reduce spinal compression. This means less stress on the lower back as well as the leg muscles.

As a fair warning, the first time you try a kneeling chair it may not be the most comfortable position, since your body isn’t used kneeling for an extended period of time. Just like sitting to standing with an adjustable height desk, slowly work your way to using this nontraditional desk chair. If you stand behind an adjustable desk most of the time but need a break once in a while, use the kneeling chair in 30 minute increments.

When you’re ready to sit, adjust your Xdesk to a lower position according to your kneeling height and you’re good to go. But don’t get too comfortable!

Like all chairs, there are pitfalls to using it for an extended period of time. It can confine the user to one position, which leads to cramps and unnecessary pressure on the knees and shins. And some users can experience poor circulation in the legs if they sit in the chair too long.

But oddly enough, this reason makes them a great desk chair to have around an adjustable height desk, since it allows you to sit in moderation and encourages you to stand and stretch once those shins start to ache.

What do you think about the kneeling chair? Is this something you would own in your office?

The post The Kneeling Chair: The Nontraditional Desk Chair appeared first on Xdesk Blog.

But with all the negative talk about sitting, people forget that standing all day isn’t ideal either. Too much standing can cause varicose veins, swollen feet and joint damage. For this reason, it’s not about picking sides between sitting and standing. It’s about finding a balance between the two.

Adjustable height desks like Xdesk combat this problem by encouraging more movement in the workplace between different positions. So when you’re ready to sit down and think, you have the freedom to do so with the touch of a button.

But before you take a seat, there is a right and wrong way to sit at a standing desk.

Of course, the most important thing to consider when you sit at a standing desk is posture. Improper posture can cause a horde of problems, including back, neck and knee pain. For the moments when you do sit at an adjustable height desk, invest in an office chair with lumbar support.

Your spine curves naturally, and your office chair should support the natural bone structure accordingly. Proper lumbar support when you sit at a standing desk will greatly reduce the risk of back and shoulder pain later on.

When you sit at a standing desk, sit close to the keyboard. Even better, if you have an adjustable keyboard tray, position it so it’s directly in front of your body, but low enough so your shoulders and elbows are in an open, relaxed position. Your wrists and hands should be straight and not curved up or down. A wrist wrest on your adjustable height desk will keep your hands in a natural position and provide added support.

Place your hips at the back of the chair while you sit at a standing desk, and adjust the height so your feet are able to rest flat on the floor. The knees should be slightly lower than your hips, to help you sit up tall. An angle between 100 and 110 Degrees is recommended for your back.

The monitor at your adjustable height desk should be centered directly in front of you, so you don’t have to strain or stress your neck. The neck should be in a relaxed position. When you are sitting at a standing desk, sit at least an arm’s length away from the screen. If you suffer from eyestrain, check out how to avoid it during the workday, HERE.

Don’t stay in your seat too long, remember, it’s all about balance! So if you start to feel sluggish or begin to slouch, stand up and stand tall. If you own an adjustable height desk, how have you made the transition from sitting to standing most of the day?

The post How to Sit at a Standing Desk appeared first on Xdesk Blog.

For this reason, we’ll show you a few tips on how to create a home office space, so you can tackle that mounting work load with ease, and still have time to start dinner at a decent hour.

Find an Appropriate Area
The first step to design your home office space is finding the perfect area to work. Many at-home workers make the mistake of setting up shop at the dining room table, or worse, that oh-so-comfortable couch. You’ll spend more time than you think in your home office space, so dedicate a complete area for better productivity.

A few things to consider before designing your home office space:
• Location: will you only need a corner of the living room, or a spare bedroom to spread out?
• Function: does it flow with the rest of your house, and are there plenty of available electrical outlets?
• Family: how does the space affect other members of the household, will you need greater privacy to meet with clients?

Find the Appropriate Equipment
After you’ve found the perfect plot, it’s time to plan your budget and invest in the right office equipment. Unsurprisingly, we’re big fans of adjustable height desks. You still get the same benefits from them at home as if you were in an office.

You’ll have the flexibility to sit, stand and move around with the touch of a button. This flexibility lessens the temptations that come with working in a home office space, like walking the dog or doing the laundry.

And the cable management system hides all wires and cords, so you can maintain the aesthetics of your home. More importantly, the customization option allows you to create the perfect desk for your home office space. An L-shape is ideal for at-home workers who need to utilize their home office space for a computer and for writing with pen and paper. And you’ll have plenty of room for a printer, files and organizational tools. If you have a limited work area in your home office space, that problem is quickly solved with the Xdesk Solo, a smaller version to accommodate tight spaces.

Head down to an office supply store to get everything else you need, like filing cabinets, extension cords and desk lamps. Which brings us to the next point – comfort.

Find a Level of Comfort
Your home office space is an area you’re going to spend a large amount of time, so you should create an environment that’s pleasant to be in.

We encourage standing throughout your day for better productivity and to keep the after lunch lethargy at bay, but don’t skimp on a comfortable office chair for those moments when you need to take a seat – an adjustable height desk is all about flexibility, after all.

It’s ideal to purchase an office chair for your home office space, instead of stealing a chair from the kitchen table. This keeps up the “office” feel, and today there are so many different styles of office furniture available, so you’re bound to find one that fits your home décor and your budget.

The right lighting is important for your home office space. It’s ideal to have natural or artificial lighting behind you to illuminate your work area and not cause a glare.

Try a few of these ideas for your home office space and let us know how it works!

The post How to Create a Home Office Space appeared first on Xdesk Blog.

Sitting is a luxury for workers, why give up the comfy leather chair or the ability to take a load off? Your legs would be less tired and your feet would thank you for it.

But! Before you join the cause and defiantly remain in your chair, let’s take a moment to dissect the author’s argument.

He realizes a stationary work day is unhealthy, and goes on to argue that the solution is not to sit less, but to work less. It would be a dream to have more vacation time and a longer lunch break.

Unfortunately, most of us don’t have the luxury of working fewer hours, but thankfully the adjustable standing desk provides you with an alternative: flexibility.

As we mentioned, the standing desk encourages the freedom of movement. Try yoga behind your standing desk to keep the blood flowing and take a break. And if you’re able, take a quick stroll around the office to talk to your coworkers instead of relentlessly sending emails.

And as always, if your legs are begging for relief, adjust your desk to a lower position and relax in a chair. But don’t completely give up remaining active!

In another valid point from the author, he mentions that it is still possible to be chained to a standing desk.

If you’re unable to get away from your workstation, the standing desk provides plenty of features to keep up productivity and make your work space more comfortable.

It may seem like a minor detail, but let’s not forget about the cable management option located in the back. Pesky cables only contribute to the stacks of paper and clutter on your desk, but thankfully this feature keeps at least one thing out of the way and organized.

Your NextSpace ergonomic keyboard can be adjusted to the perfect setting for you, or pushed underneath your adjustable height desk when not in use. And, the digital LED display remembers the perfect standing height for you—talk about ease and comfort during transition.

Beyond the author’s argument, we can’t emphasize enough the health advantages from standing! Yes, there are certain pitfalls like tired legs and feet, but the long-term advantages greatly outweigh the negatives.

The post The Backlash Against Standing Desks: Why Xdesk is Different appeared first on Xdesk Blog.

Staying hydrated is important, so don’t skimp on the water intake just to avoid sweating while working at your treadmill desk. Men and women should drink at least 2-3 liters a day, so grab a few water bottles and start walking.

First off, invest in a fan—or a wind tower if you want to get complicated. A cheaper fan will save you money, but you’ll spend most of your time figuring out the exact angle it should be placed instead of getting work done.

With a wind tower your office will remain a cool temperature, relatively quiet and keep those beads of sweat at bay.

Walk, don’t run. There’s nothing wrong with a little friendly competition to see who can walk at a faster pace at your treadmill desk, but don’t be afraid to lose that game. You can continue to walk at a slower pace and avoid victoriously raising pit-stained arms as the winner.

Everyone will have a different walking pace, but take time to gradually increase your speed to avoid over-exerting or injuring yourself. Start with 15 minute sessions throughout the day and increase from there.

In winter, save on the electric bill and keep the heat off in your office. Wear a sweater or a light jacket until you feel yourself heating up while in-step.

Hopefully these tips were useful in your treadmill desk investment. Let us know what you thought!

The post How to Avoid Sweating on a Treadmill Desk appeared first on Xdesk Blog.

You know the habits that can creep in during a long work day – daydreaming about lunch, staring at the computer screen or browsing the web while that report remains unwritten. Sitting in one position all day can have a negative effect on a person’s mood and cloud the mind.

Luckily, if you own a standing desk, adjusting your position can get you out of a rut.

Lifehacker shared the psychological benefits of standing desks and how they help keep your mind moving throughout the day.

“Something about standing keeps me more engaged,” Ben from Pitch Dreams says. “My mind wanders less and for some reason I feel a bit more energized at work.”

He summarizes scientific research from Amy Cuddy, author of the TED talk, Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are (& how to create confidence and influence out of thin air).

Standing in specific “power poses” produces more testosterone that changes the body’s physiology and increases focus. Working at a standing desk naturally positions you into these certain poses, which subconsciously leads to better productivity.

Standing increases blood circulation, and we know what that means: more oxygen getting to the brain, which in turns revitalizes a person to see their mundane work tasks in a new light. Try standing most of the day and feel the brain cells spark and the creativity flow.

via LifeHacker

The post The Psychological Benefits of Standing appeared first on Xdesk Blog.

Dr. Joan Vernikos, former director of NASA’s Life Sciences Division and author of Sitting Kills, Moving Heals, presents a simple yet powerful scientific explanation for why sitting has such a dramatic impact on your health, and how you can easily counteract the ill effects of sitting.

She was one of the primary doctors responsible for ensuring the health of the astronauts as they went into space, investigating the health ramifications of space travel, and what can be done to counter them (on a side note, one of my initial life ambitions was to be an astronaut, up until college when I opted for pre-med. I’m glad I didn’t pursue being an astronaut because I think there are far too many health dangers associated with working in space).

My primary passion is improving health, which is why I’m very excited about Dr. Vernikos’ work. There have been a number of studies within the last year or two that show that even if you are very fit, exercising as much as five times a week for a half an hour to an hour, you can fall far short of optimum fitness if you sit most of the day.

You’re even at an increased risk of dying prematurely. Dr. Vernikos’ research with astronauts has clarified why this occurs and, even more importantly, provides us with a simple regimen that could counteract those consequences.

In order to determine why regular exercise does not compensate for the negative effects of prolonged sitting, some of her research focused on finding out what type of movement is withdrawn by sitting. What she discovered was as revolutionary as it was counter intuitive.

Not only did she discover that the act of standing up is more effective than walking for counteracting the ill effects of sitting, the key is how many times you stand up. It’s actually the change in posture that is the most powerful signal in terms of having a beneficial impact on your health, not the act of standing in and of itself.

Put another way, the key to counteract the ill effects of sitting is to repeatedly interrupt your sitting. The key is frequent intermittent interactions with gravity. Standing up 35 times at once will provide only a small percent of the benefit of standing up once every 20 minutes.

It’s All About Interacting Regularly With Gravity

During Skylab, which was the longest mission Dr. Vernikos worked on in the early 1970’s, many medical observers noted that astronauts were prematurely aging while in space. Interestingly, the changes that were occurring were found to be very similar to what happens to you when you’re bedridden, and to the aging process itself. Initially, Dr. Vernikos referred to these phenomena as parallel processes, as she could not prove a cause and effect that were identical to all three. That eventually changed when she was doing a bed-rest study:

“I was helping a friend out whose parents had come from Greece and spoke no English,” she says. “The lady had fallen and broken her hip, had it fixed and replaced. But she refused to stand up and get out of bed. She eventually ended up in a nursing home in California… What struck me at the nursing home was that many of the things I saw in these older people were very similar to what I could see in my subjects who have been lying in bed for seven days. Especially when they got out of bed, when balance and coordination is affected, and they would pass out when standing up, and they would shuffle their feet.

I thought, well, this is very strange. The people who are in bed, and the astronauts, recover. But here are these people in the nursing home who are showing exactly the same changes. Maybe one should turn the question around?

Maybe the question is not ‘what causes the changes in them—is it or isn’t it aging?’ Maybe it is the conditions that they find themselves in—the inactivity or the relative inactivity in space that induces these changes rather than the number of years one has? When I started asking that question, then some of the research began to make sense.”

Did you know that the changes in bone and muscle that occur here on Earth in one year’s time–approximately one percent loss of bone or one percent loss of muscle–occur in just one week to one month when you’re in space? Incredibly, you get close to a 10-fold acceleration of the aging process when you live in a gravity-free environment! And this is part of the equation when it comes to explaining why chronic sitting is an independent risk factor for premature death.

Astronaut Legend Proves Biological Age Can Be Counteracted

Astronaut John Glenn was the first man to perform an orbital flight. He eventually became a US Senator, and at the age of 77 became the oldest man in space, thanks to Dr. Vernikos when he participated in her experiment to validate her theory of aging in the micro-gravity of space.

“[Glenn] happened to be chair of the Committee on Aging at the time,” she says. “It occurred to him, as he was listening to all these testimonies, that what he heard was very much like what he had experienced and what he knew his colleagues were experiencing as they flew. So, he got very excited.

One day in 1997, he walked into my office. He had done some fantastic research… comparing the aerospace medicine textbook with the PDR on the effects of aging and drew comparisons between the two. He said, ‘Well, I think if I flew again, it could provide information that could help everyone as we age’… I was concerned not because of what might happen to him during the nine days of flight, but what might happen to him in terms of recovery.”

Still, the flight took place, placing Glenn at the age of 77 in space with five other astronauts, averaging in age between 35 and 45. The results, which were double-blind, were presented before a full auditorium at the NIH.

“What they showed on the slide was that out of the seven people who flew, one was an outlier. So, we all thought to ourselves, ‘Oh, dear, they’re his. He’s an outlier. He’s older, that’s why’… This confirms that if you’re older, you will react differently.”

But when the identities of the astronauts in the data points were revealed, John Glenn was NOT the outlier. A 35-year-old astronaut was. Glenn was actually right in the middle of the cluster of astronauts, suggesting that if you’re healthy and fit, you really can do anything, regardless of your age. His recovery post-flight also turned out to be just as fast as his younger peers.

Your Lifestyle Determines How Quickly Your Body Ages

What this means for us living permanently here on Earth is that the changes that accompany aging are more likely a result of our lifestyle rather than the inevitable outcome associated with a numerical or physiological age.

The good news is that you can prevent, and to a great degree delay, the damage associated with a large portion of biological aging, especially the most crippling, which is pain with movement and loss of flexibility that you had as a youth.

It also means that getting too hung up on a once-a-day exercise routine is to put the cart before the horse. FIRST you need to make sure you’re engaging in more or less perpetual non-exercise movement, as this is an independent risk factor.

You then want to add structured exercise on top of that to reap all the benefits associated with exercise. Going to the gym a few times a week for an hour isn’t going to counteract hours upon hours of chronic uninterrupted sitting, which essentially mimics a micro-gravity situation, i.e. you’re not exerting your body against gravity. Only frequent non-exercise movement will do that.

“What became abundantly clear to me very quickly was that gravity plays a big role in our physiological function and in the aging process,” Dr. Vernikos says.

Fortunately, there’s nothing complicated about this. The key point is to move and shift position often, when you’re sitting down. Meaning, you want to interrupt your sitting as often as possible.

“We were designed to squat. We were designed to kneel. Sitting is okay, but it’s uninterrupted sitting that is bad for us,”Dr. Vernikos says. “We are not designed to sit continuously. We are not designed to be in quasi-microgravity… It’s not how many hours of sitting that’s bad for you, it’s how often you interrupt that sitting that is GOOD for you!”

The other thing is that when I say ‘Stand up,’ then you say, ‘Okay, standing is the opposite of sitting.’ No, standing is not the opposite of sitting, because sitting continuously is bad for you, and standing continuously is bad for you. The body is not designed to respond to square waves. Any retail employee will tell you that they suffer all kinds of consequences of many hours of standing on the job. Even nurses have known this for years: standing on the job is not good for you It’s about interrupting the sitting. Interrupting the sitting is not necessarily walking, it is the change in posture [that matters].”

Gravity as a Stimulus to Achieve Health…

Interestingly, lipoprotein lipase is dramatically reduced during inactivity, and increases with activity, the most effective activity being, you guessed it, standing up from a seated position. Lipoprotein lipase is an enzyme that attaches to fat in your bloodstream and transports it into your muscles to be used as fuel. So essentially, by standing up you are actively helping your body to burn fat for fuel. But what is it about the mechanism of standing up that would account for this?

“These are all movements, almost below-threshold kind of movements, that do not burn up a lot of calories, as we know them, but that are designed to work against gravity,” Dr. Vernikos explains.

Dr. Vernikos views gravity a bit differently from the norm. She thinks of gravity as a virtual rod that runs through your body when you’re standing up, and down to the center of the Earth. This virtual rod acts as a stimulus for your body, or put another way, gravity is a source of stimulation to your body. When you use it and challenge its downward force, you get a sense of acceleration and a sense of fun. Examples include jumping, skipping rope, cycling, downhill skiing, snow- or body-boarding…

“I’ve come to the conclusion that all the fun activities that we indulge in are based on gravity,” she says. “All these fun activities, all these games and play that we think of, are gravity-dependent. We are using gravity every which way. The moral to the story is be a child again. Have fun. Play!”

On Picking a Better Office Chair… And Standing Up 35 Times a Day

A better alternative to the traditional office chair, according to Dr. Vernikos, would be an upright wooden chair with no armrest.

“I will accept the armrest if you promise me that you really rest your elbows on it. You’re not resting your elbows, are you? If you rest your elbows and push them back every so often, which means your shoulder blades are being pushed back, and then you can relax again. But you do it as often as you possibly can. That will correct a lot of your postural problems. But if you sit in a hard back chair, a good old-fashioned chair, it can have a nice comfortable pillow, but it forces you to stand up and to sit up straight,” she says.

In the end, it’s really all about structuring your life to incorporate everyday body movements that your parents and grandparents used to do in the course of day-to-day living: picking stray socks off the floor, stirring a pot of sauce, reaching up high for an item in a cupboard, getting off the couch to change the channel, walking to the mailbox and back.

Think about it… if you didn’t have a computer or a smart phone, what would you have to do to get that message to a friend, for example?

Dr. Vernikos calls these types of movements gravity habits or “G habits.” These are all movements that are quantified as non-exercise activities, and the challenge is to get more of them into your daily life.

When it comes to interrupting your sitting, you want to stand up around 35 times a day or so to counteract the cardiovascular health risks associated with sitting. This is based on double-blind research where volunteers would spend four days in bed to induce detrimental changes.

She then tested two groups to see which was more effective, walking or standing, and how long would you have to walk or how many times do you have to stand up to get better again.

• Standing up once every hour was more effective than walking on a treadmill for 15 minutes for cardiovascular and metabolic changes

• Sitting down and standing up repeatedly for 32 minutes does NOT have the same effect as standing up once, 32 times over the course of a day. To get the benefit, the stimulus must be spread throughout the day

What I Now Do to Interrupt My Sitting

After reading Dr. Vernikos book, Sitting Kills, Moving Heals, I was inspired to give some serious attention to this because even though I perform a lot of structured exercise, including high intensity interval training, I was guilty of sitting down a vast majority of the rest of the day.

So what I’ve done is this: I found an online timer and set it to go off every 20 minutes. When it goes off, I stand up and do four jump squats. I thought of this after looking at a table of different activities that increase your exposure to gravity in her book. One of them was jumping up and down, which gets you up to six times gravity.

Alternatively, I stand really slow and sit really slow five times doing a foundation posture, or I do five one-legged squats and alternate during each period. As explained by Dr. Vernikos, squatting is an extension of standing.

If you squat and stand, you can get the maximum benefit of working against the force of gravity. By adding jumping to it (going from a squat to a jump, landing into a squat again), you end up with about 6.5 G’s. However, an interesting update to this interview is that I introduced Dr. Vernikos to Dr. Eric Goodman, the creator of Foundation Training, and she was excited to learn of his work as she believes it may provide an even more effective solution.

They have yet to actually meet at this time but I am hoping they will have a fruitful collaboration and be able to report, at a future date, on a refinement of these current recommendations.

It’s Never Too Late to Start Delaying Aging

One of the most exciting aspects of Dr. Vernikos’ research is that it shows how dynamic and changeable the human body is. You can reverse damage already incurred, and it’s never too late to start.

That is a massively important fact that you want to embrace. Your body CAN recover from the damage you have likely been inflicting on it for decades. Obviously, the younger and healthier you are, the quicker your body will likely respond.

“That’s why I called my first book The G-Connection: Harness Gravity and Reverse Aging,” she says. “[Because] yes, you can change what you are. Your body changes all the time. We have new cells being generated all the time – new brain cells – which was thought not to be the case some years ago, as well as new cells everywhere, including skin cells.”

You can boost the gravity stimulus by using either a sway plate, or a whole body vibration plate such as the Power Plate. This can be particularly beneficial for if you’re advancing in age. But other than that, what Dr. Vernikos is advocating is NOT exercise. It’s simply regular movements of everyday life:

“When you’re moving around and you see a speck on the floor, you bend down to pick it up, is that exercise? No. If you reach up to get a book off the shelf or a pot off the cupboard, is it exercise? No. When you brush your teeth, is it better to brush with a brush or with an electric brush? Electric brush already takes away some of the movement that we would normally do with a regular brush. Play golf… [but] don’t take a cart. Carry your golf-bag.”

An important and fascinating perspective that Dr. Vernikos brings to the table is that if you had to choose between starting non-exercise activity or starting an exercise program. Dr. Eric Goodman also believes similarly. He is in fantastic shape. He used to be a personal trainer and body builder but hasn’t worked out formally in many years. He does his Foundation work throughout each day. They both believe non-exercise activities are more important than regular exercise programs, but ideally you would do both. Dr. Vernikos states:

“Yes, it’s my belief that the non-exercise activities are the foundation of your body tuning and your health, and more important than regular exercise,” she says. “Regular exercise is the next step. You build on the foundation.”

In short, as long as we understand the basic requirements that are dictated by our human ancestors, our biochemistry or genetics, and if we honor those with relatively simple techniques that only take a few minutes a day, it can have dramatic and profound implications on our health and on the quality and length of our life.

To learn more, I highly recommend picking up Dr. Vernikos book, Sitting Kills, Moving Heals, available online at Amazon. It’s an easy read, but it helps to reinforce the concepts discussed in this interview. via Mercola.com

Have you read Sitting Kills, Moving Heals? What are your thoughts?

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