‘Underly mobile’ still can get a workout
April 1, 1999 4 minutes read
Underly mobile’ still can get a workout
Deskercise’ boosts circulation, fights stress
Even office-bound "desk potatoes" can — and should — get regular exercise during the day. That’s the contention of Viveca Jonsson, president and CEO of VIVECORP, a Seattle-based firm that runs corporate wellness and fitness programs for organizations such as Bank of America, Starbucks Coffee, and the Federal Aviation Administration.
"Unfortunately, [in modern society] we are technically enhanced, but underly mobile," asserts Jonsson, who is a certified physical therapist in her native Finland.
Her company’s corporate ergonomics program, called "Bodies and Minds at Work," has a new set of components designed specifically for those deskbound employees. She calls the activities "deskercise."
Gotta keep moving
How did she come up with the idea for deskercise? "We work with a lot of people in their workplace, and we have to pay attention to [the causes of] injuries," she notes. "They talk a lot about stress, and regular movement is part of overcoming stress.
"The fact is that every two hours at a minimum, and ideally every hour, we have to move just to have healthy muscles and joints and adequate circulation," she continues. "It’s not well and good to work out for one hour and then sit for eight. If you don’t move around, you don’t have circulation anywhere but in your bum’ — including your head, which is where you think."
Typical office workers, she explains, sit and type at a computer for hours. This requires them to keep their upper body still, causing continual tension in the shoulders. "If you do that all day long, muscles will choke themselves for lack of oxygen," she explains. "If you don’t move, you will have lactic acid buildup, which leads to soreness."
Where it hurts the most
VIVECORP’s deskercises target the areas of the body most affected by long hours at the desk. They are also divided into two major categories. Some of them are "circulatory," such as getting up and walking to the water cooler, standing up when you’re on the phone and moving up and down on your toes, or walking in place. The other group is composed of stretches, such as hand exercises designed to help prevent carpal tunnel syndrome.
The three areas of the body that Jonsson has chosen to target are the back; hands, wrists, and shoulders; and the eyes.
"The back is the biggest [employee injury] problem, and the most costly to the employer," she explains. "There is infinitely more pressure on the lower back when you sit than when you stand."
Strengthening the wrists and shoulders is important not only for office workers, Jonsson notes. "For example, in the warehouse of a well-known department store, we saw employees hanging garments up and down on racks, and then tagging them; this creates the same type of repetition you find in the typing-sorting’ population. More and more, we’re using small muscles to do smaller and smaller stuff we should use big muscles for. And everything is repetitious because we interface with machines." The problem, she says, is that machines are stronger than we are, and they are designed to do repetitive work — while we are not.
Eyestrain is the third focus area. "Tired eyes can feel a whole bunch better if you get them wet by blinking, and focusing at various depths," Jonsson asserts. "They’re really like a camera, with a long lens and a short lens, and movement in and of itself feels good."
One problem, many solutions
Jonsson has created an entire series of exercises for each of the target body areas. She describes one particular exercise that has multiple benefits: "Close your eyes and lift your hands up above your head from the side. Take a deep breath and exhale, while bending the knees and coming back up again at the same time. Repeat the exercise five times."
This simple exercise, says Jonsson, helps reduce stress and puts more oxygen into your system. "Any time your hands go up above your head the heart has to beat uphill,’ which makes it beat faster," she explains. "Since you’re extending your back, you achieve some correction in that area. You also introduce some shoulder movement." (A description of several more deskercises can be found in the article at right.)
How often should this be repeated? "I do it anytime I can," says Jonsson. "Your should do it at least once an hour — you can even do it while you’re on the phone, using just one hand."
Wellness directors who want their employees to practice "deskercise" regularly should follow the Japanese or Finnish model, Jonsson says. "In Finland, they have break exercises,’" she notes. "One employee in the group becomes the leader, and watches the others do their exercises." When VIVECORP works with a company, they actually train these leaders.
What Jonsson wants health promotion professionals and employees alike to realize is that an activity does not have to be lengthy or extremely fatiguing to be effective.
"For some employees, it may simply be a case of going to the water cooler several times a day. Even walking to the lobby and back can be effective; it does not need to involve tremendous exertion," she concludes.
[For more information, contact: Viveca Jonsson, VIVECORP Inc., 14208 S.E. 77th Street, Newcastle, WA 98059. Telephone: (425) 430-2454.]
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