Upright Rows

Upright Rows

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Uprights Rows train your front deltoids (shoulders).

Maintain a stable stance throughout the exercise by keeping your feet at shoulder width, knees slightly bent, spine completely upright, and core muscles (abdominals and lower back) engaged throughout the entire exercise.

Point your elbows to the ceiling and lift your hands until they are near the height of your shoulders. Exhale as you lift your arms and elbows. Inhale as you lower your arms down.

Don’t raise one shoulder higher than the other. Don’t tilt or twist your shoulders, back or hips. Keep your body straight and tall.

Grab the resistance bands at the very end for the least intensity. Grab the resistance bands at a shorter length to increase intensity.

Dumbbells and Resistance Bands

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You don’t need heavy weights to have an effective workout. Exercises with lightweight & portable resistance bands can provide equivalent intensity as exercises with dumbbells.

In the “Dumbbells and Resistance Bands” program, Edwin will:

1) Show you a wide variety of exercises with dumbbells for your upper body, lower body and core muscles; and how you can perform the same exercises with resistance bands

2) Explain the benefits of resistance bands and why they are great to do in conjunction with a circuit of bodyweight-only exercises

Resistance band exercises are great alternatives for going to gym, when you are just looking for a quick and effective workout at home. They are also the perfect exercises to do in your hotel room on a business trip.

Please feel free to leave comments or questions and we will do our best to respond promptly. 

ABC 100 (PDF)

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This is PDF version of the ALMA Bodyweight Circuit (ABC) 100 exercise routine.

It contains pictures and descriptions for each exercise, along with an explanation for how to perform the circuits for an effective home or travel workout.

Essential Elements of a Great Workplace

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Every year, Fortune Magazine publishes a well known feature issue entitled “100 Best Companies to Work For.” But what’s lesser known is that the company responsible for surveying thousands of companies and millions of employees is a company called, Great Place to Work®.

For more than 25 years, Great Place to Work® has studied the inner workings of workplaces around the world, from small startups to some of the best-known multinationals. Their underlying core principle is that great workplaces begin with establishing a culture of trust across the organization.

Great Place to Work® Greater China works with companies throughout Greater China and Southeast Asia to educate them on what makes a workplace great, from the perspective of an employee and from the perspective of a manager. They also lead initiatives such as “This Is Our Workplace!” Video Contest 2013, annual conferences, and joint programs with companies in complementary industries such as wellness, art & creativity, workplace interior design, and team building.

Wellness is a critical component of what makes a workplace, great. In an article published by Great Place to Work® in 2013, entitled “Supporting a Healthy Workplace,” they list 4 simple and “accessible” ways companies can promote health and wellbeing at work.

1) Offer Healthy Snacks Onsite

2) Start a Walking Group

3) Make Basic Preventative Care Available Onsite to Employees

4) Consider Concierge Services and/or Comp Time for Stressed Employee Populations

To read the full article, click here.

Wellness in the workplace leads to improved team morale, increased employee productivity, and better employee engagement. Building a culture of wellness in an organization will take time, so it’s advisable to take it one small step at a time.

ALMA Wellness is a partner of Great Place to Work® Greater China and award sponsor for the “This Is Our Workplace!” video contest 2013.

How To Create a Support Community To Help You Achieve Anything

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Show Up

Showing up to life means believing in our optimal performance and activating it. Showing up can be ignited and sustained by outside support. Who is that person or group of people who strive for their best and remind you of your greatest capacity?

In wellness initiatives, solo missions mean nobody to report to and nobody to compete with. This makes it easy to say, “There is always tomorrow.” Who asks you why you weren’t in yoga class this week? Who will notice if you choose fruit over a croissant for breakfast?  We’re not talking about an invisible Santa Clause, who counts up your good deeds and bad deeds.

Our daily decisions are neither good nor bad, but they do move us towards or away from our optimal health. With some form of accountability outside of ourselves, we are asked to show up and step into our full potential and power.

Find One Person

Find one person who will join you in a mission to drink less alcohol, eat less sugar or exercise more. Find one person to share your vision with or announce your 5-year plan to. Grow this one person to more people who share the same interests. Create your community out of those closest to you or access an online connection. Even the greatest of heroes and athletes need a community of people to push back when they grow tired or indifferent.

Top 5 Tips for Building Healthy Habits

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#1 Start Small

Ambition and all or nothing endeavors often create compensation. In other words, going from a daily happy hour habit to abstinence may feel like self-punishment. The most appropriate response for an adult to have to punishment is rebellion! And so a cycle of hedonism followed by asceticism creates a polarized experience of good and bad behavior. Ambition is great, but don’t let it fool you into setting yourself up for failure. Start with one less happy hour night each week. Do this for one month. Your success will make your want more.

#2 Crowd Out

As described in greater detail in the book “Fit for the Corner Office”, before you take away the things you love like sugar, caffeine or alcohol, start by adding in the healthy things you want to integrate. Bring extra fresh cut vegetables to work for snacks. Follow it up with your favorite crisps and soda. Eventually the “healthy” stuff will be enough, and your desire for the “bad” stuff will naturally decline. It’s not a magic trick. It just works.

#3 Learn to Listen

Your body has wisdom, and your mind has cravings. When you notice feeling less than optimal, stop and listen. Observe what you ate that day or what you did the night before. When you notice feeling full of energy and sharp at work, stop and listen. Observe what you ate that day or what you did the night before. Take mental notes or write it down. As you integrate healthy habits, your body is your first teacher. Every human body is different, and only you know what’s best for you.

#4 Observe and Proceed

When you reach for the candy bar or soda, observe what you’re doing. When you have another beer, quietly say so in your mind. An important step to integrating a new habit is observing your current habits without changing them. In other words, observe and proceed.

Observation requires a small pause. Take a breath and then continue with whatever you’re doing. Stopping long enough to pause will begin create space between the craving and the impulse.

#5 Look Inside Out

When we create new habits only for ourselves, it is very easy to make allowances, skip workouts and fall short of our weekly goals. The great wisdom traditions such as Yoga and Buddhism have teachings about the importance of dedicating disciplined practices to someone else. Find someone or something in your life to dedicate your efforts to and keep it your secret. When you integrate healthy habits, it requires repetition before it is a new habit. Develop a motivation outside of yourself so that you can come back to it when you don’t feel like getting up early to exercise.

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