LifeSpan Fitness Blog

December 11, 2012
by schenkjess
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Benefits of the StretchPartner SP1000

There are many benefits to stretching the body. However, many athletes skip it, do it incorrectly or just don’t do enough of it. With the LifeSpan SP1000 Stretch Partner, you no longer have an excuse to skip it.

Stretching correctly allows you to push your body beyond its comfort zone, thereby increasing your overall physical ability. It improves your range of motion and increases the blood flow to your muscles, thus improving your circulation.For an athlete the benefits are even greater. Stretching helps condition the muscles and joints, thus helping to prevent injuries and reduce recovery time and prevents muscles and joints from seizing up and improves elasticity, allowing better posture and technique.

For a lot of elderly people, maintaining mobility can be problematic to achieve. Muscles and joints weaken and range of movement deteriorates as we age. Stretching helps develop and maintain strength in these areas and can significantly provide greater quality of life.

Stretching should be part of every workout regime and the SP1000 can make it simple and more effective.

The Stretch Partner supports assisted and unassisted stretching.

Assisted Stretching is at the core of the Stretch Partner design by leveraging each user’s gravity regardless of body type and level of flexibility. The benefit is a deeper stretch for assisted stretches.

Unassisted Stretching is aided by properly positioning the pelvis and knees so that the back is properly stabilized.

The Stretch Partner provides muscle isolation and leverage. By isolating the muscle that you’re stretching you have greater control over the stretch and less resistance to overcome. Leverage allows you to easily control the desired intensity.

The Stretch Partner supports balanced flexibility. Being flexible in particular areas or joints does not mean that all areas are flexible. Often people are more flexible in one joint than the other. The Stretch Partner provides consistent positioning allowing the user to focus on specific joints, or areas of the body to obtain balanced flexibility and range of motion.

email Benefits of the StretchPartner SP1000

December 4, 2012
by schenkjess
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Sedentary Lifestyle – Couch Potato Meets Cubicle

office cubicle Sedentary Lifestyle – Couch Potato Meets Cubicle As someone who has spent the last 15 years sitting at a desk during work, a total of 31,200 hours, I can definitely say my body is starting to feel it. At 44 years old I’m still very active, but regular daily exercise often takes a back seat to other obligations.

Not to mention in my youth I could get away with hours spent sitting studying at the library or in class without getting up to shall we say “stretch out my legs.” Don’t get me wrong I do find myself getting up to get the occasional cup of coffee or use the fax machine, anything to wake myself up at the office.

We all know a lack of physical activity can create an onset of many health risks and diseases, but if you’re at all like me there just isn’t enough time in my week to devote to this. Now that we at LifeSpan have introduced out new Treadmill Desk were finding an increasing amount in the benefits a little more activity can bring and the harm of living a sedentary lifestyle (aka “couch potato”). Societies lack of movement has literally brought on a new field of medical research termed inactivity physiology, focusing on the effects of prolonged periods of inactivity. Basically, until recently we as human beings have been nomadic and therefore this is the lifestyle our bodies have evolved to maintain. When you throw in high fructose corn syrup, online shopping and forty-plus hour work weeks our bodies don’t know how to adjust. According to Marc Hamilton, a PH.D associate professor of biomedical sciences at the University of Missouri, when you sit for prolonged periods of time, your body begins to shut down at a metabolic level. When muscles meant for large amounts of activity are sedentary, circulation will slow and you will burn fewer calories. If you’re picturing images of walrus’s laying on a sheet of ice or hippos basking in the sun, you’re not that far of base visually.

All in all while hours spent at the office may be great for your pocket book, they are taking a toll on your on all of our bodies and there are many things you can do to get you up and moving in the workplace. Beyond following my example of making regular drips to the coffee machine you can try getting up and talking to a coworker rather than taking the easy way out and emailing them, taking the stairs to your office or spend some time standing at your computer.

email Sedentary Lifestyle – Couch Potato Meets Cubicle

November 29, 2012
by schenkjess
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Why Stretch?

woman streching Why Stretch? Many factors impact flexibility. Lifestyle, age, gender and individual physical characteristics such as bone structure and muscle mass all affect our level of flexibility.

Regardless of these factors, stretching can have significant benefits to quality of life, including flexibility, balance, posture, back pain, and human performance.

The Basics of Stretching

Strength Training, Cardiovascular Exercise and Stretching are all key components to a comprehensive exercise program.

The two basic types of stretching are assisted and unassisted stretching.

• Assisted Stretching uses outside assistance such as body weight, a strap, leverage or gravity as an aid to improve the stretch. This is the most common form of stretching.

• Unassisted Stretching stretches one muscle by actively contracting another muscle. Unassisted stretching requires more effort, but can be very helpful for improving movement in everyday life and sports performance because it develops strength while building flexibility.

Both types of stretching can be used statically, where the stretch is held for a short period or dynamically, where the stretch is done in motion and repeated multiple times.

To get the most out of stretching there needs to be a balance between assisted and unassisted stretches.

For those over 40 it’s important to know that subtle changes begin to occur in our muscles and joints that make them progressively stiffer, less functional and more prone to injury. While this aging process can’t be stopped, it can be slowed down by remaining fit, active and flexible. Research shows that regular stretching can significantly improve flexibility for individuals in the second half of life and up into the eighties and nineties.

November 26, 2012
by schenkjess
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Fox News Showcases LifeSpan Treadmill Desks

Fox News Houston and Dr. Cecilia Valdez, an infertility specialist working at Texas Children’s Hospital at Baylor College of Medicine, dive into the benefits of staying active throughout the workday with the LifeSpan Treadmill Desks.

Based on previous findings by the Mayo Clinic, Dr. Valdez concluded that the best way to include some exercise into her busy day would be the addition of a treadmill desk in her office. Previously, Dr. Valdez had been more active when she was seeing patients. Once she began sitting at her desk all day she had difficulty staying awake and was worried her metabolism would drop and she would start putting on weight.

Recently there has been an increase in research findings centered around the negative effects of a sedentary lifestyle. As mentioned above, the Mayo Clinic was at the forefront of the research being done on these effects. As Dr. Valdez mentions, the Mayo Clinic concluded “The difference between thin people and obese people is how much they move, how much fidgeting the thin people do”.

Research also suggests that staying active while you work may increase productivity. Where movement increases the blood flow to the brain significantly, increasing productivity as well as helping prevent dementia and alzheimer’s.