Physical therapy education promotes ‘couch potato’ workout

Pat Hageman, Ph.D., uses soda bottles to do the “soda stretch” side bend, but says cans or anything with solid weight will do. Photos by Walter Brooks.

Football season typically means hours on the couch watching games, but that doesn’t mean fans can’t get a little exercise at the same time.

UNMC’s School of Allied Health Professions Division of Physical Therapy Education and the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA), encourage football fans to put the APTA “Couch Potato” workout in play this season.

The workout, launched this month as part of National Physical Therapy Month, allows fans to institute a “Get Fit For Life” offense.

“We are really becoming a nation of couch potatoes,” said Pat Hageman, Ph.D., director and professor of UNMC’s Physical Therapy Education. “According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, physical inactivity is a major contributor to health problems for Americans. In fact, poor diet and physical inactivity now lead to 300,000 deaths each year – second only to tobacco-related deaths.”

From left: Michael Rennick, assistant professor, Jason Moore, physical therapy student, and Bob Fuchs, assistant professor, do “bad call” neck rotations between plays.

The majority of American adults — 55 percent — do not participate in a minimum of 30 minutes of moderate-intensity activity most days of the week, Dr. Hageman said. As a result, more Americans need more medication, are visiting the physician more often and are being hospitalized more often. Nearly 59 million adults are obese and the percentage of young people who are overweight has more than doubled in the last 20 years; leading to increased risk for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, arthritis-related disabilities and some cancers, she said.

Although the names of the six exercises in the “Couch Potato” Workout are tongue-in-cheek references to football, the specific exercises are all designed to work a large variety of muscles – without ever having to leave your television screen. The exercises include:

• “Couch Potato Kick-Off” Lateral Leg Lift
  
• “Hail Mary” Back and Arm Extensor
  
• “Touch Back” Wall Squats
  
• “Soda Stretch” Side Bend
  
• “Bad Call” Neck Rotation
  
• “Second Half” Bent-Knee Hamstring Stretch

Physical therapists across the nation are trying to break the image that being physically active means belonging to a gym or some other organized program. Any physical activity is good, be it walking the dog, parking further from the store, walking a golf course instead of using a cart, or taking the stairs instead of the elevator. The lack of inactivity in America has reached the point where physical therapists are just trying to get people focused on some kind of sustained movement for at least 30 minutes a day.

Jumping up to cheer a score is exercise, but you can do more.

“While physical therapists traditionally provide rehabilitation to individuals who have suffered from injuries, diseases, or other disorders, we work toward optimum health of all our clients,” Dr. Hageman said. This includes an emphasis on fitness and wellness to prevent or reduce risks associated with physical activity.

And don’t think that “couch potato” is in reference to men, Dr. Hageman said. Research shows that women are more likely than men to be sedentary, she said.

Dr. Hageman and her colleagues (Susan Noble Walker, Ed.D., Carol Pullen, Ed.D., and Linda Boeckner, Ph.D.) are studying the physical activity and fitness of rural women and have found that among rural Nebraska women aged 50-69 years, 57 percent do not meet the minimum activity recommendations and 70 percent have very low fitness.

“This inactivity puts these women at high risk for health problems,” Dr. Hageman said.
So, make your next television-watching experience a real workout, Dr. Hageman said, by doing the “couch potato” exercises.

“The key point of the couch potato tips are to encourage all individuals to get a total of at least 30 minutes a day of moderate intensity physical activity, whether it is in short bouts of 10-15 minutes at a time or longer bouts of 30 minutes or more,” she said.

To see printed demonstrations of all six “Couch Potato” exercises and for more information about wellness and improving your health, visit the APTA Web site at www.apta.org.