Pointy elbows empower office staff!

Intrigued?...read on...

In the current economic climate, with many companies freezing pay and stopping away
days, many offices have a highly stressed, claustrophobic and even depressed
atmosphere. This can lead to employee lethargy, tension, illness and overall poor
productivity. So are companies shooting themselves in their foot for not rewarding
their staff? Are there economical ways to reduce stress, boost employee morale
and thus improve office productivity?....YES.

Picture this;
It's late on a Friday afternoon. Your whole department has been under intense
pressure to wrap up that enormous project you've been working on for months. Nerves
are frayed. Happy hour is looming. No one can think about anything but escape. Then
bang on 4 p.m., in walks a healthy-looking individual toting a strange, padded
contraption that they proceed to unfold over in one corner of the room. This is the
"corporate massage" that your boss promised.

One brave soul offers to go first, and the rest of you watch while he sits down — fully
clothed — at the device, which supports his elbows, chest, and head. As he leans
forward and relaxes, you can feel the pressure on your own limbs start to dissipate,
too. The massage therapist begins with some strong kneading of the shoulders and
upper back.

"Ahh, this is great!" roars your co-worker through the circular face rest. Quietly, but
quickly, people start to drift over to that side of the room, and soon a line begins to
form. One after another, everyone is treated to ten minutes of much-needed relief, and
a funny thing starts to happen. There is no longer a mad rush to escape the office. As
newly relaxed colleagues stand around chatting, the ideas begin to flow again, and a
few great new concepts that will make this project even better appear on the horizon.
Yes, scenarios like this one can actually occur.

Never a dull moment!

Where do we start...after being on the go all Saturday at the x-runner obstacle course; we eased ourselves in gently with an emergency first aid refresher course on Monday.

This week we have done our 4 weekly body composition and fitness tests on our clients, followed up progress on knee surgery for a client; treated clients for inflamed cartilage, sore facet joints, nerve pain and chronic back pain.  We have also uploaded a new exercise video; how to do a press up to our you tube channel...oh and written this post!

No events this weekend so a chance to chill out with a walk in the Derbyshire Dales.
Never a dull moment here at nrgize.

5K obstacle course training program

The guys at x-runner asked us to develop a training program for their entrants; here's the first instalment...

Prior to starting any training, it is recommended you have a medical examination to ensure it is safe for you to do so. Any training program needs to be specific to the individual and event and you need time to develop, build and enhance fitness levels so we advise a minimum of 12 weeks to give the best available progression.

Building you up to a moderate level of fitness; introduction to training methods and core skills (3 weeks)

Test, recovery and adjustment of the training program (1 week) Building you up to higher level of fitness; more specific and functional (3 weeks) Test, recovery and adjustment of the training program (1 week) Building you up to an even higher level of fitness; enhancing specific attributes (3 weeks)

You need to set SMART goals and the best way to start is to do a fitness test before you commence your training program so that you can accurately measure progress. It can be a simple like a 12 minute cooper test run, more complicated like a specific 5K predictor test or quite specific; designed to test components you will need to compete in an adventure race such as upper body strength, cardiovascular endurance and balance.

Beginner 5k

The first eight weeks of the run program are based on time. The time suggested should be spent exercising, which at this stage can mean walking and running. The last four weeks of the run program are based on distance. At this point in the program you should be able to run pretty much the entire distance without any walking.

For core and strength exercises see our obstacle race circuit training program. Remember to include stretching in your sessions; dynamic before your strength session and static after every session (see our guide to stretching for inspiration). Many athletes will progress faster than this program is set up for, which is fine.