Are we intelligent enough to handle our Smartphones? Keeping up with all the latest technology may have a downside. Besides for missing out on what is actually happening around us in real time, how does the repetitive use of these devices affect our bodies?

There are various ways in which we can injure ourselves due to our Smartphones, almost all due to repetitive use.  These injuries are commonly known as “blackberry thumb”.

Some of the more common injuries that are associated with blackberry thumb are; Neck pain, hand pain, shoulder, pain, forearm pain, and thumb pain, golfers and tennis elbow.

These injuries can occur as a direct result of repetitive stress due to overuse on the muscles of the upper extremities while using hand held devices.

What is repetitive stress? As the name implies, they are repetitive patterns that creates small stresses to specific areas of the body, which over time will accumulate, and causing injury.

Relating Repetitive Stress to “Blackberry Thumb”

Think about how many times you press your thumb against the phone’s keyboard.

A simple text message, for example “I am running a bit late” is 23 presses.  Multiply that by 100 texts a day, 2300, by 7 days a week, 16,100, by 52 weeks would be about 837,200 presses a years. That is a lot of work for your arms, wrists, and fingers.

Your thumbs, fingers and the muscles that allow them to move, can develop adhesions due to the repetitive stress and can cause cramping, fatiguing, throbbing or general pain of the thumb, fingers, wrists, and/or forearm.

Now that we are more aware of the repetitive stress and its effects how can we prevent injury? These are a few tips to help reduce the risk of blackberry thumb:

- Stretch the arms, forearms and hands out sporadically through out the day to keep the muscles loose.

- Keep device at eye level vs. looking down, to help keep the neck from straining.

- Strengthening of the muscles in the hands i.e. squeezing a tennis ball, thera-puddy, or and iso-flex ball.

- Be a bit more mindful of how often you use your Smartphone and try to use it a bit less.

- Make more actual phone calls.

- Using an earphone vs. a Bluetooth will allow you speak hands free without radiation and neck strain that holding the phone up to your ear can cause.

- If you are using your Smartphone as part of your job and cannot decrease the usage you may want to get Soft tissue treatment, such as Active Release Technique, every few weeks to help reduce adhesions that develop though out the week.

In addition to preventive care, someone who has already started to develop symptoms will also want to include the following:

- Icing the muscles of the hands and forearms.

- Rubbing the hands and forearms with a natural over the counter topical creams/gels. Two brands that I commonly recommend are Traumeel by Heel, Arnicare by Boiron

- Stretches you can get from a trained health care provider.

- Always Seek attention from a healthcare provider to insure that what you are suffering from is diagnosed properly.

In my practice, an affective treatment I use is Active Release Technique. ART or Active Release Technique, a patented state of the art soft tissue system/movement based technique that treats problems with muscles, tendons, ligaments, fascia and nerves.  ART can be effective in releasing adhesions, tightness, and scar tissue in the body, quickly and permanently.

If you’re into living a healthy lifestyle, chances are you’ve probably heard some buzz about interval training. Does it warrant the hype? I’d say absolutely yes – and the time to start is now! Though the technique has been around for years, ‘til recently it was primarily used by elite athletes to help them increase fitness, while at the same time reduce overtraining and injury. As the practice has evolved, exercise physiologists have come to the conclusion that one doesn’t have to be a competitive athlete to reap the benefits of interval training – just about anyone can – which is great news for those of us who are short on time. So, if you’re interested in more fitness in less time, read on…

What is interval training?
It’s a way to more efficiently increase fitness by alternating short bursts of exercise with slower, recovery segments, versus spending hours plodding along on a treadmill or bike.

What’s in it for me?
The benefits are pretty impressive, starting with more increased aerobic and anaerobic fitness, faster fat loss, shorter workouts, fewer overuse injuries and a lot less boredom. Sounds good, eh?

Let’s go!
Whether you’re a regular exerciser or relative newbie, check with your doctor first to make sure you are a good candidate for interval training. Most people are, but those with heart or blood pressure concerns should discuss the approach with their physician. Once you’ve got doc’s OK, you’re ready to begin interval training, which though it may sound fancy, is surprisingly simple. In a nutshell, you alternate moderate exercise with short bursts of intense exercise.

Whoa, Nelly!
As you’re starting out, keep in mind that as with most things, one size doesn’t fit all, so if you need to lengthen the slower segments and tailor the high intensity bursts to adapt to your current level of fitness, by all means do so. Over time as you improve, you can ramp up the intensity and adjust the intervals to match your improving fitness level.

Time to Train
To get started, try this easy-to-follow routine, which will (in addition to the fitness benefits) help get you in and out of the gym in less than an hour – including post the workout shower!

– WARM UP: Start with 5 minutes at your usual slow-to-to moderate pace on the treadmill, elliptical machine, outdoor track, bike or in the pool, to give your muscles a chance to warm-up.

– WORKOUT:
– Slowly raise the intensity/your speed to a moderately fast pace and stay at that pace for about 1 minute.
– Take your pace back down to a more comfortable level and maintain it for 2 minutes.
– Next head back up to your moderately fast pace and hold it for 1 minute.
– Drop back down to your comfortable pace and stay there for 3-to-5 minutes.
– And repeat! If you’re just starting out, try doing the interval combo 1-3 times per workout
– If you’re already in good shape, you can add more reps, or shorten the recovery segments to increase the intensity of your faster intervals.

–COOL DOWN: Finish with a 5-minute cool down, hit the shower and go back to your busy day!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Kristi Anderson, Corrective Exercise Specialist par excellence, demonstrates some anti-desk foam roller exercises. This is a great way to open your chest up if you’re hunched at a desk all day.

Kristi Anderson, Corrective Exercise Specialist par excellence, demonstrates a new foam roller exercise she has come up with, which she has found incredibly helpful for women.

Click here to view the embedded video.

As we all know, daily exercise is absolutely critical to maintaining health — no big news here. And for those of you who are doing the daily routine, keep up the good work! Recently though, several studies have come to the disturbing conclusion that daily exercise may not be enough to combat the effects of prolonged bouts of sitting. It appears that all the sitting most of us now do (let’s hear it for the digital age) is putting us directly on the path to increased risks for heart disease, diabetes, cancer and even early death — which is very bad news for millions of office workers. So how can we transform our sedentary jobs into more active, health-promoting ones, right now? Here are a few simple steps to take  and implement at the office today — to help save your health:

Rethink your day.
Look at every activity you do at the office and figure out how to do it with more physical involvement, no matter how minor the activity might be. Every added motion will contribute to better health overall, so start your day off on the right foot — park your car at the far end of the lot and climb the stairs to your office instead of taking the elevator.

Overhaul your work habits.
Walk to the copy machine instead of having the intern do it. Pick up your mail from the mailroom instead of waiting for it to come to you. Walk to the department head’s office to discuss an idea instead of emailing. Whatever the reason, just get up from your chair every 30 minutes to promote blood flow.

Alarm yourself.
Can’t remember to get up and move around at regular intervals? Then put your cell phone on vibrate and set reminder alarms so you know that when the phone starts wiggling on your desk, it’s time for a quick stroll to the water cooler.

Inconvenience yourself.
Ordering lunch from the corner deli? Not so fast. Put the phone down, push yourself away from the desk, step outside and go get lunch yourself — on foot.

Hydrate with a purpose.
An unusual idea one of my patients uses to keep herself from sitting too long: she drinks a lot of water. The result, she makes frequent trips to the ladies room, always opting for the one that’s the furthest away from her desk, enabling her to sneak in a little exercise without leaving the office.

Get up, stand up.
Get a headset and stand up or walk around your office during conference calls, assuming you’re not on a live video feed! Behind closed doors, another one of my patients does squats and lunges during long calls to help him stay alert and fit.

Work while you work it.
Keep light weights or a dumbbell or two in your desk drawer so you can pump a little iron while checking emails and web surfing. If you have a very progressive company, you might be able to convince them to install a few treadmill workstations, also known as “stand-up desks,” so that employees can walk while working on their computers.

And one last piece of advice? ……Just keep moving!

Massage is important for many powerful reasons, including detoxification and stress relief. But, when people ask me why to get massage or why it’s important the answer that resonates with most “type A” New Yorker’s is that it helps you get into good shape faster with less stiffness and soreness, allowing you to push your body harder. Perhaps most important is that massage helps prevent the injuries that will set you back.

We all know the enormous benefits of exercise and moving the body. Anyone who routinely pushes their physical limits through any movement, sports, strength training and aerobics can benefit from a massage. Whether you are a weekend warrior that fits in workouts between work and family or a serious athlete, massage in an important part of any sports regimen. Sports medicine clinics and both professional and college athletic teams use massage to heal and prevent the wear-and-tear and minor injuries that naturally occur with strenuous movement. The added physiological and psychological benefits of massage also
add to the reasons to do it.

Heavily exercised muscles may also lose their capacity to relax, causing chronically tight (hypertonic) muscles, and loss of flexibility. Lack of flexibility is often linked to muscle soreness, and predisposes you to injuries, especially muscle pulls and tears. Blood flow through tight muscles is poor (ischemia), which also causes pain. Some benefits of massage for exercise and injury prevention:

1. Reduced chance of injury by improving range of motion and muscle flexibility.
2. Performance enhancing results with improved power and performance.
3. Shortened recovery time between workouts.
4. Maximizes the supply of nutrients and oxygen through increased blood flow and the elimination of lactic acid in the muscle (a by-products of exercise).

Massage helps the body recover from the stresses of strenuous exercise, and facilitates the rebuilding phase of conditioning. The physiological benefits of massage include improved blood and lymph circulation and muscle and general relaxation. These, in turn, lead to removal of waste products and better cell nutrition, normalization and greater elasticity of tissues, deactivation of trigger points, and faster healing of injuries. It all adds up to relief from soreness and stiffness, better flexibility, and less potential for future injury.

With regular massage for maintenance the therapist can zero in on particular muscle groups and work specific tissues, they can help maintain or improve range of motion and muscle flexibility. The overall objective of a maintenance program is to help you reach optimal performance through injury-free training. Regular massage also gives a therapist a chance to find your unique trouble spots, perhaps from past injuries. They can pay special attention to these areas, monitor them for developing problems, and help keep them in good condition. An experienced massage therapist can also compliment treatment received from other health care professionals for various injuries. Massage for injuries can speed healing and reduce discomfort during the rehabilitation process. Deep tissue and trigger point massage breaks up the tissues in the muscle to speed recovery.

So to sum it up, make massage part of your wellness and fitness routine. You’ll get all the benefits of relaxation and if you’re that more intense personality, remember, you can push yourself a little harder with less injuries and get in shape a little faster.

Nancy Shaw
In Touch Bodywork
133 East 58th Street
15th floor
New York, NY 10022
(212) 751-8300
nancy@intouchbodyworknyc.com

I was at Rancho La Puerta a few months ago and one day after a tennis ball release class with Nancy Parker, I took out my flip camera and asked her to share with us a great exercise. Here she shows us a quick tennis ball release to help undo that sitting or computer posture by releasing the hip flexors.

1) Sweat Out The Poisons

Your skin, sweat glands, and sebaceous (oil producing) glands are an important part of your elimination and detoxification systems. Therefore it is important to find a way to give them a workout on a weekly basis. Make a point of spending approximately twenty minutes in a dry sauna, whenever you get a chance. You will sweat far more in a dry sauna than in a steam sauna, so look for a dry sauna at your local gym or Y.

2) Dry Brush Your Skin

A few days each week, before taking a shower or bath, dry brush your skin with a soft-bristled brush. Dry brushing has two main benefits. First, it aids your skin in sloughing off old cells and debris from its surface, thus unclogging your pores and enabling your skin to breathe and perspire freely. It also stimulates the circulation beneath your skin, which helps promotes cellular renewal and vitality.

Spend approximately five minutes gently brushing your skin, starting at the top of your head and moving downwards to your feet. Use short, rapid strokes. Please remember that this should be a soft, self-nurturing procedure, rather than an irritant. Afterwards bathe in warm water and smooth on a thin layer of body lotion or oil.

3) Get A Massage

It is always a good idea to get a massage to promote the circulation of your blood and lymphatic fluids. Massage speeds the removal of your metabolic waste products and can help alleviate muscular tension. It also stimulates the brain to release endorphins, or natural painkillers, thus boosting your overall sense of well-being. Drink plenty of water afterwards, this will help flush the toxins from your system.

4) Breathe Deeply

Breathing is your primary source of life-sustaining oxygen, but most of us are shallow, chest breathers. Doing some deep breathing keeps your lungs flexible and enables them to expel any trapped particles or pollutants that you have inhaled. The ideal breath engages not just the chest but the abdominal muscles as well.

5) Exercise Gently

It’s highly beneficial to get about an hour of non-strenuous exercise every day during your detox, for example by walking, biking, or swimming. Exercise increases the circulation of your blood and induces perspiration, which both help you to eliminate toxins.

6) Rest And Relax

It’s important to get sufficient rest and relaxation during your detox, As more toxins than usual are being processed and eliminated, you could feel somewhat crabby and fatigued especially in the beginning. You may find that you need more rest than you normally do. Listen to your body – resting and sleep make fewer demands on your body’s resources while your various systems are being tasked. Thus more of your energy can be applied to physical renewal. 

Get at least eight hours of sleep every night during your detox. A good night’s sleep is fundamental to good health because your cells repair themselves more rapidly at nighttime. During your hours of deep sleep, the body produces higher levels of human growth hormone (HGH), which promotes cellular renewal. Furthermore, since you are not eating during the six to eight hours that you sleep, your digestive system gets a break and your elimination processes can catch up.

In addition to resting your body, it is important to rest your mind. In other words, take a break from TV, newspapers, movies, internet, too many parties etc. Make some quiet time for yourself. Use this deep revitalization period as an opportunity to consciously choose to relax or meditate for at least twenty minutes every day. Even five minutes is better than nothing. I also highly recommend doing some restorative yoga, I have found it to be one of the best forms of rest and relaxation for my patients during detoxification. This form of yoga is actually more mentally restful than physically active – it will leave you feeling rejuvenated and revitalized.

MYTH Strenuous exercise outdoors is the best way to cleanse toxins out of your body.
FACT- Environmental Toxins (pollution) are a major consideration when you exercise outside. As your workout becomes more strenuous you breathe deeper and faster, this magnifies the negative effects of the toxins and increases your exposure.

MYTH - In the city, a sunny, windless day is sure to be low in toxic emissions.
FACT- Sunny afternoons without wind are actually the worst for toxic ozone emissions. The action of sunlight on nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons from car emissions creates high concentrations of ozone. If you live in the city, it’s best to avoid strenuous outdoor exercise in these conditions.

MYTH – When you detox you should exercise heavily to clean out your body.
FACT- During a formal detox program, it is best to limit exercise while the body rejuvenates. Over exercising is to be avoided at all times, always balance exercise with recovery.

MYTH - It takes a large time commitment to develop strong muscles
FACT – It takes literally minutes. The body enhances it’s muscles because of a high effort, not long duration. Muscle cells experience damage. This happens as muscles lengthen under a heavy load. This stimulates the repair and growth process. It is quite similar to the way skin can be rejuvenated as a result of exfoliation.

MYTH – Building muscles is unimportant to overall health.
FACT – Building and maintaining muscles is essential to overall health. Muscles are our largest storage depot for glycogen. Glycogen is the way we store carbohydrates for use as energy. We are always confronted with the temptation of eating too many carbs. When we eat, especially starches and sweets, we require the hormone insulin to help us store these energy foods. Maintaining our sensitivity to the hormone insulin is imperative to good health. Increased muscle mass provides us with greater storage capacity, this means fewer carbs are converted to fat! Also, it has been shown as we become stronger, we spontaneously move more and therefore an upward spiral of health is created.

I believe a lack of flexibility is the root cause or major contributing factor of many injuries and stretching is the solution to this lack of flexibility. It counters the gradual tightening and constriction we all develop from both under- and over-use of our body. It is the perfect antidote for long periods of inactivity and holding still and is just about the simplest of all physical activities.

Regular stretching will:

1. Decrease muscle tension, which is the most common cause of back and neck pains and headaches.
2. Decrease the incidence of all types of injuries, from joint sprains to tendonitis to muscle strains and spasms.
3. Speed up the recovery rate from injuries.
4. Increase physical and mental relaxation.
5. Improve performance of any skilled movement.
6. Improve and increase body awareness.
7. Slow the aging process.
8. Enhance the neurological system.
9. Improve circulation.
10. Support the detox system.

Precautions

Don’t stretch an area if you:

• Recently broke a bone.
• Have an infection or inflammation in or around a joint involved with the stretch.
• Experience sharp or acute pain with stretching or joint movements.
• Recently had a sprain or strain in the area being stretched.
• Have an unstable joint in the area.
• Have osteoporosis.
• Have any disease that needs medical approval before undertaking any new activity.