Promotion health and wellbeing at retreat, presentation to the writing retreat facilitator training. More information: http://www.rowenamurray.org Further links: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Pg5rMrT9fs The healthy heart book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Healthy-Heart-Book-Morag-Thow/dp/1450432786

1. Dr Morag Thow
Promoting health and wellbeing at retreat

2. What determines if we are healthy?
• Your genes determine 25 % of your health
•75% is what you do with your own health
behaviour exercise, food, smoking etc.
•This is YOUR CHOICE!!

4. When you see these shout EVIL!

5. Focus for today?
1. Sitting, standing and our posture
2. Reducing our sitting time
3. Walking and exercising at work more
4. Diet and hydration

6. Poor posture sitting !

7. Negative physical and cognitive effects !!

8. Improve your sitting posture!
• Gravity is working on
us all the time!!
• Think tall string on top
of your head pulling
you up!!
• Do sitting exercises

9. Seated exercises
• Neck rotation right and left. Look
up and down (Don’t roll your neck!).
Pull chin in and out
• Shoulder shrug
• Reach to the side
• Wrist rolling
• Open close fingers
• Toe heel raises
• Ankle rotations
• Slump and let string pull you up!
• Rotation spine
• Side stretch
• Knee to chest
• Ham string stretch

10. Improve your sitting
station !

11. Standing stations
• Try not to brace your knees back
keep soft knees
• Move from one leg to the other
• Curl your toes in your shoes
• Go up and down on your toes
and heels
• Balance on one foot at a time for
30 seconds
• Remember think and be TALL!

12. We can sit and stand now in a better posture!!
• Sitting for long periods is bad ad
seats are EVIL
EVIL!!

13. Talk to partner beside you
1 How much do you sit at work?
2 Do you sit to go to work?
3 When you go home do you sit a lot?
Our time spent sitting??

14. How are we designed?
Evolutionary Terms
• We are designed to be persistent
hunter gatherers!
• Designed to move and be active
for many hours at a time!
• Sir Harry Burns

15. What has happened over time
• Increases in inactivity • Decrease in activity

16. Industry activity?

17. Housework activity?

18. Transport walking?

19. Now computers!!

20. And TV??

21. Prolonged sitting bad seats are EVIL !

22. What happens when we sit long for
periods>1 hour!!
• As soon as you sit
• Electrical signals to legs shut down
• Calorie burning reduces 1 per minute
• After 1-2 hours
• Good protective cholesterol drops
20%
• Blood sugar starts to rise risk of
diabetes rises

23. Why is sitting so bad??
• Each 1-hour increment in sitting time was found to be associated
with an 11% and an 18% increased risk of all-cause and
Cardiovascular Disease mortality, respectively (Dunstan et al 2010)
• Less time sitting prolongs life (Hidde et al 2012)

25. Avoiding sedentarism/sitting
• Don’t sit for long periods of
time.
• Break up your sitting as much as
you can.
• Every 30mins stand every
60mins go for 3-4 mins walk or
sit to stand 10 times
• Introduce inconvenience
into your daily life!!

26. Some solutions !
• Put an hourglass on your desk
• Install a screen saver to prompt
you to get up and move every
hour.
• Another stickier that reminds
you of 30mins or 1 hour one
hour
• Set a timer on your mobile
phone
• Walk to water station and
printer
• Stand up to talk on phone
• When you meet stand or walk
• Stand every 30mins walk every
60mins or 10 sit to stand
Get up
every
30mins!!

27. Sit to stand 10 times NOW!!

28. Walking and exercising at work

29. Physical Activity Recommendations
• So what and how much
activity should we all be
doing to benefit our
health?

30. Aerobic Exercise
•What is aerobic
exercise?
•What does it do for
our health & well-
being?

31. Aerobic Exercise & Fitness
• Activities which increase your
heart & breathing rates.
AND
• Which you can do continuously
for a fairly long time.

32. What are some of the benefits
exercise and active lifestyle can give?
• Psychosocial (7!)
• Physiological(10!)

33. Psychosocial benefits
1 Improves cognition
2 Increased social
interaction
3 Improved self-esteem
4 Increases self-efficacy
5 Reduced depression
6 Improved mood status
7 And more!
(ACSM,2012)

34. Physiological benefits
Anti-arrhythmic
Anti-
ischaemic
Increased bone
density
Anti-thrombotic
Improved muscle,
ligament and tendon
strength
Improved lipid profile
Improves
balance and co-
ordination
Endothelial
function & BP
Weight control
Insulin
sensitivity

35. Fitness protects !!
• Exercise capacity is powerful predictor of all cause mortality
• Inverse relationship between exercise capacity (fitness) and all Cause
mortality!
(Blair et al 2006, Myers 2002, Kavanagh 2002)

36. Fitness protects! (Blair et al 2006)

37. Guidelines: Aerobic Fitness
• Moderate intensity activity for 30
minutes on at least 5 days per week (150
mins per week MINIMUM)
OR and
• Vigorous intensity activity for 20 minutes
on 3 days per week
• 30 mins an be done in 3
×10 minute bouts!!

38. BORG Scale how it should feel!
7 VERY VERY LIGHT A DODDLE
8
9 VERY LIGHT A SKOOSH
10
11 FAIRLY LIGHT NAE BOTHER
12
13 SOMEWHAT HARD PECHIN
14
15 HARD WABBIT
16
17 VERY HARD PUGGLED
18
19 VERY VERY HARD KNACKERED
20
Overload

39. Try to build in 30 min
walking very work day
• 3× 10 minutes ×5 days
= minimum
recommendations for
health
• Only 150min per week
!!
• Needs to be at 100-120
beats per min !!
• (Staying alive Bee Gees
=100-120 BPM)

40. Don’t be an active couch potato!
An Active Couch Potato
No point in doing 1 hour gym session then sitting
for 4 hours!!

41. Adopt the activity pyramid!

42. Or take the exercise pill!!

43. Diet and hydration
• Your diet and hydration will
complement your exercise and
activity.
• Eating healthy is just as important
for your brain and body! The brain
requires lots of energy and uses up
one fifth of the blood pumped by
your heart so food and drink are
very important to keep your brain
working properly especially when
doing lots of brain work as an
academic!

44. Foods and drink to boost your brain function
• Oily fish such as fresh salmon, herring
and mackerel. These are an excellent
source of omega-3, which your brain
needs to stay healthy. Also good for your
heart and blood vessels!
• Olive oil, which is a healthy source of fat
in the diet and can help reduce
cholesterol levels and blood pressure. Is
may lower risk of stroke, cognitive
impairment and memory loss.
• Berries and deep coloured fruits and
vegetables, such as strawberries,
blueberries, blackberries, acai berries,
spinach, beetroot and beans. These are
high in antioxidants, which help guard
against disease by protecting cells in the
body and brain from damage.
• ‘Good’ fats, like nuts, seeds and
avocados. Foods containing
polyunsaturated fatty acids (nuts, seeds,
fish and leafy green vegetables) and
monounsaturated fatty acids (olive oil,
avocados, nuts) may reduce your risk of
both depression and dementia.

45. Body composition
• There are many ways to measure our body composition for example
BMI (not very accurate re body composition!).
• We know that where we have excess fat is an important health
marker. Fat round our middles has a higher health risk especially for
type II diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
• Your waist should be less than half your height

46. Body composition waist= half height!
Your waist should be smaller than your hips!
33 in waist 5ft 9in tall= correct ratio
45 in waist to 5ft 9in tall =overweight
60in waist to 5ft 9in tall= obese

47. Hydration
• The brain is about 80% water, so it is important for
us to drink lots of fluids for it to function properly.
If we don’t drink enough fluid, this can affect our
mood and importantly your concentration
(important in your academic journey!!)
• Top tip: Drink 6-8 glasses of fluid every day!
• Water, milk and fresh fruit juice are all healthy
ways to keep hydrated.
• Tea and coffee are OK as but limit your caffeinated
intake drinks to about 3 cups per day.
• Avoid sugary drinks drink fresh water regularly
(and walk to the water station to build up your
walking!).

48. Marys tale I am a mature student who is now in the final phase of a part-time PhD. I
work full-time in a busy University and undertook a PhD for personal and
professional satisfaction.
• I am amazed at the difference re-starting exercise and eating more healthily has
made to me! I am enjoying my PhD studies more than I ever did and have found
that taking time away from the computer, from reading and from thesis writing
to do some exercise has improved the quality of my thinking, analysis and
output. I also feel SO much better, physically and mentally.
• Another strategy that has helped is my regular attendance at Writing Retreats
where not only do I produce a lot of text in a short period of time, but am able
also to maintain a healthy work-life balance because exercise breaks are built into
the Retreat Programme. I believe that maintaining a healthy lifestyle and writing
a thesis ARE compatible.

49. Top 10 tips!!
1 Don’t sit for more than an hour at a
time. Stand every half hour walk every hour.
2 If you are still working at a desk at break
times try to do three bouts of 10 minutes of
brisk walking. (150 minutes MINIMUM. DO
MORE!!)
3 It is of little use strolling! Walk at about
100-120 steps per minute.
4 Avoid using escalators or lifts. Stair
climbing uses twice the calories of walking!!
5 If you have a laptop you can put it on a
high shelf and stand as you use it. Standing
is better than sitting.
6 If you are sitting think TALL Try not to be
still and in the same position for too long
7 Try to eat regularly. We often have sugar
lows at about 11am and 3pm. Don’t be
tempted to eat a bar of chocolate or high
sugary drinks.
8 Incorporate structured exercise into your
life.
9 Walk and/or cycle to work if you can.
10 Try to incorporate the activity pyramid

50. Thank you I hope you have a
more healthy academic life!
Dr Morag thow MBE

51. Be a Healthy Academic!
How you can help yourself
and your retreat participants
Dr Morag Thow