by Ben Smart
So often we ask – “can you give me a hand?” Well, extending ourselves out to help others may rely on the arms, but it all originates in one place: the shoulders. Training the group of muscles collectively referred to as the shoulders can give you that solid, strong look. Well-built shoulders also support proper posture and help avoid chronic neck and back pain.
What muscles compose the shoulder?
Image from shoulderdoc.co.uk
The trapezius, levator scapulae, and rhomboids run along to back side of the shoulders – they connect the base of the skull to the scapula and the clavicle.
On the front side of the body, the pectoralis major, pectoralis minor, latissimus dorsi, teres major, and deltoid anchor several different bones in place and create the shoulder aesthetic.
Moves to train shoulder muscles
Don’t overtrain the shoulders with excessive reps. Stick to compound movements, because there are several muscles in the shoulder, and your goal is to train them all in a balanced way.
- Barbell Shrugs: 3-4 sets of 20
Hold a barbell with both hands, letting it hang in front of your body. Pull the bar upwards, tensing your shoulder muscles on the way up. Hold for a second then slowly release. Remember – don’t roll your shoulders on this move.
- Dumbbell Deltoid Raise: 4 sets of 10
Hold a pair of dumbbell at your side. Raise the dumbbells upwards, creating an arc until your arms are straight and at shoulder level. Hold for a second and release
- Military Press: 4 sets of 8
This move can be tough for beginners, so aim for lighter weight if you find yourself arching your back or using your legs. Hold a barbell with both hands, bending your elbows so the weight is resting on your upper chest. You’re your shoulders and extend the weight upwards above your head. Remain steady and firm, then slowly bring the weight back down. Remember, this move trains the shoulders, so maintain a solid base and focus on using the shoulder muscles.
Cool Down
Always perform light stretches and remain hydrated before concluding your workout. Stopping or starting too quickly can result in injury.
Ready to take your workout to the next level? Get help from the experts – sign up for individualized training with a certified personal trainer at UNC Campus Recreation.
Resolving to Write More—A Worthy Thought by Carol VanHook, Flickr Creative Commons; https://flic.kr/p/iPsgF2
Can you believe it? It’s now February. You are now almost a month into the spring semester. A month into your new classes, a month closer to graduation, and, for us graduate students out there, one month closer to obtaining your master’s, doctorate, or professional degree and entering the job market. You are now also a month into the New Year and potentially a month into your New Year’s Resolutions. Most of us do it. Actually, in a recent survey conducted by CheapFlights.com, over 60% of Americans reported that they make New Year’s resolutions. Resolutions to eat healthier foods, work out more, quit smoking, spend more quality time with friends and family, and resolutions to get organized, keep up with course readings, and get better grades. These are all great goals to work towards; however, we may not always stick with the goals long enough to meet them. Typically, almost all people (around 90%) are able to practice their New Year’s resolutions for a week but only about 70% of people stick with their resolutions for a month or longer. That leaves 1 out of every 3 people less likely to still be working on their New Year’s resolutions right now. But don’t fret! There are easy steps you can take to make sure you fall into the 70% instead of the 30%.
S.M.A.R.T. Goals
Before jumping into how to stick to your New Year’s Resolutions, let’s consider how to effectively set goals. S.M.A.R.T. goals are goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
- Specific: Simply written and clearly defined
Goal Setting by Paula Naugle, Flickr Creative Commons; https://flic.kr/p/dGvAay
- Measurable: Able to measure progress
- Attainable: Goals are realistic and can be achieved
- Relevant: Goals matter to you
- Time-bound: Goals have a specific time frame for being met
An example of a S.M.A.R.T. goal or resolution would be “I will go to the gym for one hour three times a week for the next four weeks.” The goal is clearly defined, measurable (three times a week for one hour each day), it is realistic, it matters to me, and I’ve set the time frame for my goal to four weeks. Using this strategy makes it more likely that you will both stick to your goals as well as achieve them.
Remind Yourself Why the Goal is Important To YOU
Inspirational board by Moni, Flickr Creative Commons; https://flic.kr/p/3caUMp
As time passes, it’s easy to lose sight of why New Year’s resolutions were ever made and why they are important to you. When you’re struggling to find the time and energy to go to the gym and cook balanced meals, it may become more difficult to keep in mind why eating healthier and exercising more were important to you before the New Year. Maybe there’s a pair of jeans you want to fit in, you want to have more energy, or there’s a special event coming up in a few months when you want to look and feel your best. Having physical reminders of your goals and the motivations for achieving those goals are a helpful way to keep yourself on track with your resolutions. This can include making inspirational boards—a creative way to visualize your goals and stay focused on why you set them in the first place.
Keep Yourself Accountable…and Invite Others to Do the Same
Telling yourself that you are going to be better organized this semester is one thing—having others remind you of that resolution is something different! This is where a good support system comes in. Having friends and family either remind you of the resolutions you had set back in December OR working along side you to meet those goals is an excellent way to keep you accountable. You’re less likely to break those resolutions if you have someone who cares about you reminding you of your goals.
With these steps, you cannot only make it pass this one-month mark—you can incorporate these short-term changes into your regular habits, turning New Year’s resolutions into lifetime behaviors.
Winter break is a much-needed time to relax and catch up on lots of sleep. But as the new semester kicks into gear, early morning classes can leave some of us groggy and half-asleep. Waking up can become increasingly challenging!
Here are a few healthy tips to help you jump out of bed and make it to those early morning classes on time and with energy this semester.
The Basic Approach: Coffee or Tea
For many students, faculty, and staff on campus, caffeine-rich coffee or tea is a staple of the morning routine. If you feel yourself struggling in the morning or falling asleep mid-lecture, a quick trip to one of the local coffee shops around campus may be a necessity on your way to class (or to save money, brew it at home or in the dorm!).
Photo: “Coffee from Tapped & Packed” by Zach Inglis. Flickr Creative Commons.
Photo: “Tea” by Laurel F. Flickr Creative Commons.
In addition to increased productivity and mental clarity, from a health standpoint, coffee and tea offer benefits including a large dose of antioxidants and a decreased likelihood of type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and dementia. Further, people who drink coffee and tea regularly tend to have fewer cases of certain types of cancers and strokes. [1] [2]
Like all things in life, though, moderation is key, and too much of anything tends to lead to trouble.
For more information on the benefits and risks of coffee, check out one of our previous Healthy Heels blogs, “Coffee – Good for You?”
The Alternative: Lemon Water
For those looking for a caffeine-free alternative for the morning rush, try a glass of lemon water. This is not your average little wedge of lemon on the side though; we are talking about pretty intense lemon water here. Try a half lemon for folks under 150lbs and a whole lemon for those above 150lbs in a glass of room temperature water. The taste may take a little time to get used to, but the jolt of energy will be immediately noticeable.
Photo: “Lemon” by Lucas Arrrrgh. Flickr Creative Commons.
In addition to perking your system in the morning, highly concentrated lemon water helps with hydration, stomach issues, and bad breath. Lemon water is also known to freshen your skin, pump up the immune system, and cleanse your liver in the process. [3]
The Hardcore Option: Early Morning Workouts
Nothing gets your mind and body awake quite like a morning workout. For those looking for the ultimate solution to a healthy morning pick-me-up, look no further. Working out in the morning has been shown to increase your mental clarity for 4-10 hours post-workout and tends to give people an all around increase in productivity. It may be a struggle to get yourself out of the bed and into the gym, but if you can muster the strength and have the time, the results can speak for themselves. [4]
Photo: “Hotel Gym” by Casa Velas Hotel. Flickr Creative Commons.
Whether it’s coffee, tea, lemon water, a short workout, or even just eating a solid breakfast, start your day off with a healthy kick this semester and ace those early morning classes.
As a Side Note, let’s be clear–you need to sleep! No morning pick-me-up is a replacement for a good night’s rest. Sleep is an uncompromising necessity to your overall health and well-being as a student. For more information about the health benefits of a good night’s rest, and the consequences of sleep deprivation, check out this old Healthy Heels blog: “Missing Impossible: Sleep and the College Student.”
Sources
With the end of the semester come finals, and often, lots of stress. But the good news is at the end of the week you are done (congratulations)! Whether you finish strong or limp across the finish line, the semester is over and you cannot change the past. What you can do is enjoy your time off, get some rest, and look to the future and a fresh start in January. And if I may, I would like to make a recommendation for the spring semester: do something new and something that will help you with all that stress that school can bring. Become part of some sort of extracurricular physical activity, preferably one that gets your heart rate up.
Photo: Going up for the frisbee in the fog by Nathan Rupert, Flickr Creative Commons.
Now before you say, “I don’t have time for exercise,” or “but I don’t like to exercise,” stop. One, you do have time for a little exercise, but often you will not do it unless you set aside a time for it. If you continually say, “I will exercise when I have free time,” you will always find something else you could be doing. Additionally, if you have hours and hours each month to check Facebook, tweet, Instagram, watch movies, online shop, play video games, or any other things that your normal day entails, then you likely have time for some exercise. Second, exercise will help all the other parts of your life as well. So many studies show that exercise not only improved physical health, but mental health as well including stress and depression. And if you don’t like to exercise, fear not! There are many options for exercising that don’t feel like a chore, including many club sports and intramural activities.
For me, physical activity means getting into the Carolina North Forest for runs, and joining road bike group rides in Chapel Hill. In addition to this, last year I joined the UNC Cycling Team, which includes a wide variety of individuals who have all different ability levels and who enjoy all different types of biking. Maybe this is something you would like to try, but if not, there are so many opportunities to participate in club sports, and intramural activities here at UNC. These include: basketball, soccer, tennis, ultimate Frisbee, football, rugby, and so many more. These are great opportunities to meet people, create social networks, and get exercise at the same time. These also can be really helpful for motivation on those days when you would rather just curl up in bed, but you know that getting some exercise would be good for you and you would enjoy doing it once you got out there. Not everyone is self-motivated, however, how or why you get out there is not the important thing, but rather that you get out there.
Olympian Tours Colorado Trip (by Jed Hinkley)
So, if you’ve wanted to become involved with some sort of sport or activity, there’s no time like the present. This is the perfect time and there are so many options to choose from. After all, college is about trying new things and meeting new people. It is also about becoming immersed in the culture and involved with the school. What better way to do that then with a bunch of other students, faculty, and staff that like doing the same things that you do. Your heart, your head, and your grades will be better for it.
By Ben Smart
Constant phone calls, late night text messages, and 24/7 connectedness – your smartphone probably requires constant attention, and keeping up with the device might be stressful at times. But new research suggests that your handheld gadget could be an actual pain in the neck by contributing to chronic neck pain.
When you look down at your cell phone – or any handheld device – you flex your neck downwards. Using advanced software models, researchers in New York calculated the net weight exerted on the cervical (upper) spine at varying angles. When the head is in perfect posture – ears aligned with shoulders and shoulder blades retracted – the weight of the head is about 10 pounds on the upper spine. At 15 degrees, the net weight of the head on the spine increases to 27 pounds. At 30 degrees, your neck experiences 40 pounds of pressure from the head. At 45 degrees – the posture at which many people text – the weight of the head is a whopping 49 pounds.
According to the study, the average American spends an average of 2-4 hours a day in this hunched position. Over the course of a year, this accumulates to 700 – 1400 hours. Extra stress on the cervical spine over time contributes to premature wear and tear as well as degeneration. In other words, craning your neck downwards can hurt your upper spine and lead to permanent posture problems. You probably won’t look good or feel good if your cervical spine is damaged.
Read the study for yourself
This week, make every day ThrowBACK Thursday and focus on maintaining proper posture with your head aligned with your spine. It’s nearly impossible to avoid the handheld devices that require us to look downwards, but we can make a conscious effort to improve our posture.
Ready to get fit from head to heel? UNC Campus Recreation has the perfect program for you!
by: Emily Wheeler
Ahh the classic pull-ups and push-ups. These simple and traditional upper-body exercises are beloved by some and dreaded by others, but most of us have been acquainted with them since elementary school gym class. Like many things we have known how to do for a long time, it’s easy to get sloppy with these exercises and to start losing proper form and doing them incorrectly. That’s right, there is a specific proper form for push-ups and pull-ups!
Here is a reminder of how to do them with the form that will protect your muscles and joints from damage while giving your body the maximum workout possible!
Push-ups:
- Start by positioning your hands and feet. Hands should be either shoulder width apart of slightly wider than this. Feet can be together or apart, whichever is most comfortable or stable for you.
- The KEY to a proper pushup is that your body needs to stay in a straight, solid line (plank position) the entire time! Whether you’re pushing up or lowering down, your bum should not be sticking up so that you look like this (^) and your hips should not be sinking down to the floor. It should take legitimate effort just to hold your body in this position before you ever start actually doing the push-up part! If you’re having trouble knowing if you’re in a straight, plank position, ask a workout buddy to check for you or practice in front of a mirror at the gym where you can see your form. If you don’t have either of these options, just get into what you feel is a solid plank position, and then make it even better by tightening your glute muscles and engaging your abdominal muscles. You’ll be feeling the work almost immediately.
- For your first push-up, begin to lower down and pay attention to your elbows: are they sticking way out to the side? Try bringing them in closer to your body and the push-up will feel more difficult. This is because you’re doing it the right way, therefore getting your maximum workout! If your hands are directly under your shoulders, keep the elbows hugged in so tight that they brush against your sides as you lower down for an excellent triceps workout!
- Don’t keep your chin tucked down and stare straight at the floor beneath your hands. This is not a great position for breathing or blood flow, as you might notice if you find yourself holding your breath without even noticing it and feel your face getting hot. Think about holding your head so that your chin would be the first part of your face to touch the floor if you lowered all the way down instead of your nose touching first. This should open the airway, making it easier to breath and for blood to circulate, as well.
- Try to lower until you get your arms to form angles (with your elbow as the vertex) that are 90 degrees or less. If you can only do 5 push-ups when you lower to 90 degrees but you can do 10 push-ups if you just don’t lower down so far, it’s still better to just stick with the 5 push-ups that you can do with the best form. This will increase your strength, and even if you only add one push-up at a time, you’ll clearly see yourself progressing as you can do more and more per set.
- It’s fine to start with push-ups with your knees on the floor as long as you still keep your body from the knees up in a tight, straight line. Allow your feet to lift off of the floor as you lower down with your knees on the ground, because otherwise your arms aren’t supporting much body weight at all.
Pull-ups
A proper pull-up should be an exercise primarily targeting your arm muscles, right? Actually, no! Pull-ups are targeting the back muscles when done properly, not to mention the fact that anyone looks pretty impressive if they know how to do them right.
- A proper pull up has an overhand grip on the bar and hands spread wide.
- Elbows don’t need to stay super close to the body, but they do need to be controlled. Keep those guys under the bar at all times!
- Before you even start your pull-up, become familiar with what it feels like to have your shoulder blades pulled back and together, like you’re trying to hold a pencil by squeezing it in the upper middle of your back. You want to reset to this retracted position before every pull-up to activate your back muscles. This means that you won’t be stick straight and vertical because there will be a slight arch in your back if you’re doing it right. That’s ok, because if you stay completely straight you’ll feel like your chest is coming up into the bar before you pull all the way up and you’ll be using your arm muscles more than your back.
- Reach your full range of motion by fully extending your arms straight every time you finish a rep. Don’t keep that partial bend in your arms or, once again, you’ll be relying on your arm muscles more than working your back. Yes, it makes it harder because you have a longer distance to pull up per rep, but doing half-reps is cheating if you’re trying to make some progress here.
- You might want to consider crossing your ankles and keeping a slight bend in the knees. This keeps your legs from feeling awkwardly heavy and dangling wildly beneath you.
- Personal pet peeve: Doing “momentum pull-ups” is also cheating. If you’re using your arms or legs to swing or pop yourself up every rep, you’re not doing proper pull-ups. Proper pull-ups are not done at a rapid pace; they use controlled, paced movements. If you can do twenty-five pull-ups because you’re heaving your legs up to your chest every time to gain momentum on your upward pull, it’s still less impressive that the person who did three of them using pure muscle effort.
That being said, learning how to do proper pull-ups is extremely difficult because you’re literally lifting your whole body weight against gravity! If you don’t regularly lift weights, this is a huge feat! The first time I tried, I could barely do one of them. I was taught that to work your way up to being able to do a few proper pull-ups, you can use the assisted pull-up machine in the weight room (which offsets some of your body weight with the amount that you set on the machine), or simple looped resistance bands along with your pull-up bar. Simply loop the resistance band around the pull up bar and pull one end through the other end of the band so that you have a sturdy loop around the bar and one end of the band is dangling downward. It has to be a band that makes a continuous circle, so that you can put one knee in the loop that is hanging down. Now, as you try to pull up, the resistance band will give you a little lift as it shrinks back to the length it prefers to be once you pull up! Gradually decreasing your assistance level will have you on your way to doing an extremely impressive pull-up before you know it!
Now you’re on your way to strengthening your whole body with proper form and control. Even with the simplest exercises, don’t forget to learn the form and precautions you should use when doing it before you decided to go for it regularly!
by Emily Wheeler
If you’ve been to the SRC on a busy afternoon, you’ll know the frustration of looking at the sign-up sheets for the cardio equipment only to find that all of the treadmills, ellipticals, and stationary bikes are all booked up for the next half hour. However, on almost any given day at any given time, when you’re about to give upon getting your cardio workout, you can guarantee that one piece of gym machinery will be wide open: the rowing machines. I’m honestly not sure if this is because the majority of regular gym-goers at the SRC don’t know how to use them, or if the majority of people just hate using them, but proper use of a rowing machine will target all major muscle groups in your body while simultaneously giving you a great cardiovascular workout! Here are the steps of how to properly use an indoor rower to achieve the smooth rowing stroke pattern that will eliminate unnecessary muscular strain, provide a great full-body workout, and save you the frustration of waiting for an elliptical next time you visit the SRC!
- You’ll want to adjust the resistance. The round part in the front of the rowing machine that looks similar to a fan is called the flywheel. Adjusting the dial on the flywheel is what determines the resistance that the machine will provide for your workout. Don’t start with the resistance too high or you won’t be able to maintain a smooth stroke pattern for more than a couple of minutes, as exhaustion tends to lead to bad form.
- Sit down at the rowing machine and adjust the foot-holders. You can adjust the length of the foot holder and then tighten down the strap that goes over your shoe to keep your feet in place. Now grasp the handle and keep your elbows in toward your ribcage and try your best to check in and make sure those elbows are staying close to your body and not sticking out to the side throughout the entire workout.
- Find the position where the cord “catches.” Sit with your knees very bent and your bum should still be pretty close to your heels. Slowly start to lean back and let your knees relax their bend a little until your reach the point where you feel that the cord attached to the handle “catches” and suddenly you can feel that it will now take more effort to pull the cord out further. The cord should be taunt and not floppy or loose at the catch point.
- Keeping your arms and back straight and elbows close in the position that they were previously, start by pushing your feet against the footpads and using your leg muscles to start the stroke. Once your legs are entirely extended, the handle should be a little higher than your bellybutton but still should not be pulled back against your body. Now that your legs are straight, you’ll transition to using your arm muscles to pull the handle toward you and slightly upwards as you lean back a bit. Thus the power of your stroke comes first from the legs, secondly from the arms, and lastly from the core as you lean back slightly to extend the stroke even further and simulate bringing the oar upward and out of the water, as you would be doing in a real boat. The elbows should still be in toward your ribcage!
Your rowing pattern on the ergometers should be long and fluid and should never be wild, loud, or jerky. Do not just sit down, grab the handles, and immediately start using your legs to power yourself backward as fast as possible. Doing this will cause you to reach the catch point in the middle of the stroke, which will cause the machine to be loud instead of the quiet whirring you should hear, and will also cause a big jerk forward in your stroke as you rapidly go from the cord being loose to being taunt and having resistance. Doing so will hurt your shoulder and back muscles and you’ll also look silly. While you’re using the machine, remember that you’re supposed to be simulating using two oars to row a boat. If the way you’re rowing would cause a ridiculous amount of splashing in a boat, you need to stop, reset, and consciously go for long strokes that would glide smoothly through the water.
- Now that you’ve driven through the backwards drive of the stroke, you’ll release your stroke back to the starting position to complete the cycle. This should happen in basically the opposite order of your backwards drive: release the arms away from the body and out straight in front of you, then lean the torso back slightly forward, and finally bend your knees to slide forward on the gliding seat. Do not release your stroke faster than the flywheel can roll the cord back in. Doing so means that you are achieving no resistance or work in the release part of your stroke and are therefore missing half of the workout potential. Once you’ve gotten back to the starting point and your bum is once again close to your feet, you’ll return back to the catch point and start the next stroke!
Tada! Now you know how to use an ergometer like a pro next time you hit the gym and you can look forward to experiencing a new type of workout! You can also use the little screen of the ergometer to keep track of your distance, speed, time, estimated caloric expenditure, and other measures. Distance and time are good measurements to use to plan your own workouts, so start out small rowing 300-500 meters at a time, for example, and then take a break or row slowly in between sets. Then you can slowly work your way up in distance or time without taking breaks. When I rowed for the first time, I quickly discovered that it was much more exhausting than I expected, so it took me a while to work my way up to even be able to do ten minutes at a good speed without stopping. I would also suggest checking out a towel from the SRC in case your palms start to feel like you’re going to get blisters, so that you can wrap the towel around the handle to prevent that from happening!
The ergometers in the SRC also have a setting called “fish game,” where you are a “fish” on the screen and other big and small fish are coming at you. Rowing faster moves your fish upward, and slowing down makes your fish fall toward the bottom of the screen, so you adjust your speed to eat the small fish coming at you for points and avoid the big fish coming at you, which will make you lose points! I think it’s pretty fun if you’re not in an intense interval-training mood, but I feel like people might be wondering why I’m changing my speed so much the whole time.
All credit goes to my friend Jesse, who rowed with the varsity team here for a few years and taught me how to use this thing when I was tired of waiting for a stationary bike over a year ago! Also, thanks to the rowing models, who helped me with the pictures with no warning whatsoever—you’re great!
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