Welcome to Cure for the Common Desk Job.  We found many otherwise healthy people started having pain in their wrists, neck, back, and shoulders when they got their “desk job.”  They lost their flexibility, developed poor posture, lost endurance, and experienced swelling in their legs. We created this workout to address these problems, so that you can stay healthy, even if you work in a sedentary environment.  

It is a rigorous combination of Pilates, stretching, resistance machines, free weights, and cardiovascular exercise.  After a series of warm up stretches, we will start your off on the Gravitron machine for the ultimate upper body workout.  Next we will work on strengthening your back muscles to hold the scapulae in place and prevent your shoulders from rounding forward.  Then we will focus on strengthening the wrist extensors and flexors to help offset the effects of continuous typing, and keep your wrists flexible.

 We will strengthen your abdominals to improve your posture, and help protect your back from strain.  We will teach you how to stretch out your neck and shoulder muscles to improve your neck posture and flexibility.

Then we will stretch your pectoralis muscles to roll your shoulders back into good postural alignment.  And we will end this program with some nice cool down stretches. Each stretch and exercise will first help you into the starting position, and then describe the way you should breathe during the movement.  Next we will walk you through the range of motion, and lastly we will give you some trouble-shooting advice so you can have excellent form.  This workout can be used alone or as a supplement to your regular workouts.  

We strongly recommend you supplement this fitness program with some moderately vigorous cardiovascular exercise to improve your endurance and circulation.  Do your cardio as a warm-up to this exercise program.

MATERIALS:

•   exercise mat
•   a large stability ball
•   a set of hand weights that seem light to you, and another set that feels a little bit heavier.  
•   the Gravitron machine -– if not available you can use traditional pull-up and dip bars.
•   the lat pull-down machine
•   abdominal crunch machine
•   an inclined bench with handles.
•   Feel free to insert songs from your personal music collection between each of our recorded exercises to help you stay more motivated and keep up the pace.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

We recommend that you consult with your physician before you begin this, or any other exercise program.  If you feel discomfort, pain, shortness of breath, dizziness, deep leg pain or swelling at any time during this workout, stop -- and seek proper medical attention immediately.