Ergonomic Advice

When it comes to life advice, help comes in many forms but what's the difference between a life coach, mentor and therapist? Here's what you need to know. 

How can you effectively deal with ADHD at work? 

Becoming a mentor may be one of the most important decisions you ever make. Here's why your company should start a mentoring program. 

If you want to be productive at home, you'll need to put some thought and creativity into minimizing your distractions. Here are some ideas. 

A great tool that most people already have, or can easily get for a couple dollars, is a tennis ball. Here are six simple and relaxing exercises you can complete with a tennis ball. Whether you complete one or all ten at once, you should notice a nice relaxing effect!

There are four major components to posture training that you need to master before putting it all together. Posture is key to spine pain prevention. 

Check out this holiday gift guide for the wellness and fitness enthusiasts in your life. 

Kids are facing a health crisis in the form of obesity, diabetes, and poor fitness, and they are sitting more than ever. Can the standing desk help? 

Hack your productivity at work by learning which work tasks are better to perform while standing versus sitting at a standing desk. 

If you spend a lot of your day sitting, you can still keep up your strength, flexibility, and mobility with a few chair exercises at work... 

Research shows sedentary work leads to a variety of health issues, but having a tool like a treadmill desk or desk bike can change that trend. 

A fitness routine is for vital for health promotion and disease prevention, but evidence suggests the benefits of working out can be amplified by a partner 

Setting goals can be a great way to advance your career, but successful goal setting can be a challenge. Here's what you need to know to get started. 

When you start using your new standing desk, you might experience physical fatigue – a negative factor that outweighs the multiple benefits of a standing desk. Luckily, there are quick and simple ways to combat fatigue and enjoy improved posture, increased productivity, and more burned calories.

Mind Your Posture

Poor posture is one of the main causes of back pain, whether you’re standing or sitting for long periods of time. Correct your posture to fight fatigue. Your head should be up and your shoulders back. Stand with your feet apart and keep your balance on the balls of your feet. Don’t lock the knees, just bend them a little to improve blood circulation. If you’re standing for over 30 minutes, shift your weight, alternating from one leg to another. And don’t forget to adjust the height of the desk: your arms should be resting on it at a 90° angle.

Get Proper Footwear

When your shoes don’t fit properly, your whole body will ache. Therefore, it is a good idea to do some research prior to buying the perfect footwear and be prepared to invest in it and try on different brands and sizes before making the decision.

As a rule of thumb, you should search for a pair that has leather insoles, sturdy construction, snug fit and rounded toes. But what fits best for one person may not be right for another – so choose a pair that can fulfill the unique needs of your feet. If you have a foot condition or can’t find the right pair, consult a podiatrist. There are some people that need a custom insole.

Change Your Position    

Unlike a traditional workstation, a sit to stand desk doesn’t require you to stand all the time. Since standing or sitting for long periods of time aren’t good for your legs, you should change positions frequently. For example, you can set a timer and switch between standing and sitting.

When you need to change your leg positions, sta

By now, you’ve probably heard of standing desks: they are the leading edge of a new trend that claims to burn calories, reduce neck and back pain, and boost productivity while at work. And finally, scientists have proved it to be true: a new study claims that standing desks improve employee productivity by almost 50%.

The main object of the study was to analyze employee productivity at a call center over a 6-month period after the company bought standing desks. The employees talked with clients on the phone about health problems and their productivity was analyzed based on whether their callers decided to become clients and if they delivered pertinent information.

After just a month of using the standing desks, employees were 23% more productive than their colleagues who were sitting behind traditional desks. After 6 months, the boost of productivity increased even more. The average productivity increase was 46%.

Of course, it is only one study and some say that it is about a very specific group of people and the employees who used the standing desks received calls from new clients, while their colleagues who were seated took calls from existing clients. Therefore, some people claim that the nature of the calls was different and there are more studies needed to support the findings of this study.

Whether you think the findings are correct or not, there are proven benefits of standing desks that are hard to deny. Let’s have a look at some of them.

Health Benefits

There is no consensus on whether or not standing desks provide a productivity boost. There are only eight studies and half of them found that standing desks increase productivity, while others showed mixed results. Therefore, it is a bit too early to say whether standing desks have a considerable effect on performance or whether they affect the number of sick days employees take; one of the most common signs of low productivity.

Ho

Like it or not, summer must come to an end. You must welcome the cold season regardless of the effects it has on your body. The days will become a little bit shorter and you may start experiencing difficulty in getting out of bed. Did you know that the approach of cold seasons brings about hunger and long periods of exhaustion? Yes, this is what is known as ‘autumn fatigue.' The symptoms increase as winter approaches.

Autumn fatigue can make you hibernate for six months until the cold season is over, but this is not a healthy option. The fatigue is mainly caused by lack of sunlight, and it extends to the end of winter. If you are experiencing symptoms of depression, fatigue or problems concentrating, most definitely you are experiencing autumn fatigue.
It is advisable to follow the below hacks to help boost your energy levels and beat autumn fatigue.

Follow a Healthy Diet
You may get tempted to grab a bar of chocolate or a piece of cake when you feel tired. Too much sugar in your system will only make things worse by making you feel more tired than before. You can consider starting your day with a plate of oats. They are not only full of proteins but also boost your energy levels slowly.
If you have a deficiency of vitamin D, you may feel more tired. It is therefore vital for you to supplement it through your diet. During the cold season, you may consider increasing the intake of oily fish, green leafy vegetables, beans, nuts, whole grains or lean red meat. Also, it is important for you to spend most of your time outdoors so that you can get enough vitamin D from the sunlight.

Boost Yourself with Caffeine
Taking caffeine has always been a debate, and it is considered addictive. When taken in moderation, it can help boost physical and mental performance. You should only avoid taking it after lunch as it takes a long time to clear from the system.

Stay Active

The condition of your workspace has a direct connection to how productive you are and how satisfied you feel at work. When we’re struggling with productivity, the first cause we usually point to is our own motivation. But often, it’s our work environment that’s at fault. Learn how to create a stress-free work environment and you’ll see your productivity start to improve.

A carefully planned and well-maintained work environment can energize and excite you, which has a direct impact on your productivity throughout the workday. Workers who like where they work are not only more productive, but are more engaged, happy, and healthy.

Some aspects of your work environment you may have no control over, such as the building you’re in, how many windows are nearby, and where your desk is located. But you can control your own desk, so here are a few things you can do to create a stress-free work environment for yourself.

1. Keep your workspace clean and organized.

It doesn’t matter whether you think you’re a naturally messy person and thrive in chaos. If your workstation is cluttered and disorganized, it’s going to inhibit your ability to get your work done well and done on time. File away papers from projects when they’re finished. Only keep the necessary items out on the surface of your desk. Especially if you are a naturally messy person, you’ll be surprised how much organizing your desk will help clear your mind.

2. Get your wires under control.

With so many electronic devices taking up space on our desks these days, it’s easy for wires to get out of control. You have your monitor, your keyboard, a phone charger, your headphones… Finding a way to get those wires untangled and under control – for example, tying them together behind your desk – will do wonders for making your workstation feel more manageable.

It’s no secret that exercise has tremendous benefits for students with ADHD. It not only helps them focus better, but it also has been shown to improve their mood, decrease impulsive behavior, and help them sleep more soundly. The real question is, which exercises are best for improving the symptoms of ADHD?

To answer that question, it’s important to understand exactly how exercise helps to reduce and manage the symptoms associated with ADHD. According to bestselling author Dr. John Ratey, who wrote the book Beginning an Exercise Program for People with ADHD, exercise acts like a natural dose of the popular ADHD medications Ritalin and Adderall by boosting the levels of dopamine and norepinephrine in the brain.

Exercise also helps to enhance the brain’s “executive function”, a term coined by mental health experts to describe the cognitive abilities associated with tasks like planning and organizing, performing complex tasks, and controlling emotions.

Benefits of Aerobic Exercise

Aerobic exercise in particular, which gets the blood pumping faster throughout the entire body and forces the lungs and heart to work harder than they normally do, is a great way to naturally increase dopamine and norepinephrine levels. The most popular types of aerobic exercises for youth include:

• Cycling
• Running
• Jumping rope
• Swimming
• Walking
• Skateboarding
• Playing organized sports like basketball, baseball, football, gymnastics, etc.
• Dancing
• Cheerleading

For young students who are looking to use aerobic exercise to help manage their ADHD symptoms, it’s important to find an aerobic activity that is enjoyable enough to do at least 30 minutes a day five days a week.

Making Exercise Routine with Deskcise Pro™

Incorporating aerobic activity into tasks young people already do e

The quality of your sleep has a direct correlation to the quality of your waking hours, including your energy levels, mental acuity, mood, and even work performance. Unfortunately, too many workers in the United States are not getting high-quality sleep at night. They have trouble falling asleep, may experience interrupted sleep cycles, or wake up feeling unrested – and it’s having an effect on their performance at work. Sound familiar?

The relationship between sleeping and waking goes both ways. Your habits during the day impact your ability to fall asleep at night and affect the quality of your sleep. The quality of your sleep then affects your ability to function and perform during the day.

You may have read about how using your smartphone right before bed can make it more difficult to fall asleep. Recent research also suggests that our increasingly sedentary lifestyle – with the average American spending over 12 hours sitting every day – is also inhibiting our ability to maintain a healthy sleep schedule.

Here are some changes you can make to your daily habits that will improve the quality and consistency of your sleep cycle:

1. Increase Your Exposure to Bright Natural Light During the Day

Many of us spend a good portion of our days inside an office with minimal access to natural light. This can throw off our circadian rhythm, which is dictated by the natural cycles of light and dark. Increasing your exposure to natural light throughout the day will help reset your circadian rhythm.

2. Reduce Irregular or Long Daytime Naps

As welcome as an afternoon nap might feel after a sleepless night, sleeping during the day can confuse your body’s natural sleep cycles and make it more difficult to fall asleep at night. Try to resist napping during the day or limit yourself to a 20-minute catnap.

Getting more exercise is one of the most common New Year’s resolutions. But the majority of people fail to make changes their workout routine that last for even the entire month of January, much less the entire year. If you want to be one of the few people who does succeed in getting more exercise in 2018, you need to set yourself up for success by learning how to make the most of your workout routine.

It’s not easy to find time for exercise when you have a busy work schedule, full social calendar, and kids to take care of. That doesn’t mean it’s any less important to get the recommended amount of exercise. Exercising five days a week for at least 30 minutes will lower your risk for heart disease and diabetes, and will help you live longer.

Here are some tips for making the most of your workout routine in 2018:

1. Make a workout plan.

You know the saying, “Failing to plan is planning to fail”? The secret to accomplishing any goal is making a plan for how you’ll achieve it – and your exercise routine is no different. Plan out which days you’ll go to the gym, at what time, and how long you’ll spend there. You’ll be amazed to see how simply planning out your new routine will make you more likely to follow through.

2. Find the right gym.

If you don’t like your gym or it doesn’t have the equipment and classes you need, you won’t go. It’s as simple as that. If you haven’t already found a gym you like, do some research. Look into specialized gyms like boxing, pilates, or spinning if you’re looking to switch up your routine in the new year.

3. Exercise alone.

No doubt about it, going to the gym with a buddy can be more fun than going by yourself. But if you have a limited window of time to fit in your workout, a friend can be an unhelpful distraction. The time you spend chatting is the time you’re not spendin

We all aspire to have a healthy body—well nourished, fit, and energetic—but it’s not easy to achieve when you’re trying to balance a busy schedule of work and family responsibilities. When you spend 8 or 9 hours at work only to come home and have familial responsibilities to perform, it can be hard (if not impossible) to find time to go to the gym or even go on a short run around the neighborhood.

The irony is that making your physical health a priority will actually make it easier to balance your other responsibilities. We have a solution that will help all your priorities fall into place. Keep reading to find out.

Competing Priorities of Work, Family, and Health

At work, you’re expected to be on time, to be prepared, to carry out your responsibilities, and perform to a certain standard. And if you’re up for a promotion, you’re expected to go above and beyond your normal duties. Then when you get home, there’s a whole other set of responsibilities that come with family life. Depending on how you break down the division of labor with your spouse, you may be expected to get dinner on the table, to help kids with homework, to tidy up the house, and help put the kids to bed at night—among others.

So where do fitness and wellness fit into that equation? For many people, it doesn’t. Between work, family, and health, many people sacrifice health in order to devote their time to work and family. But it doesn’t have to be a “pick two” proposition. It is possible to balance work, family, and health.

How to Balance Work, Family, and Health

The easiest way to find a balance between work, family, and health is to bring your fitness into your work and/or family life. You don’t have to choose between competing priorities when you integrate the priorities together.

For those who can afford it, a home gym is an ideal solution to the problem

The freshman fifteen when you first go to college, many people discover that when they start working in an office full-time, the pounds start accumulating. You might be confused at first – you haven’t changed anything about your lifestyle. You still eat pretty healthy and exercise regularly. So why are you gaining weight? Easy: It’s your job!

Americans who work a traditional desk job spend between 10-12 hours sitting every day. Considering that your metabolism slows by 90% within 30 minutes of sitting down and that sitting burns 50 fewer calories per hour than standing (or 400 calories over the course of the average workday!), it should be no surprise that pounds are harder to shake when you’re working in an office.

Using a height-adjustable sit-stand desk is one way to break up the vicious cycle of extra pounds. Even incorporating more non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) activities – like walking to the printer, tapping your feet, or even fidgeting at your desk – can help burn extra calories.

But what if we told you that there was a way that you could lose weight even while sitting at your desk? Follow these five tricks to drop a few pounds just by sitting at your desk.

1. Toss the unhealthy snacks.

When you have a snack drawer full of unhealthy but tempting snacks, it’s so easy to reach for a snack to curb your boredom or procrastinate on an unpleasant work assignment. Munching on a few chips here and there might not feel like a big deal, but it can add up faster than you think.

Ditch the unhealthy snacks and replace them with better-for-you alternatives. Or, even better, store your snacks in the communal kitchen rather than your desk drawer so that you have to get up and move to access them. You’ll probably find your snacking diminishes, and at the very least, you’ll be walking more before you indulge.

We’re all in the same boat. We know exercise is important, but we struggle to incorporate it into our regular routine. There’s the obvious challenge: with working life increasingly reliant on the internet and computers, we find ourselves tied to a desk for the majority of the workday, meaning we might spend 8-10 hours sitting at our desk each day. But there are other things that get in the way of exercising, too, such as family commitments, lack of time or resources, or simply fatigue at the end of the day that makes it hard to motivate yourself.

Another problem is the gym itself. The gym may be the best place to workout – with its extensive array of exercise equipment and fitness classes – but most of us would agree that it’s not the most convenient place to workout. Any number of factors get in the way of making it to the gym: the drive, the time it takes, the fact that someone has to stay home with the kids, the cost of a membership, and social anxiety (just the thought of other people watching as we struggle through a workout when we’re out of shape is enough to keep us from trying).

Don’t let the barriers that keep you from going to the gym keep you from exercising at all. If you have a spare room or even some extra square feet of space in your home, you can set up a home gym for yourself. It may not be decked out with all the top-of-the-line exercise equipment as your local gym, but with a few basic pieces of home exercise equipment for beginners, you can create a home gym that will be more than adequate to get you started on your fitness journey.

This is a list of the best home exercise equipment for beginners:

1. Exercise Mat – An exercise mat is a low-cost investment and one of the most versatile pieces of home exercise equipment. You can use it for so many different workouts, including yoga, pilates, weight-lifting, an

Modern Life

Much of our working and leisure time is spent in front of a computer, XBOX, PS4, or simply watching television.  Combined sleeping time and typical daily sitting time, comes to an incredible 20 hours per day!

It’s no surprise then that our daily Calorie requirements have plummeted from humanity’s early days.  We need less energy nowadays because so much of our labor has been taken over by our machines, and our entertainment is delivered directly to our devices instead of us heading out to find it on our own.

To substitute for what used to be ordinary activity, we go to the gym and work out. That way we can still eat the foods that we enjoy.  The difficulty is that we are inconsistent with our exercise.

We must increase our rate of metabolism to burn more Calories constantly—luckily this is surprisingly easy to do—just Stand Up!

Stand Up for Yourself

Simply standing burns an extra 750 calories per minute.  Most non-scientists think “calories” and “Calories” are the same, but Capital “C” calories are 1,000 times larger (officially known as Kilocalories).  Humans need approximately 2,500 Calories (Kilocalories) or 2-½ million calories per day in order to function.

While 750cal/min doesn’t sound like much, when you add one additional hour of standing to your daily routine, in one year it is equivalent to 4 kilograms or 8 pounds of fat.  In practical terms, it is the equivalent of running 10 marathons annually!

Strength From Within

While standing, many seldom-used muscles come into play and this raises our rate of metabolism.  When it does increase, an enzyme called lipoprotein lipase, which is responsible for moderating triglycerides and blood fats, comes out of retirement mode.

Without it, you’re headed for atherosclerosis—a disease process characterized by scarring of

When we think about the kind of situations that have a significant impact on health and well-being, we typically think about the major stressors: moving, illness, divorce, unemployment, and loss of a loved one. However, for most people, it is not these big, life-changing stressors that are wreaking havoc on our health – it’s the day-to-day hassles.

Modern life is hectic. If it’s not a never-ending inbox, it’s a traffic jam. If it’s not financial strain, it’s an overly jam-packed schedule. Many of us live in a constant of bouncing from one responsibility to another – work, kids, family, spouse, finances – without any breathing room. While major life events may cause a greater degree of stress, it’s the lower levels of sustained, chronic stress we experience from our everyday lives that takes a greater toll on our overall well-being.

In addition to the emotional and psychological feelings associated with stress, chronic stress can cause a wide variety of physical symptoms, including headaches, pain, weight fluctuations, sleep disruption, cardiovascular disease, gastrointestinal problems, diabetes, and high blood pressure. Left untreated, these ailments can have long-term repercussions and may result in early mortality.

It can be tempting to try to treat your chronic stress symptoms with palliative solutions like food, alcohol, or caffeine. But these solutions simply mask the stress – they don’t treat its underlying cause, and will in all likelihood simply exacerbate the problem.

The most effective solution for minimizing stress would be to eliminate the stressors from our lives. And to some extent you can. But unfortunately, due to the demands of modern life, there’s a limit to how many stressors you can realistically remove from your life. The more practical strategy for minimizing the symptoms of chronic stress is to learn how to effective

Concentration is essential for getting through the school or workday. You need to be able to sustain focus and concentrate on your work for hours at a time in order to be productive and successful. But a growing number of us are struggling to maintain concentration for longer than a few minutes at a time.

If you’re someone who struggles with concentration, you may find it difficult to think clearly, focus on a task, maintain your attention, or make decisions. Does that struggle sound familiar? If so, read on to learn about some of the most common reasons people are unable to concentrate – along with some tips for improving concentration and productivity.

Symptoms of Concentration Problems

Struggling to concentrate can have significant repercussions for your school or work performance. Not only does it make it hard for you to get anything done, but it can have symptoms that bleed into your everyday life as well. An inability to concentrate affects everyone differently, but if you’re struggling with concentration, you may be experiencing one or more of the following symptoms:

• Lack of focus
• Frequent careless mistakes
• Difficulty sitting still
• Struggling to think clearly
• Frequently misplacing things
• Forgetting where things are
• Inability to make decisions
• Difficulty performing complex tasks
• Lacking physical or mental energy
• Easily distracted
• Missing appointments or meetings

You may also notice that it’s harder for you to concentrate at certain times of the day than others. That is likely due to the nature of whatever is causing your lack of concentration. Depending on wha

Tai Chi practice can help improve your balance, increase your fitness level, and boost your flexibility.

For working moms, the idea of work-life balance can seem like a laughable pipe dream. If you’ve ever felt like those plates are one bad day from falling down and shattering into a million pieces, this post is for you.

How complicated can hydration be? Just fill up a glass with water once in awhile and drink, and that should be enough, right? But you might be surprised at how much information there is to absorb about drinking water.

The FlexiSpot Deskcise Pro is a desk that consumers can use to work or to work out. The device features foot pads for the user to mimic the use of a stationary bike, and will be released in November 2017.

What is the FlexiSpot Deskcise Pro?

One of the most taxing jobs for the health of consumers is not physical labor or even a position in food service; it is an office job.

Most people think of office jobs as comfortable and simple, but the lack of consistent movement and exercise make it dangerous for the heart, the eyes, and even the posture of the worker. The most important part of having an office job is to pursue an active lifestyle, which is possible while the individual works when they use the FlexiSpot Deskcise Pro.

The Deskcise Pro introduces exercise into the workday, rather than allowing the body to constantly be sitting and in a resting mode. The user can easily switch between the two functions, and is positioned in a healthy posture while working to support the needs of their back. The fixture offers both the desktop and the chair, though the desktop is positioned high enough that the user can stand while they use the space.

This exercise station is hardly the first of its kind. There are simple tables that require the user to stand, and the stationary bikes at the gym. The closest that the industry has come to creating a similar piece of equipment is with the treadmill desk, but this device lacks the stability that is necessary for writing and working on the computer. The bike style of the Deskcise Pro is the reason for its versatility.

Getting to the gym every day, alongside any 40-hour a week job is nearly impossible, especially when there are so many issues to worry about. Even if the consumer works at home, they end up spending so much mental energy that they stress out their entire body, which wreaks havoc on the cardiovascular system and even the immune system. Keep in

Working a desk job may be good for your bank account, but odds are that it hasn’t been good for your waistline. A 2013 CareerBuilder survey found that 41% of workers report having gained weight at their desk jobs. 

They say that a goal without a plan is just a dream. So, the trick to making your dreams come true is to successful goal setting. 

Struggling with how to improve concentration and focus at work? Here are four solutions that will help.