Corrections or additions?
These articles by Melinda Sherwood were published in U.S. 1 Newspaper on June 16, 1999.
All rights reserved.
Strategies for a Healthy Office
When is the last time you halted an important project
to eat a balanced meal? Had a back-rub while on the job? Left your
office to meditate? If you’re like most people in competitive industries,
chances are you think hunger, stress and physical discomfort are just
as much a part of the daily grind as keeping a stiff upper lip among
your colleagues and higher-ups. After all, you’re only hurting yourself,
right?
Wrong, says Vonda Kraus Sternberg of Corporate Care (877-469-8227).
“Stress costs corporate America billions every year,” she
says. While it is well-known that stress-related problems drain corporate
healthcare and result in employee absenteeism, few companies, says
Sternberg, are aware of just how much it’s costing them. Corporate
Care has gathered some startling figures:
Between 60 and 90 percent of medical office visits in the U.S. are
for stress-related disorders, according to Herbert Benson, a
physician at the Center for Corporate Health in the Mind/Body Medical
Institute. At least 100 million work days each year are lost to lower
back pain, at a cost to employers of $20 billion, according to a 1994
survey by Goldhirsh Group Inc. More than 1 million people a day call
in sick, resulting in losses of $150 billion a year in lowered productivity,
medical insurance, rehiring and retraining (Inc. magazine, August
1994).
Conversely, Sternberg says that studies show that for every $1 a company
spends on fostering healthy habits among employees, it gets $5 back
in productivity. “When a company encourages healthy habits in
its employees, the benefits trickle down to the community and the
company,” she says.
Sternberg, a private massage practitioner for 12 years, co-founded
Corporate Care, based in Monmouth Junction, with Colleen Murray
Seig. She and seven other therapists in the company hope to bring
both traditional and alternative methods of healing, preventative
medicine, and stress management into the workplace. This includes
on-site massage, nutritional workshops, stretching exercises, and
even humor. The company also consults on matters of ergonomics and
injuries like back pain and carpal tunnel.
Proactive companies — companies that take care of their employees
— are already seeing positive results, says Sternberg. “You
can bring in a nutritionist, do a one-hour lecture once a month, and
make a world of difference,” she says.
That’s exactly what Liz Claiborne did, according to Business
and Health magazine. An on-site weight-loss program resulted in employees
losing an average of 27 pounds each.
“New Jersey is rather slow at catching on,” Sternberg says.
“It tends to be a very fast-paced state. They’ve forgotten that
to be productive you need to slow down.”
Sternberg, a native of South Brunswick, opened her own private massage
practice in 1987. In the past 12 years she has seen people’s health
decline rapidly because of stress. “You see over the years that
the situation is getting more critical. People are working way after
hours, bringing home work on the weekends — working on their own
time,” she says. The result: aches, pains and constant visits
to doctor. “They catch every little thing that comes along because
they can’t relax. I see how hard it is for them to relax on the massage
table because it’s hard for them to turn their minds off.”
Sternberg had tried to reach the corporate community before; she even
opened her own center for meditation and yoga. “The only people
who came to my center were already doing yoga and meditation,”
she says. “People in business don’t seek it out because they’re
not in that mindset. That’s what made me think, if you bring it directly
to corporate America you can educate them.”
Whether you’re an employee or employer, Sternberg says you can improve
health and productivity in the office by encouraging or practicing
the following:
Take five. A five-minute quiet break — NOT a coffeeor cigaret break — where you focus on your breathing and tuneinto your body is the best thing you can do for yourself in the office,she says. “People get so caught up in their heads that they forgetthere’s an actual functioning body.”Put down the sandwich. Certain food combinations, particularlythe combination of proteins (meat) and carbohydrates (bread) –make you very sleepy or worse, gassy. Sternberg advises people toeat one or the other — proteins or carbohydrates. Do not mix thetwo together.Take lunch. “If you’re eating while you’re workingyou’re not doing a lot for yourself health-wise,” she says. Insome cases, companies enforce bad habits by offering free lunchesand asking employees to eat at their desks. “That’s giving withone hand and taking with the other,” Sternberg says. “Yourbody can’t possibly go through proper digestion when your mind isfocusing on the computer. It’s very unhealthy.”Watch your posture. Keep things at eye level, and if youdon’t have lumbar support, put a pillow behind you. “People don’teven realize that their lower back is shot because of the way they’resitting.”Employers who encourage employees to relax, laugh and guard theirhealth send out a simple message: the company cares. That is enormouslyvaluable, says Sternberg. “A company’s relationship with an employeeis just like a relationship with a friend,” she says. “Employeesfeel that they owe something back to the company. When someone takesgood care of you, are you going to be there for them or not be therefor them?”Top Of PageWeb Review:Fitness SiteHealth and fitness magazines are an endless source ofbroken promises. Headlines like “Firmer abs in four weeks”and “Eat what you like and still lose weight” nonethelesscapture our imagination and seize on a universal hope: maybe thisis the real thing.Phys.com (https://www.phys.com), a new website devotedto health and fitness, recently employed the same gimmick on a quarterpage newspaper ad promising “Five weeks to a better body.”The site boasts “online tools:” calculators to determine idealweight, body fat percentage and caloric need, plus a personal nutritionist,illustrated workouts and forums.Is a “virtual fitness trainer” actually more reliable thanthe stuff on newsstands? At first glance, Phys.com more or less lookslike a compendium of women’s magazines (the site is copyrighted byCondeNet). There are links to articles on everything from the latestbeef on eggs, to fitness during pregnancy. Sources on the site areintelligent. Dr. Mirriam Stoppard, author of several books onpregnancy, is the online pregnancy expert, and a link to Tufts UniversityHealth and Nutrition Letter pumps out answers to common health questions.There’s also a pregnancy A to Z encyclopedia, and links to all kindsof sites for hiking, walking, and the YMCA. At no point do you haveto register.The big selling point for this web site, however, is interactivity;online fitness tests, calculators, and the services of a virtual nutritionist.People should be more than wary of these “fitness tools.”The virtual calculator makes a rather crude assessment of body fatpercentage based on age, weight, height, and waist size. Body massand ideal weight are calculated similarly. As almost any expert knows,this is far too little to go on.Age seems to be weighted disproportionately. For example, a 25 year-oldwoman weighing in at 115 pounds with a height of 5′ 2” is slightlyover the normal range of body fat, but by no means considered at risk.That same woman at 50 is, according to the site, in the “danger”zone.The calculator leads you to believe that complex medical conclusionscan be drawn from inches and pounds alone — hardly the case. Forthe most part, the calculator is a misleading and worthless feature.The virtual nutritionist can tip you off to some better eating habits,however. That is if you don’t mind going through the rather lengthyprocess of mousing over everything you’ve eaten today.For the most part, these online gimmicks don’t in any way amount toworking with your doctor, trainer, nutritionist, or just a friendon a program personalized for you. It’s also unlikely that you’llget a better body in five weeks using Phys.com. At most, you’ll readthe occasional noteworthy article, find some good links, and developmore defined mousing muscles.– Melinda SherwoodTop Of PageHealthy RecruitingFew people can turn a hobby into a $50 an hour business,but if exercise is your personal vice, you’re more than healthy –you’re marketable as well. Getting certified as an instructor canboost your income and provide a rewarding fitness experience. A handfulof organizations provide relatively quick and inexpensive certificationfor fitness instructors, personal trainers, aerobics instructors,weight management consultants and more.You don’t have to be a hardbody either, says Karl Dauphinais,vice president of operations at the International Fitness ProfessionalAssociation (IFPA), a national organization that provides personaltrainer certification. “Interest and motivation in the field ismore important than anything else,” he says. “If you’re tryingto motivate someone else, you have to convince them that you followthat lifestyle.”The IFPA faculty of 40 instructors, all with masters degrees in sportsmedicine or a related field, certify individuals to train other healthypeople. Textbook study (one month preparation) is required beforetaking the two-day instructional course and final exam. The two-daycourse is offered on Saturday and Sunday, July 17 and 18, in BrickTownship, location to be determined. Call: 800-785-1924. Cost: $299.The IFPA distance-learning program — two video tapes — costs$339.Certification is good for reasons of credibility and liability, saysDauphinais, who received a BS in biochemistry from Colgate University,Class of 1992. “Most facilities won’t allow someone to train unlessthey know what they’re doing and can’t hurt themselves,” he says.It can also help you gain a competitive advantage over others in thefield. In a private setting, personal trainers can make as much asseveral hundred dollars in the Los Angeles area, and an average of$25 to $50 elsewhere. By contrast, trainers in the gym make the leastamount of cash, $6 to $8 an hour.Certification is also necessary for training individuals with specialhealth considerations. The American College of Sports and Medicine,for example, focuses on issues of cardiac rehabilitation, while theIFPA focuses on training people who are relatively healthy.The following is a list of fitness certifications:American Council on Exercise: personal trainer, clinicalexercise specialist, group fitness instructor, lifestyle and weightmanagement consultant, https://www.acefitness.org, (619) 535-8227.American College of Sports Medicine: clinical track certifications(for individuals with cardiovascular, pulmonary or metabolic disease)and health and fitness track certifications (for apparently healthindividuals), https://www.acsm.org, 317-637-9200.International Sports Sciences Association: personal trainer,https://www.issa-usa.com, 1-800-892-USA.Aerobics and Fitness Association of America: aerobic instructor,https://www.afaa.com, 1-800-446-2322.The National Strength and Conditioning Association: certifiedstrength and condition specialist and personal trainer, https://www.nsca-cc.org.The World Instructor Training Schools: personal trainerand aerobics, https://www.dvwits.com or 215-679-6062.For those interested in training the trainers-to-be, the IFPAis always looking for new faculty members. A masters degree in a relatedfield is necessary. Faculty members, contracted for a number of workshops,are selected according to both fitness philosophy and health education.Corrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
