Sitting at a desk all day is hard on the body, especially the back. What the body needs is variety and the ability to move. One solution is an adjustable-height desk - one that allows you to alternate throughout the day between sitting and standing.

Farhad Manjoo describes his experience with one such desk in a New York Times article. He tried out the GeekDesk, which comes in two models, selling for $749 or $799 (plus $110 shipping to the 48 states). Not cheap. It includes an electronic motor that adjusts the height with a flick of a switch, from anywhere between 26" and 46.5".

You can find inexpensive versions of the adjustable-height desk, such as this one I found at Best Buy, but you have to do the adjusting manually. That means removing your computer and monitor and possibly everything else accumulated on your desktop, then putting everything back after you change the height. Right there, that's an impediment to alternating between sitting and standing with any frequency.

When did we start calling the whole day before Christmas "Christmas Eve?" I thought Christmas Eve was the evening before Christmas. But no. Senators voted on health care reform at 1:00 AM on Thursday December 24th. To me, that's still Wednesday night, but it was widely reported as happening on Christmas Eve. Perhaps publishers want to save ink. Or we live in such fast times that it takes too long to say "The day before Christmas."

Anyway, here's a flock of interesting stories I've come across recently.

Aging, end-of-life, and death

The Breadth of Hope, Selling Hope, and More on Quelling Thanatophobia, (Pallimed: A Hospice & Palliative Medicine Blog)
One unspoken message behind the "sell hope for a cure" ads is "we will not only cure your cancer so that you can avoid death, but we'll also make it so it's a non-issue in your life so that you can return to the way things were before. It'll kind of be like getting your car's air conditioner recharged."

The National Football League (NFL) commissioned a survey on the incidence of dementia and other memory-related diseases among its retired players. The results that came back showed early-onset dementia occurring "vastly more often" compared to the national population. The NLF dismissed the study as unreliable.

The data comes from the 88 Plan, a financial assistance plan for retired players with dementia. Confidential data from the plan indicates that the rate of dementia among football retirees is several times higher than the general population. The rate may actually be much higher than the data indicate, however, since many retirees are reluctant to admit they have a problem. Even NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell admits that the 88 Plan data underestimates the problem.

Malcom Gladwell (of Outliers, Blink, and The Tipping Point fame) has an article in the New Yorker called "Offensive Play." The subtitle is "How different are dogfighting and football?"

In dogfighting, the dogs are injured and suffer permanent damage. It's becoming clear that the same is true for professional football players.

The damage Gladwell talks about is not the typical and obvious athletic injuries -- sprains, dislocations, broken bones, and an arthritic old age. He's talking about what happens when the brain is subjected to repeated traumas - high speed collisions with massive bodies. Gladwell estimates that linemen are hit in the head 1000 times in a single season. Over the course of a career, that could add up to 8000 blows.

A Rosen Method Movement class takes students through a sequence of movements. The sequence prepares the body to move with ease across the dance floor. All movements are done to music, but not just any music.

The songs used in a class need to have a tempo that's not too fast and not too slow. A tempo that allows moving in both single and double time ("let's do that twice as fast") is ideal, but not a deal-breaker.

Selecting music always brings up a number of subjective issues for me. I avoid religion and politics, for example. I don't use rap because some students find it offensive, I try to strike a balance between music that students would clearly enjoy (standards, familiar songs), music that's more of a stretch, and my personal favorites at the moment.

Rosen Method Movement: Gentle, yet powerful movement and dance designed to lubricate all the joints in the body. Classes help you stay active and healthy, improve balance and coordination, and cope more effectively with stress. Developed by an innovative physical therapist as a way to prevent difficulties before they arise, each class follows a sequence that prepares the body to dance across the floor. Low-impact, both energizing and meditative, and definitely fun.

CALIFORNIA

Alamo - Fran McNamee - Email: franmc2(AT)earthlink.net

Albany - Regina Wells - Email: ireginawells@yahoo.com

Berkeley - Deborah Marks - Email: deborahmarks@gmail.com

Berkeley - Donna Meehan - Email: godonnameehan@yahoo.com

Cupertino - Patricia Angelina - Email: patricia@healingheartsbodywork.com

Davis - Sarah Simmons - Email: sarahparadox@earthlink.net

Half Moon Bay - Jetta van Hemert - Email: jettapt@gmail.com

Los Angeles - Helene Zimmerman - Email: hbzimmerman@yahoo.com

Mountain View - Jan Henderson - Email: jan@balanceflow.com

Oakland - Regina Wells - Email: ireginawells@yahoo.com

Pacific Grove - Jane Malek - Email: jlmalek@yahoo.com

Palo Alto - Theresa Garcia - Email: TTYGarcia@aol.com

Petaluma - Marti Overton, RN - Email: texturedheart@gmail.com

San Francisco - Theresa Garcia - Email: TTYGarcia@aol.com

San Rafael - Elizabeth Grace - Email: elizabethstgrace@yahoo.com

San Rafael - Tina Kelly Green - Email: intuitivetouch@earthlink.net

Santa Clara - Jan Henderson - Email: jan@balanceflow.com

Watsonville - Gael Roziere - Email: gaelroziere@baymoon.com

CONNECTICUT

West Hartford - Carmela Garofalo - Email: scgarofalo@sbcglobal.net

MINNESOTA

Minneapolis - Marjorie Huebner - Email: wren@mm.com

NEW MEXICO

Santa Fe - Cameron Pauline Hough - Email: cameron.ph@comcast.net

NEW YORK

Katonah - Adrienne Stone, PT - Email: arstone@mail.com

OREGON

Beaverton - Cathy Petersen - Email: cathy.petersen@comcast.net

WASHINGTON

Seattle - John Swaner - Email: johnswaner@yahoo.com

AUSTRALIA - Victoria

Melbourne - Elizabeth Long - Email: elizabethlonglong3@gmail.com

Strathbogie - Elizabeth Long - Email: elizabethlonglong3@gmail.com

Violet Town - Elizabeth Long - Email: elizabethlonglong3@gmail.com

IRELAND

Galway - Hild Uthaug - Email: hild40@online.no

NORWAY

Ås - Hild Uthaug - Email: hild40@online.no

SWEDEN

Stockholm - Barbro Bengtson - Email: barbro@bbstar.se

Stockholm - Charlotte Fürst - Email: charlottefurst@telia.com

Stockholm - Gunilla Wallin - Email: nilla.wallin@live.se

Stockholm - Lena Eliasson - Email: lena@grafiskaspranget.se

This directory is also available on my other website.

For additional movement teachers, see Rosen Method/The Berkeley Center and the Rosen Method Professional Association.

Related posts:

Dance for joy: Rosen Method Movement and a Minnesota wedding
Rosen Method Movement Music
Rosen Movement Music

The US government, through the Centers for Disease Control, has an official opinion on how much exercise we need. Adults should get 30 minutes a day, five days of week, of moderate activity, such as brisk walking. This doesn't need to happen in 30-minute segments. Ten minutes at a time is enough, as long as it adds up to 150 minutes in a week.

Does this seem too good to be true? Whatever happened to running, jogging, and aerobics with Jane Fonda? Is brisk walking really enough to make a difference in health and longevity?

The trikke (pronounced "trike") is essentially a scooter with two wheels at the rear instead of one. You don't push your feet against the ground to go forward, however. You lean from side to side, similar to the way you'd propel yourself on skis. It takes a little practice, but it's not hard to learn. If you watch the video at the end of this post, you can see how it's done.

Fans of trikking claim that it's great exercise. On a bike, you use your legs. They move the pedals, which drive a chain, which turns a wheel. On a trikke, you use your whole body to create forward motion. You can even alternate between using your upper body to tilt the handlebars from side to side, using your pelvis to sway the trikke from side to side, or using a combination of both. Riders claim it has the potential to use and tone all the muscles in the body.