Thank you for your participation in the StrengthInWork22 study so far.
Because of the feedback about communication, and concerns about clarity/usability in the web app, as noted in email Feb 23, we are focussing all our wee team’s cycles on getting the mobile app ready. to that end THE CURRENT WEB-BASED app is being retired MARCH 7
We are currently building and testing the Mobile App.
IF you would like to be part of our APP BETA TESTING – please sign up here and we’ll send you details by email on how to get access to the beta app as soon as the first beta is ready to go for iPhone and Android phones.
Testing will include specific requests for features to try out, and offer feedback
Our goal: a simplified experience (1) to support your movement at work and (2) to help us all understand what needs to happen IN work to better support your physical health – movement in this case – at work.
DURING MARCH: INTERIM STUDY DISCUSSION SPACE – JOIN US!! If you’d like to stay in touch with us about the app, the study or things you think we should explore in the study to help make work/movement better/easier – not required – but just in case you’re curious while we get this improved app ready, we have a (yes) Teams set up with three participant channels: App discussion, Move discussion, Work discussion.
PLEASE TURN OFF NOTIFICATIONS in the channel if you don’t want to see any notifications:hit the three dots in the channel and turn OFF notifications as shown below
THANK YOU
If you have questions, please send me an email to sinwork at nopain2.org (it’s a soton email) – or chat via teams or best in the new teams as other folks may have your very question too.
While variety is the spice of life, it’s pretty typical to run the same strength work for weeks at a time – that we’re exploring many types of movements is just that: it’s an exploration, a sampler, so that in these 6 weeks you get experience of what the different kinds of strength work options feel like to help you decide when to use them.
Protocol – Week 4: pick two blocks to do complementary IsoLaterals
For your first two blocks this week explore isolaterals – of a pull in one block and a push in the other.
Keep your third block BILATERAL with two moves that fill in anything missing from those first two blocks.
For example:
First BLOCK-isolateral – Lower Body PUSH is a step up where move A is left side and move B is right side SECOND BLOCK -isolateral too is a lower body Pull where move A is single leg glute raise on the left and move B is the single leg glute raise on the right
THIRD block as a BILATERAL focus takes care of the two
missing bits: upper body pull and upper body push MOVE A is an upper body pull like a door towel pull MOVE B is an elevated push up
YOU CAN CHOOSE whatever moves you wish that fit the pattern of Pull/Push, Upper/Lower with two blocks isolateral and one block bilateral – make first two blocks isolaterals; last block bilaterals.
NOTE – PACE YOURSELF – Monday especially as you go through the routine for the first time – go a little slower or pause a little longer between reps and sets to find out what 3 blocks feels like.
BACKGROUND – The strengths of these approaches
Week three we stuck with BILATERAL push/pulls (upper lower). The bilateral approach lets you focus on raw strength and power – as we discussed it takes out the balance challenges and the load challenges of working one limb or side of the body at a time. That more balanced posture lets you really focus on moving the load with everything you’ve got.
Bilateral Focus/Power
seated leg press machine
in gyms, you’ll often notice there are machines for managing the movement of the weights – these reduce the need not only for balance but much in the way of coordination: you just push or pull and can use the machine itself (such as grabbing handles fiercely while pressing a load with your legs). These become popular because you can certainly move more weight, with less skill, using these approaches. That’s not (necessarily) bad – it depends on your focus. Isolaterals – Unilateral and Ipsilateral
Coordinating Strength: side work
running demonstrates contralateral movement
Isolateral work means that you’re working one side of the body at a time; unilateral is often used interchangeably with isolateral as it fits so nicely with “bi” lateral. Within isolateral, we can also talk about ipsilateral and contralateral. Running is an example of contra-lateral: where the opposite upper is working with the opposite side lower.
finishing the isolateral step up
The step up is an example of ipsilateral work – as you work one side of the body at a time – if you really want to work the whole of that side rather than just the lower body you can also keep that side’s arm elevated to add load to the upper body (hard to keep that arm up after a few reps). time – if you really want to work the whole of that side rather than just the lower body you can also keep that side’s arm elevated to add load to the upper body (hard to keep that arm up after a few reps).
standard isolateral bulgarian squat in the negative
Contralateral Variations of Isolateral Movements You can also do something like the bulgarian split squat where your working leg is one side and you add load to the other (for example holding your arm up on the left side while working the right leg).
As Human Beings – Ipsilateral work is more what our daily lives are – we reach with one arm for a box on a shelf – we stir a pot with one hand – we walk up stairs alternating legs – we walk with contralateral movement. So learning how to strengthen these areas in these terms is very helpful – including to see where we may be weaker/or stronger and how to balance ourselves and our capacities.
It’s all Good The key thing here is that each week you’re building up capacity as well as experience – with these tasters of types of movements using these principles: 1. pulls, pushes, 2. upper, lower, 3. front, back 4. and now side to side.
Welcome to week 3 preparation!! A push a pull a hinge and a squat. This week, with TWO BLOCKS we get to do one of each.
BILATERAL FOCUS – exploring togetherness
For Week 3 , we’re focusing on “bilateral” versions for each of the moves for each block. That means both main working limbs are equally engaged – and at the same time. So a push up with both hands in same positions relative to body side; squats with both feet on the floor – these are bilateral. I’ll explain why this focus at the end of this post
First, let me give you the types of moves to choose from, and then offer some suggested combinations, ok? Questions, please ask in the Strength Questions channel in TEAMs.
pulls All the table pulls, the door pulls, the towel pulls, the sheet pulls, the negative pull up, the pull up itself using feet on the floor to assist. pushes the two handed pushes – so all the variants of the push up we have with both hands evenly placed. squats All the squat variants – including holding the edge of a table or a door to get up or down hinges The glute raises, table position, full bridge – each of these have both feet on the ground and push up the hips, and work the back of the legs – the back – all the “pull” muscles.
Suggested Combinations for blocks
upper body pull can go with upper body push or lower body push or lower body pull for one block
PRINCIPLES: With the PUSH PULL HINGE SQUAT – we can divide the moves in two ways: PUSH / PULL and UPPER/LOWER – Everything we’ve been calling push pull on the moves page happens to be upper body work; everything labelled squat/hinge is lower body work – this is just The Way these things get discussed.
The idea of a block is to put together two moves complement the muscles working in that block. We have TWO blocks this week, that’s a possible four moves. What are useful combinations?
We can do one block that does lower body push/pull and another that does upper body push and pull. For example: a squat variant and a bridge variant. That can be a bit intense – check it out – see how that combination works before committing.
We can also complement and upper and a lower against two blocks – you can do an upper and a lower PUSH in one block – like a squat and a push up variant in Block 1, and a PULL upper and lower in the second – a door pull and a bridge raise and lower in the second.
lower body pull can go with a lower body push (like the box squats) or upper body push or upper body pull for one block
We can cross combine a lower/upper push with a lower/upper pull – something you may have done in your first block. So Block 1 might be an upper Push and a lower Pull and block 2 might be a lower push and an upper Pull. Or vice versa –
The key thing here is within two blocks you’re complementing your upper and lower push pulls.
an example block: upper body (box push up)+ lower body push (box squat)
Why Bilateral right now
The ideas we’re exploring are: how do you build up a strength experience – knowledge, skills, practice – to really FEEL the experience of a strength practice – that a push FEELS like this; a PULL like that. When i work legs i feel like this the next day but rarely that the next day with upper body pulls. I feel sharper when i get at least X blocks of strength in, in a day. i FEEL like i could do more practice on the weekends or i feel the weekend off really helps me feel perkier on mondays.
BILATERAL MOVES let you focus on STRENGTH by lessening the balance and coordination challenges of strength that come when doing one side only (sometimes called unilateral, isolateral or ipsilateral depending on the way the movement is put together).
A TEST to EXPLORE all on THE FLOOR work
balance test in prorgess
For example – have a chair close by for this – and simply stand up, both feet on the floor. Now close your eyes – and just notice how stable you feel with your eyes closed. Try to stand there for 20 seconds. Perhaps you feel a wee bit less than when they’re open, but maybe not much. NOW, with your eyes open lift one leg and hold that for 20 seconds. How is your stability? put it down. FEEL that. Note that. A little less stable? Last, close your eyes and lift the OTHER leg – see how you feel? Perhaps the least stable?
This is your body finding the extra sensory input to compensate for not having vision to help you balance. This demonstration models what happens when you do a single leg movement – you are not only exploring strength but also balance – so you can’t initially lift as much as you could being more stable.
unilateral move example for weeks 5 and 6
We’ll get to isolateral/unilateral work a little later – and i’m sorry with not making that idea of progression at the beginning when exploring all the moves – thank you for your help to refine this process.
hope you have a great long weekend – and are able to relax, restore and have a fun double block on monday!
Explore Wellbeing and Contribute to Science – while you sleep –
If you would like to feel even a little better, more rested, happier, nicer, less stressed, and contribute to science – all while you sleep – we are keen to work with you.
Here’s how:
we’re keen to find out what skills during the day in particular help you sleep better at night and help you – effortlessly – feel better during the day.
we’re running a short (fortnight) study using an app you’ll be invited to download, to find out what scientifically validated strategies for better sleep actually work for you.
caffeine – does it affect your sleep if you have it after 1? after 3?
The side effects of better sleep include:
better fat burning
better muscle building
better memory
better learning
being more relaxed
being testably less stressed
having more energy
better sex
Would you like to learn how to improve your sleep QUICKLY and contribute to science?
If so, we’re inviting participants to take part in our Sleep Better Study – Especially targetted
for students: to help you learn how to sleep better before exams
for staff: to help you sleep better to reduce stress, improve focus, burn fat, feel happier, perform better at work and at home.
Please sign up here to indicate your interest, and we’ll follow up with you to make sure you get our app – that works on Android and iOS – to guide you through the study – and are ready for the study when it begins.
The Vision of the LivingLab is to create the best work and study environment in the world for our entire community.
We are an interdisciplinary campus. Our teaching is research-lead and our researchers lead and collaborate on internationally leading work to help make the world a better place. Our Mission with the LivingLab is to bring together this research accumen to our own back yard: to build up interdisciplinary research on wellbeing that starts at home, here at the University, is tested here, and from here, can benefit the world.
EVERYONE IS A SCIENTIST
Within the LivingLab, everyone in our community is a scientist: that is, we can each of us contribute to creating new knowledge.
Our focus in the lab to build interdisciplinary studies to explore how we can better support our health, wellbeing and aspirations. We will be developing calls for our community to propose work to be associated with the Lab.
A COMMUNITY OF CITIZEN SCIENTISTS
Everyone associated with the Lab, with a project or interest to share expertise will be part of our development community.
Our goal is to have close ties with all parts of the university community, such as Estates, Catering, Admin and Reseasrch, to share in ideas/new questions where the campus can be our lab to explore the art and science of the possible.
A NEAR HORIZON: Building Interdisciplinary Networks for Students
We are keen to bring project students from across campus together who may be interested in a LivingLab focused projects: we will host short talks and brown bag lunches for students to meet, learn about each others work and share ideas.
We will also be developing signage for the campus to make it clear WHERE a LivingLab project is underway and WHAT it’s exploring.
AN EXAMPLE PROJECT: SLEEP PILOT 1
The first project for the living lab is our Sleep Better Explorer. Our goal is to help people intersted in sleeping better become Experimental Scientists of their own Sleep. They can run any 3 of 9 sleep experiments over 15 days, with tools helping them discover with these practices: do you feel better?
While participants learn about their sleep, the anonymised data from these studies will help create a resource we call FUTURE GHOSTS – for people curious about sleep to see what’s worked for People Like You – to see a possible future if you explore that method.
The data also contributes to Open Science for other researchers to use.
Towards our Vision to help build the best work environment, helping people sleep better is of course going to help people feel better, but projects like this also help us look at infrastructure – to explore systemic possibilities. What if for instance a particular cohort are ALL having difficulty sleeping at particular times?
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
The LivingLab is a new enterprise at U of Southampton. If you’re interested in this kind of collaborative, interdisciplinary work; connecting your work with the Lab, or whatever ideas you have, we’ll be putting together an invitation mid summer 2020.
