Dr. Rippe's Blog

Many of us spend most of our workdays sitting at desks and computer stations. Slipping these quick, simple activities into your workday can energize your body and mind. They can also help relieve stress.

• Stretch every hour or two. Sitting at a desk or keyboard in one position is tiring. So every one to two hours do some quick stretches. Shoulder, neck, and side stretches from our Balanced Stretching Program can relax stiff muscles and improve posture. Some ankle rotations can help legs. If you stand at your work (as in many retail jobs), do some stretches for your back and legs.
• Move more often. Stand when you talk on the phone if you have a desk job. Take a turn up and down the hall on your coffee break. Climb the stairs rather than take the elevator. Walk at least 10 minutes at lunch.
• Sneak in some strength exercises. Do some calf raises any time you have to pause for a minute, such as waiting on the copier to finish your job or standing in line at the bank or post office. A couple of times daily, do a quick set of 5 or 6 squats when you get up from your chair or sit down.

Fitting quick, simple activities such as these into the nooks and crannies of your workday really helps you accumulate more physical activity and typically feel better. Give them a try and let me know how they work for you.

Frustration and anger bubble up from time to time in every family and relationship. But these potentially distructive emotions can be managed and used to enhance communication. When my eldest daughter was about three, she introduced our family to a very effective tool. As only toddlers can, she was "pitching a fit." Determined to defuse the situation, I asked her to give me a hug. "No!" she responded. "How about a kiss, then?" I gently countered. "Stop!" she yelled as she turned away. I finally went for one of our favorite routines: "Then give me a high five." She whirled around, looked me in the eye, and said, "Go AWAY!" It was clear she meant to follow her own process for stopping the trantrum rather than yield to my intervention. And she did work her way out of it.

As we laughed, then talked about this encounter, my wife and I realized that our daught had inadvertently given us a valuable lesson about communicating and managing our angry emotions.  Although she was acting out and shouting, our daughter was essentially giving herself a time-out. In the years since, my wife and I and our family have used this technique to avoid potentially explosive arguments and to enhance communication. Of course, I don't advise using a toddler's literal words--No! Stop! Go away!--but instead advise recognizing the value of giving yourself a personal timeout when anger threatens to overtake communication. Expressing clearly and calmly your need to disengage and cool down--to take a personal time out--until you can bring calm thoughts and actions to a discussion of the issue can be a big help. It can help you and your spouse focus on communicating about the actual issues and avoid the damage (often much wider than the issue) that angry exchanges can bring.

The ability to relax, believe it or not, enables optimum performance, no matter what you are trying to do. The challenge you face could be completing a work project on deadline or getting the whole family ready and off to school. If you master the art of staying relaxed in the midst of the "fray," you'll typically feel better about what you're doing (less frustrated) and will actually do it better.

The Olympic Games this week have reminded me that I first learned the importance of relaxation for achieving optimum performance years ago from Jackie Joyner-Kersee, the great Olympic heptathlete whom Sports Illustrated named the all-time best female athlete. We met when we were both on a speaking tour in the late eighties. This was shortly after she had won her first gold medal in the Seoul games. The heptathlon features seven athletic events blending strength, speed and endurance. Jackie's great strength was her jumping, but she had to work hard at the speed events such as the 200-meter and 800-meter runs. She said the final breakthrough for her in these speed events came when her coach convinced her of the importance of relaxing in order to run faster.

Jackie Joyner-Kersee convinced me of the importance of relaxation, too. Since that time I've practiced trying to stay relaxed as I carry out all the challenges of each day at work and at home--and even in airports (my biggest challenge). It works. Staying relaxed isn't always easy, but when you can achieve it, everything goes more smoothly. Jackie Joyner-Kersee, by the way, still holds the world record in the heptathlon. You can use her "secret" to go for the gold everyday.