Martin Bjergegaard's Blog, page 24

Back Exercises for Lower Back Pain

You might be an athlete, a pole vault champion, a cement hauler or even a software programmer; if you’re putting stress on your back, you’ll feel the pinch: hard!

Since back and abdominal muscles are integral for supporting the spine against gravity, you need to perform stretching exercises to reduce lower back pain, since these work by creating and relieving stress on the back.

They do this by loosening the lower back muscles and increasing flexibility. There are different types of back stretching exercises. What type of stretching back exercises for lower back pain can you do to get yourself sorted?

Pelvic Tilt.

Begin by warming up with a short walk to get the muscles limber. Then head into the pelvic tilt. This is done by lying on the floor on your back, with your feet flat. Try to flatten the small of your back directly against the floor to create stress on the abdominal muscles. Hold the pose for five seconds and relax. Do these fifteen times every day.

The Cat.

The Cat is one of the basic but solid back exercises for lower back pain. Begin by posing as a cat stands: hands under shoulders and knees under hips. Drop your stomach towards the ground, holding your head high as you inhale. Then go the other way: tuck your tummy in by arching your back like a cat, with your head in as you exhale. Repeat this two-step process five to eight times.

The Cobra.

Lie down on the ground on your stomach, placing your arms half-length on your sides, with the palms placed on the ground directly under your shoulders. With your forehead on the ground, raise your upper body and arch the back by pressing your arms downwards. Hold the pose for five to seven seconds and relax.

These back exercises for lower back pain might be a stretch to begin with, but they get easier with time and help reduce the stress on your lower back. However, these exercises are not meant to cause pain, and if they do, you need to consult your doctor.

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Five Weight Loss Myths

Losing weight is something most of us have on our resolution list every year. However, we don’t usually follow through with it. After six weeks, even the firmest of resolutions can pall when no real progress is seen. Here are a few reasons you may be in this

predicament:
Avoid Eating:

Some dieters believe that all they have to do to lose weight is stop eating, or curtail it dramatically. This is a bad idea for a lot of reasons. Long term use of this method can lead to eating disorders. However, before it gets that far, you will have done some serious damage to your health.

A lack of sufficient calories causes your body to go into Famine Mode. In the first two weeks, you will see and be encouraged by steady weight loss. Unfortunately, the weight is not coming from fat. Your body is saving that for survival purposes and is burning muscle. After about two weeks, you may see weight gain, due to this fat storage.

Fast Weight Loss:

If you see a program suggesting that you can lose twenty pounds in just two weeks, run…do not walk, run away from it. It took time to put the weight on and it will take time to get rid of it. The best program will have you losing one to two pounds per week. Any more than that could be an indication that you are not eating enough.

No Pain, No Gain:

Exercise is important to any weight loss program, but it should not cause you intense pain. If you feel pain, talk to your doctor. You may have a medical condition, such as arthritis, that is causing it. After a diagnosis, you will be given a list of safe exercises to avoid further painful routines.

Push the Cardio:

Yes, cardio exercises are extremely important, but you will also need to target muscle groups, and avoid boredom. If you are healthy, aim for thirty minutes of cardio three times a week. Alternate that with weight lifting or other routines that target specific areas of your body. Over time, you can increase the cardio to an hour, but work at it slowly.

Supplements Alone:

I love this one. Weight loss is frustrating, and it would be wonderful to take a pill once or twice a day for several weeks and just watch the fat melt off without my doing anything different. Unfortunately, there are no such magic, quick fix pills.

Supplements can help under the right circumstances, but you shouldn’t depend on them to do all of the work. Diet and exercise are still needed.

You may wonder how I know about these myths. With the exception of supplements, I have made every single one of these mistakes. The only thing that spared me the supplement myth was the knowledge gained as a Master Herbalist. I’m not perfect yet, but I’m heading in the right direction…finally.

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3 Bulking Shakes to Help a Skinny Guy Gain Muscle

For a naturally skinny guy that wants to gain good muscle weight, it’s important to have a caloric surplus. This means that you need to eat more calories than what your body burns. Doing that, your body will have those extra calories to help repair and rebuild your muscles after a workout.

For a skinny guy with a high metabolism, that will probably mean consuming at least 3000 calories a day. Consuming some of those calories in liquid form such as in shakes is an easy way to get some of those extra calories. Liquid calories are also more easily digested by your body.

You can buy pre-made shake mixes, but they can be very expensive. You can make your own shake supplements right in the comfort of your home with a few basic ingredients like milk, whey powder, oatmeal, peanut butter and olive or canola oil, just to name a few.

Post Workout Shake

Directly after your workout is an important time to consume liquid calories. Your body is in a state where it will absorb those calories quickly in order to begin recovering from your workout. Having a shake like this after your workout will help you recover faster to start building muscle.

 

3 cups skim milk

1 scoop whey protein powder

1 cup oatmeal

1 banana

Put in some ice if you enjoy a frozen shake. This shake contains approximately 762 calories, 116 grams of carbs, 63 grams of protein and 8 grams of fat.

Bedtime Shake

While you are sleeping, your body releases anabolic hormones to repair and rebuild your muscles. When on a bulking diet it’s good to have a high protein shake before going to bed. That shake should also have some good fats in it as the fat will also help raise the levels of your anabolic hormones.

2 cups whole milk

1 scoop whey protein powder

1 tablespoon olive or canola oil

1 tablespoon ground flaxseed

I will usually mix this in a large cup just before going to bed. It has about 551 calories, 26 grams of carbs, 41 grams of protein and 33 grams of fat.

Anytime Shake

For the skinny guy looking to build muscle, throughout the day you need to have healthy, high calorie snacks. Often times when working you can take a thermos with you that has your favorite shake. That way you have those healthy, muscle building calories handy for whenever you need them. Blend this tasty shake in the morning and then take it with you for a snack throughout the day.

2 cups whole milk

1 scoop chocolate protein powder

2 tablespoons peanut butter

This is a tasty chocolate-peanut butter shake. It has approximately 582 calories, 31 grams of carbs, 48 grams of protein and 33 grams of fat.

Use shakes like these daily. It is an inexpensive way for us skinny guys to get the good calories we need to gain lean muscle mass.

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Tips for Staying Fit by Eating Healthy Food

Eating healthy food can go a long way in keeping you fit. It works in several different ways. The following are some tips on how to maintain your fitness level with food that is good for you.

Eating healthy food can help you stay fit by keeping your weight down

A lot of the weight people gain is from eating a lot of calories and fat. Healthy food tends to be lower in these, and this can help keep you fit. For instance, you can eat a banana, an apple, a serving of spinach and a serving of broccoli for less calories than many pieces of cake.

It is much more difficult to overeat (although not impossible) if you are eating healthy simply because you can eat so much more food. The so-called “junk foods” are generally high in calories and fat so eating just a few of them can quickly raise your caloric intake to the point that you start to gain excess weight, which will make you less fit. In addition, when you are eating unhealthy, you do not gain good weight like muscle. Instead you gain fat.

Having an excess amount of fat raises your risk of many dangerous conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol, and also places you more at risk for deadly complications such as heart attack, stroke and cancer as you get older. Eating healthy can help keep you in a weight range that is good for you and this can help keep you fit as you age.

Eating healthy keeps you fit by giving you the proper nutrition, vitamins and minerals to lower your chances of a wide spectrum of diseases

Eating healthy fruits, vegetables, whole grains and other healthy foods can help lower your chances of the aforementioned diseases, regardless of weight.

Many of the ingredients are known to fight cancer and keep your heart healthy and strong. Study after study have proven that various healthy foods fight against all sorts of cancers, heart disease and other conditions.

Eating healthy does not have to mean you don’t enjoy your food.

There are many foods that are both delicious and healthy. Savory fruits such as berries and melons can be very delicious, and you can roast some vegetables for a fun addition to any meal.

If you are creative, you can make many dishes that incorporate these delicious and enjoyable foods. Everything should be eaten in moderation, and eat sweets sparingly.

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Do You Have Work-Life Balance? [Quiz]

Sacrifice. This word gets tossed around a lot when discussing success. No matter how you define the word, it has sadly become accepted that a person will most likely have to sacrifice his or her own personal life in order to achieve success. Family, free-time, health; to thrive at the daily grind, you have to minimise the time you focus on yourself.

At least this is how it used to be. Now, many companies are adopting a healthier approach that places heavy emphasis on the concept of Work-Life Balance. Successful entrepreneurs have started companies whose work cultures are centered around providing its employees the right to achieve professional success – without personal sacrifice.

To help you determine whether or not you are experiencing work-life balance, Martin Bjergegaard and Jordan Milne, co-authors of Winning Without Losing, made a simple quiz that will show how you rank on the balance scale. Click the link below to find out if you truly are a master of the elusive work-life balance.

Take the quiz now>

 

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Entrepreneurs: Don’t Forget the Big Picture

In a start-up culture, it is easy to get lost in your own world. This world includes our own language, colleague chemistry, and work ethic—and it is fine to have these unique traits internally. But we need to remember that many of our customers and peers don’t speak the language of a start-up, which isolates you from them in the long run. It is important to always take the time to step out of that world, making sure not to forget the big picture. This will allow you to connect and interact with the real world that you live and work in.

There are many ways to gain a broader perspective. Below are some suggestions from successful entrepreneurs who have found the secret to not becoming lost in their own world.

1. Use your Periscope

Tunnel vision is common in start-ups. Jordan Milne compares the entrepreneurial culture to being that of a submarine—while you’re in the working zone, you are all underwater, immersed in the job and focusing on moving forward. But like a submarine, it’s important to use your periscope. At times you may need to adjust your course. Taking a break to see where you actually are in the bigger scheme of things can help you do just that.

Jordan notes that entrepreneurs often find solutions, or scrap unfruitful tasks, right after coming back from a vacation. The change of perspective has allowed the person to realise how valuable (or invaluable) certain projects really are in the big picture. He encourages us to make sure this fresh perspective occurs everyday, and not just after our winter break. We can do this by simply changing our work setting a few times a day.

Lesson: Change your scenery to get a different perspective.

To hear more from Jordan, like him on Facebook.

2. Experience Art

Matias Dalsgaard, founder of the successful start-up GoMore.dk, has something most entrepreneurs don’t: A PhD in Philosophy. He believes that a reason why entrepreneurs become too narrow focused, is because their work becomes their main form of stimulation. During this process, we shrink the horizon of our imaginations—curbing our creative abilities, and our connection to humanity.

To extend our horizons once more, we need to fill our minds with culture. Experience art in different forms—watch movies, read philosophy, listen to music etc. Stimulate your mind so that it has more touch points than just your work. This will allow you to see the bigger picture that your work plays a role in.

Lesson: Broaden your imagination by enjoying art.

For more updates and insights, follow Matias on Facebook and Twitter.

3. Truly Listen

In a world filled with the voices of entrepreneurs trying to stand out, we tend to overlook an important trait: Listening. Serial entrepreneur, Martin Bjergegaard, spent time interviewing successful entrepreneurs from around the world, looking to find the keys to success while having work-life balance. One important lesson that he learned was the art of active listening.

Whether it is listening to your customers, family, or co-workers—when you actively listen, people are more likely to share their honest opinions. By filling the listening role in a conversation, you begin to see other perspectives more clearly. This in turn will make your own perspective much broader and help you see the big picture more clearly.

Lesson: Truly listen to other peoples’ perspectives, and you will broaden your own.

If you want to learn more about becoming a successful entrepreneur, follow Martin on Facebook and Twitter

 

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6 Tips For Succeeding as an Entrepreneur [Video]

“If you want to be successful, you need to make sacrifices.”

This ideology never sat well with serial-entrepreneur, Martin Bjergegaard. In fact, it bugged him so much that he wanted to prove it wrong—which is exactly what he did. Now, major companies, such as Google, are asking Martin to share his knowledge with their employees so that they can become successful entrepreneurs—without sacrificing their own humanity.

It can be difficult to navigate the intensity of start-up life. Martin knew this, and decided to ask others for help in the matter. Through a globe trotting adventure, Martin—together with similar minded Canadian entrepreneur, Jordan Milne, tracked down 25 entrepreneurs that had achieved exactly what Martin wanted: successful careers, without personal sacrifice.

Compiling all of what they had learned, Martin and Jordan formulated their best selling book Winning Without Losing—which outlines 66 strategies on how to approach starting a successful business, while keeping your humanity in tact.

Check out the video below where Martin offers Google employees six tips towards becoming a balanced and successful entrepreneur.

(The speech is in Danish, but is subtitled in English for our international audience)

 

For those taking notes at home, below are the 6 tips for succeeding as an entrepreneur that Martin shared with Google:

1. Find Your Co-Founders

It’s incredibly difficult to start a successful business on your own—so get help. It’s crucial to find the right person to go on such an adventure with you, but make sure to find someone who compliments you both in competencies and personality. Martin calls his search for co-founders “Finding Future Friends”. One of the first things Martin asks himself whenever he considers working with someone is “Would I want to take a cross-Atlantic flight with this person?” If the answer is no, then you shouldn’t start a business with them.

2. The “Today List”

A “to-do” list in a start-up setting is, by definition, always growing. Therefore, it becomes more of a distraction than an efficiency tool. Instead, make a short Today List that includes three prioritised tasks. All of these tasks should strictly be oriented at driving your company’s mission forward. Get them done, and take the next day as it comes

3. Reinvent the Meeting

Particularly if your company has a hierarchical structure, the conference room can immediately become a trigger of fear and nerves, thereby stifling creativity and productivity. Martin encourages everyone to change the meeting setting—especially if the topics are more complex. Being outdoors, or on the move, allows individuals to connect as people and move beyond office ranks and roles.

If you want to learn more about becoming a successful entrepreneur, without personal sacrifice, follow Martin on Facebook and Twitter

4. Tell Everybody About Your Idea

There is a tendency to believe that if we think we have a million dollar idea, we shouldn’t talk openly because someone will try to steal it. However, as Martin says, not talking about the idea can only halter its development. If you open up to others, you may find valuable feedback that can enhance your plans. You may perhaps even find potential co-founders, investors, and customers.

5. Follow Your Energy

There are times when we just feel like we are on fire. We crush through our emails and tasks with a feeling of invincibility in the workplace. These work periods all occur when we are aligned with our Flow. The key to productivity is being in tune with our individual flow. If you are just staring at your flagged emails, and feel that you can’t formulate any words—let alone the right ones—then don’t do it right now. Ask yourself what you would be best at doing at that specific time—then do that instead. It doesn’t even have to be work related. Do the tasks that you know you can complete with quality given your flow at that time. Then return to the other tasks when the time is right for you

6. Make Sure to Get Many Attempts

As the famous quote by Thomas Edison goes, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” The same concept applies for entrepreneurship. There are so many variables occurring when creating a start-up that, sometimes, it just boils down to luck. The important thing is to not give up. Learn something from each experience, and move along. Failure can be intimidating, but it should never be a deterrent.

Martin’s book Winning Without Losing highlights 60 additional strategies to achieve entrepreneurial success. If you would like to read some more insights from Martin, check out his free chapter samples in the Winning Without Losing Blog Series.

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From Big Business to Bankruptcy: Overcoming Failure in Start-ups

“Winners are not afraid of losing. But losers are. Failure is part of the process of success. People who avoid failure also avoid success.”

- Robert T. Kiyosaki

It’s not an easy task to establish a successful start-up. Competition is fierce, and even those companies that have a solid plan and great idea, are never guaranteed survival. In fact, last year Business Insider ran an article that calculated that the start-up success rate (a “success” being defined as selling for at least $40 million) is 0.4%!

Those odds are terrifying. Although the figure can be debated, the other estimated success rates aren’t exactly favourable either. Failure in start-ups is a viable outcome—and the inability to deal with failure can lead to the demise of an entrepreneur.

Martin Bjergegaard, serial entrepreneur and author of Winning Without Losing, understands how to react when facing failure. As a guest speaker at Iværk og Vækst’s “From Big Business to Bankruptcy” seminar, Martin explained the dangers of being afraid of failure. Of course, we would all prefer to succeed—but the key to making it through failure is to remember that your company does not define you. See what else Martin has to say in the short video below.

“[Entrepreneurship] is a learning experience. You need to remember to have fun while you do it, and no matter what happens—you’re still just a human being.”

-Martin Bjergegaard

 

There are entrepreneurs out there who become completely unrecognisable if their company goes down. They dwell on the mistakes, and concoct endless “What if” scenarios that end up taking a toll on their personal lives. Martin makes it clear that it isn’t failure that isolates you from others—it’s how you react to it.

Martin is known for his balanced attitude and approach to business. Having started multiple successful start-ups, as well as some failures, his goal has always been to have work-life balance at the core of his companies. Of course no one is completely unfazed by failure, Martin included, but as a man who practices what he preaches, Martin shows us that there is more to life than work. Focusing simply on business and financial success will not make you happy as person.

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Why Sleeping is Your Best Business Decision

Sometimes around exam period in university, it seemed like we were all engaged in a who-got-the-least-amount-of-sleep war. You slept only five hours? That’s nothing, I slept for four. That’s your second cup of coffee? Well this is my fourth cup! You get the idea.

Many people pride themselves on being able to function on just a few hours of sleep – I myself have been there with the braggarts. Although now that I am out of university, living a life filled with a measly three hours of sleep and continuous trips to the coffee machine doesn’t sound so glamorous. Life’s daily trials and tribulations are so much easier to deal with when you’ve had a good night’s sleep.

Did you know that after staying awake for over 18 hours, your brain functions as if you’ve had a few too many drinks? Perhaps you won’t be dancing on tables, but your body’s reaction time will be slower and your thought processes won’t be as sharp as they could be. This doesn’t bode well for completing our daily tasks, and certainly not for conducting business. You wouldn’t take a few shots before walking into a business meeting, so why would have an important meeting after a sleepless night?

Sleep deprivation is considered a form of torture under international law, according to the International Society for Human Rights (ISHR). Sleep deprivation causes the deactivation of part of the brain and affects the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that is responsible for higher level thought. When someone is deprived of sleep for an extended period of time, it can lead to the breakdown of the nervous system and cause both physical and psychological damage. Long term periods of moderate sleep deprivation can lead to a myriad of ailments.

 Signs of Sleep Deprivation

You don’t have to be on the verge of collapsing to experience symptoms of sleep deprivation. Here are signs that you might not be getting enough sleep:

you need an alarm to wake up in the morning
you feel slow or frustrated when dealing with creative tasks that involve critical thinking and problem solving
you are acting more impulsively
you are forgetful
you are more hungry than usual

The phrase “I can sleep when I’m dead” often gets thrown around to support the idea that now is the time to be pushing yourself harder. Sleep just postpones the future and all of its potential productivity. In the United States, and increasingly in vacation-friendly Europe, there is a growing culture that celebrates the loss of sleep as a virtue. Around 51% of small business employees have reported working in their sleep.

As entrepreneurs, there is always a bit of pressure looming in the shadows to become the next “insert big name company”. Unlike a typical 9-5 job, it is harder to clock out of your role as an entrepreneur, and it is easy to give into the pressure that you should and could be doing more.

Unfortunately, the main product of our sleep-deprived culture is underwhelming solutions to problems, poor decisions, and failed ventures. As we move towards more technology driven industries that require sharper innovation and stronger attention to details, it might be time to re-examine the values of prolonged thought and careful reconsideration.

The good news is that, unlike that bad deal you just closed, sleep deprivation is reversible. You don’t need to clock 10 hours a night, either – studies have shown that people who get between 6.5 and 7.5 hours of sleep per night live the longest. If you find yourself suffering from sleep deprivation, getting some sleep could be the best business decision you could make. Your talent will still be there when you wake up.

This tip comes from the CMI-award winning management book, Winning Without Losing by Martin Bjergegaard and Jordan Milne. If the thoughts presented here resonated with you today, have a peek at the 66 strategies gathered from successful and balanced entrepreneurs from around the world, and find out how you can achieve your own perfect work-life balance.

Winning Without Losing

by Martin Bjergegaard & Jordan Milne

Buy now in print and digital!

More about the book >

$US 9.30 / £5.50

 

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How to Choose Your Co-Founders: Find Your Future Friends

Like most men out there, I’ve always imagined pulling off an amazing heist. The concept of picking a target and doing all the extravagant planning (where money obviously isn’t an issue since the pay off will be bigger). Then comes the fun part: Getting the team together.

That’s when the Ocean’s 11 montage starts. You know what positions you need filled to pull this off. You need the best, but more importantly, you need people that you trust (since we all know that a wildcard can destroy everything). Overall, you need people you can call your friends.

Now I’m not trying to convince people to do anything criminal here, but I am trying to show just how important and fun it can be to assemble the right team.

When starting a new business, one determinant for success is surrounding yourself with the right people. This can put a lot of stress on the concept of finding the right co-founder for you to work with. There has always been a stigma that we should never mix business and friendships. An overly personal relationship with your colleagues can cause complications in the future—and this is true to an extent. However, since you will be spending the majority of your time working together, it makes sense to collaborate with a co-founder whom you enjoy working with as it will keep the company’s vision alive.

Work-life balance enthusiast Martin Bjergegaard has been dubbed a “Serial Entrepreneur”. Throughout his career, he has been involved with dozens of startups through his Start-up accelerators “Rainmaking” and “Start-up Boot camp”. A key to Martin’s business successes is that he focuses on fostering the greatest team that he can. One of his methods is to recruit people that he classifies as “Future Friends”. These are people whom you may not know closely before you start your business together, yet you have enough common ground that a friendship is sure to follow.

To help you choose your co-founders, here are 3 character traits Martin looks for in his Future Friends:

1. Communicative

Communication is crucial to any personal relationship. Without it, things that go unsaid can fester and grow until the final straw snaps. Therefore, keeping a continuous open dialogue is said to be a key to long lasting relationships.

The same communication is needed between co-founders. As business decisions and strategies are discussed, it’s important that everyone is open with their thoughts and that they are heard. This will preserve a happy work environment and a strong partnership.

2. Similar Passions

We’ve all had those conversations that can go on with ease for hours on end. Whether it’s with people in your football fantasy league, book club, etc., having a common interest that keeps updating and growing keeps communication and motivation high. This translates directly to any company where the partners are passionate about their mission. Having a similar passion helps align a team’s focus, and it also brings them closer together. Martin has admitted that passion has helped his relationships transition from Future Friends, to lifelong friendships.

“We email, text, and call each other like teenage girls. But instead of discussing Justin Bieber’s latest haircut, we passionately discuss the challenges and opportunities in our businesses as well as stories from our daily endeavours.”

3. Trust

Out of all the characteristics of a co-founder, trust is the most important. This seems rather daunting in the sense that it can be hard to trust someone from the start. The key is to judge your potential co-founder’s passion and abilities. Make sure that they have a record of following through on their tasks, and that their passion for the task at hand is strong enough to move a project forward.

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Assembling a dream team can seem quite intimidating. A strong team can skyrocket a startup to success—while a team with too much friction can cause a company to crash and burn. What we need to realise is that we will be spending most of our working hours interacting with these people, so pick someone who you feel that, in any other situation, you would be proud to call your friend.

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