Friday, August 28, 2026
Washington Post Ordered to Rehire Fired Columnist Karen Attiah - The New York Times
Washington Post Ordered to Rehire Fired Columnist
(I unsubscribed from my years long subscription to the Washington Post due to it's ongoing racist decisions and policies)
"An arbitrator ordered the newspaper to reinstate Karen Attiah, who was fired after posting about “white men who espouse hatred and violence” following Charlie Kirk’s killing.
A private arbitrator has ordered The Washington Post to rehire the opinion columnist Karen Attiah, who was fired in September over her social media posts about the assassination of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk. It also ordered the company to compensate her with back pay.
Sarah Miller Espinosa, the arbitrator, said in a written decision Thursday that The Post “did not have good and sufficient cause” to terminate Ms. Attiah and “violated” its labor agreement, according to a copy of the decision shared with The New York Times by Ms. Attiah’s lawyers.
“The Washington Post failed to establish the grievant engaged in gross misconduct,” Ms. Espinosa wrote.
In a statement, Ms. Attiah said that she hoped the decision “sends a message to journalists and media institutions everywhere that freedom of expression is always worth fighting for.” She said that she was “willing to go back” to her work at The Post, which she called “one of the world’s most storied newspapers.”
“This decision confirms what we’ve said from the start: I was doing my job as an opinion writer, and this was wrongful termination,” she said, adding that she was “relieved to finally have that record set straight.”
A spokeswoman for The Post said that the company respects the arbitration process and declined to comment further.
The decision is the result of a yearlong fight between The Post and Ms. Attiah, who last year accused the company of violating its labor agreement and social media policy when it fired her for posts she said were within her purview as an opinion columnist. A clause in the agreement allows employees to submit disputes for arbitration.
Arbitration is generally considered binding in most disputes, though courts have occasionally overturned decisions after courtroom findings of fraud or other improprieties. The Post’s labor agreement says that arbitration is binding, though both the company and the employee retain their legal rights.
The Washington Post said in its termination letter that Ms. Attiah’s posts about Mr. Kirk had harmed “the integrity” of the organization and violated standards requiring employees to use social media with civility and respect.
Ms. Attiah’s remarks about Mr. Kirk’s assassination, which she posted to the social network Bluesky on Sept. 10, the day he was shot, responded to the outpouring of grief after the shooting. “Refusing to tear my clothes and smear ashes on my face in performative mourning for a white man that espoused violence is … not the same as violence,” Ms. Attiah wrote in one of the posts.
The Post’s opinion section has been in flux since early last year, when Jeff Bezos, the newspaper’s owner, moved to reorient the section to focus on “personal liberties and free markets.” Some readers canceled their subscriptions and accused Mr. Bezos of attempting to curry favor with the Trump administration.
Lawyers for The Washington Post and Ms. Attiah made their arguments before Ms. Espinosa in June during a hearing that included testimony from Ms. Attiah; Adam O’Neal, then the opinion editor at The Washington Post; and Wayne Connell, the company’s chief human resources officer. Ms. Attiah was represented by the Washington-Baltimore News Guild and Democracy Defenders Fund, a nonprofit co-founded by the lawyer Norman Eisen.
In his testimony, Mr. O’Neal said that he saw Ms. Attiah’s posts the morning after Mr. Kirk died and sent them to Mr. Connell, according to a transcript of the hearing obtained by The New York Times. “Karen’s social media feed yesterday and today is beyond the pale, completely unacceptable for someone associated with Opinions,” Mr. O'Neal wrote, according to the transcript.
Soon after, Mr. O’Neal and Mr. Connell met with Will Lewis, then the chief executive of The Washington Post, to discuss the posts, according to the transcript. They ultimately decided to fire Ms. Attiah.
During her testimony, Ms. Attiah defended her social media posts, saying that they were part of her work for The Post, “commenting on our discourse on political violence,” Ms. Attiah said, according to the transcript.
In a statement, Mr. Eisen called the decision “a landmark victory for one of our nation’s crusading journalists.”
Corrected on
Aug. 24, 2026
An earlier version of this article misidentified the name of a group that is defending Karen Attiah. It is Democracy Defenders Fund, not Democracy Defenders Action.
RFK Jr. accusing Shapiro of lying about measles deaths is truly galling
RFK Jr. accusing Shapiro of lying about measles deaths is truly galling
“Robert F. Kennedy Jr. accused Josh Shapiro of fabricating two measles-associated deaths in Pennsylvania, despite Kennedy’s history of vaccine misinformation. Shapiro urged vaccination cooperation; health officials verified the cases.
It’s quite the charge coming from someone who made a career of promoting skepticism of scientific data and spreading misinformation.
There’s a terrible irony baked into Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s latest feud. For the last several days, he’s been engaged in an angry back and forth with Gov. Josh Shapiro over the Pennsylvania Democrat’s announcement Tuesday of two measles-associated deaths in his state. According to the state’s Department of Health, neither of the two individuals were vaccinated against the disease.
After all, here we have a man who has made a literal career out of promoting skepticism toward scientific evidence and spreading misinformation.
Kennedy has taken offense at Shapiro’s “unseemly rush” to hold a press conference in Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County, as he put it in a post on X. The secretary even said that “the deaths may even have been altogether fabricated by one of the Governor’s hopeful staffers.” Such a major accusation would be eyebrow-raising from anyone but is particularly galling coming from Kennedy. After all, here we have a man who has made a literal career out of promoting skepticism toward scientific evidence and spreading misinformation. But his attacks on Shapiro can’t deflect from the role he’s played in encouraging Americans to reject vaccination.
“The performance was a replay of the Democrats’ COVID playbook: fearmongering, misinformation, finger-pointing, and the weaponization of infectious disease fears for political gain,” Kennedy wrote in his X post. He also accused Shapiro of refusing to share information about the deaths with the Centers for Disease Control or the County Health Department. Shapiro pushed back in his own post to “set the record straight,” writing that in a phone call ahead of Tuesday’s press conference, he told Kennedy that “what would be most helpful is if he would join me in encouraging people to get vaccinated and stop spreading misinformation.”
Two factors are driving this online tit-for-tat. First is the term “measles-associated deaths.” Kennedy and Lancaster County Commissioner Josh Parsons, a Republican, have suggested the phrasing means Shapiro is overhyping these two deaths. The Pennsylvania Health Department, along with Shapiro’s office, told Politico in an emailed statement that it “uses the term ‘measles-associated’ when laboratory or epidemiologic evidence of measles is present, but the disease may not be assessed by the medical certifier or coroner to be the immediate cause of death.”
The other is a claim from Parsons that the county coroner’s office “currently has ZERO reported cases where measles is the immediate cause of death,” and only one death of a person who had measles. It feels silly to have to say, but regardless of whether it was the direct cause of death or not, the mere presence of measles in the community is a major problem. That’s especially true when vaccination rates have been falling across the U.S. And the Pennsylvania Health Department did confirm to Politico that “one of the two deaths is the one Parsons referred to: an infant with a positive measles test.”
It is also difficult to take Kennedy’s supposed umbrage seriously after watching footage of his 2021 visit to Lancaster County.
“What is the cure for measles? Cure for measles is chicken soup and vitamin A, and neither of those things can be patented,” he told the crowd at an Amish country fair. (Unsurprisingly, his claims about the miraculous powers of vitamin A have not stood up to scientific scrutiny.) Kennedy went on to praise the attendees for rejecting vaccination and warned: “To all of you people who are Amish in here today, they are coming for you because they cannot stand the fact that you are healthy.”
Amazingly, Kennedy even wants credit for the current measles outbreak not being worse. During a press conference Wednesday, he said that the U.S. is “doing a better job than any country in the world in controlling the measles outbreak.” Left unsaid in that claim is that America’s low case rate is both almost entirely due to our extremely high vaccination rate. In contrast, countries with the highest ongoing measles outbreaks are those where it is exceedingly difficult to vaccinate vulnerable populations. The CDC’s websiteeven says that new outbreaks in the U.S. are largely due to “unvaccinated international travelers.”
Amazingly, Kennedy even wants credit for the current measles outbreak not being worse.
Despite Kennedy’s accusation of “fabrication,” Pennsylvania Health Secretary Debra Bogen posted on X Wednesday that her department’s “Epidemiology team thoroughly investigated and verified both individuals tested positive for measles.” Kennedy’s effort to undercut those findings is only prompting further mistrust toward public health officials. It’s maddening then to hear him claim the opposite, that his work is meant to restore the public’s trust that he and his allies worked so hard to erode.
The reality is that Kennedy’s attacks on vaccine safety and efforts to pare back vaccine requirements are actively harmful. Measles cases have surged in the U.S. to their highest in 30 years. The proper response to the deaths in Pennsylvania would be to offer increased monitoring assistance and stress the importance of vaccination to prevent further spread. Kennedy’s PR offensive against Shapiro shows how misguided his priorities remain.“
Wednesday, August 26, 2026
Tuesday, August 25, 2026
Study’s Alarming Finding: At Least 1 in 4 N.F.L. Players Gets Brain Disease
Study’s Alarming Finding: At Least 1 in 4 N.F.L. Players Gets Brain Disease
“At least one in four N.F.L. players who died from 2016 to 2021 had C.T.E., with researchers estimating the actual rate may be higher. Cumulative head impacts are the main predictor; prevention is possible.
The actual prevalence, researchers said, may be much higher.
By John Branch
John Branch has reported on C.T.E. in sports for more than 15 years.
Since the degenerative brain disease known as C.T.E. was first scientifically linked to football about 20 years ago, and as hundreds of former professional football players have been diagnosed with the disease after their deaths, a haunting question has lingered:
Just how many N.F.L. players will end up with C.T.E.?
New data provides a sobering indication: At least one in four of all the people who have played in the N.F.L. might expect to end up with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, according to a study of hundreds of cases over a recent six-year period.
Researchers considered every former N.F.L. player who died from 2016 to 2021. There were 878. Some died in their 20s, some in their 80s, most in between.
The study’s main finding was simple math: At least 215 of those 878 former players — 24.5 percent — had C.T.E.
The actual prevalence could be far higher. The roughly 25 percent rate does not consider the 643 brains that were not examined. Some of those, maybe many of them, likely had C.T.E. too.
C.T.E. is a progressive neurological disease caused by repeated impacts to the head. It can be definitively diagnosed only by examining the brain after death.
Studies have shown that the rate of C.T.E. in people who have not sustained repeated impacts to the head is nearly zero.
If the new study’s statistics were applied to today’s players — 1,696 on the league’s 32 regular-season rosters, not including more than 500 members of practice squads and those ineligible due to injury — at least 400 of them would be diagnosed with C.T.E.
Experts say that the rate of brain disease represents an occupational safety hazard with little comparison in the American workplace.
“There are workers who’ve been exposed to high levels of asbestos exposure, which leads to very high rates of lung disease,” said David Michaels, who led the Occupational Safety and Health Administration during the Obama administration and is now a professor at the George Washington School of Public Health. “And certainly, you know, a lifetime working in coal mines leads to very high risk of black lung disease.
“But a degenerative neurological disease — I’ve never seen anything comparable.”
C.T.E. was first discovered in boxers nearly a century ago and termed “dementia pugilistica.” Symptoms can include memory loss, confusion and uncharacteristic mood swings, decreases in executive function and increases in erratic and impulsive behavior, including addiction.
These days, C.T.E. is most commonly associated with football players, but it has been found in the brains of other athletes who sustained repetitive blows to the head, including hockey, rugby and soccer players, as well as wrestlers and bobsledders. Those in the military who work with artillery also seem susceptible to the disease.
For years, the N.F.L. downplayed the risks of repeated head trauma, often insisting that not enough is known about C.T.E. to draw conclusions about its dangers, origins and prevalence. Uncertainty has left room for inaction; scientists have yet to decipher, among many things, why some people can play football for decades and not get C.T.E., while others have had severe cases in their teens.
But the prevalence rate now reported by researchers might be hard to ignore. It is the latest research from neuropathologists and other scientists mostly affiliated with Mass General Brigham, Boston University and the UNITE Brain Bank, which have led C.T.E. research and handled most donated brains of former athletes over the past two decades.
Researchers involved in this study, published on Tuesday in The BMJ, hope to produce a subsequent paper in the coming months estimating the overall rate of C.T.E. in all N.F.L. players at the time of their death.
Making such an estimation is complicated by unknowns. What is certain, researchers said, is that C.T.E. is preventable.
“We know what’s causing it,” said Dr. Daniel Daneshvar, the lead author of the study, the chief of brain injury rehabilitation at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital and an associate professor at Harvard Medical School. “It’s a neurodegenerative disease where we know and have complete control over the risk. And understanding the extent of that risk is one of the steps into making sure that we can mitigate and decrease that risk.”
Dr. Daneshvar said that the biggest predictor of C.T.E. is the cumulative force of hits to a head over a lifetime — including those sustained before reaching the N.F.L.
“We can change that cumulative force without changing the game of football,” he said, suggesting that children refrain from playing tackle football and that teams at all levels eliminate hits during practices.
The 25 percent rate cited in the latest research may surprise fans or others who view the game from a distance, but not those close to football.
“I bet the real number is a lot bigger,” said Randy Grimes, 66, who played center for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 1983 to 1992. “Obviously, it’s going to be a lot bigger if you add the untested ones.”
At least two of his former offensive linemates, both guards, were diagnosed with C.T.E.: Tom McHale, who died at 45; and John Bruhin, who died at 57. Another teammate, linebacker Keith McCants, had C.T.E. and died at 53.
If the new data were applied to the rest of his teammates over his career, Mr. Grimes is likely to have played with dozens of C.T.E. victims, who either died without being tested or who are aging quietly in the shadows.
Mr. Grimes said that he has yet to feel the symptoms that would make him worry about his own cognitive health. But he runs a nonprofit organization that counsels retired athletes, including football players, and sees symptoms that he suspects are associated with C.T.E.
“It’s not something that’s brought up, it’s not something that players want to talk about,” Mr. Grimes said. “We probably could move forward faster in our research if we did talk more about it. But players don’t want to do it. They don’t want to think they have it, they don’t want to think they’re seeing it. Deep down, we all know that probably the majority of us are going to have some form of C.T.E.”
While hundreds of former N.F.L. players have been diagnosed with C.T.E., typically after loved ones donate the brains because of worrisome symptoms, most C.T.E. cases are not publicly disclosed.
Only a few cases reach public consciousness, usually when attached to a famous name, like Junior Seau, Ken Stabler and Frank Gifford, all inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Others become notorious because of criminal behavior that might later be explained, in part, by C.T.E., like Aaron Hernandez and Phillip Adams, who committed murder and were diagnosed with C.T.E. after their own deaths. In July 2025, Shane Tamura, who played football but did not reach the N.F.L., killed four people in a New York City building that houses the league’s headquarters. After Mr. Tamura’s death, an autopsy confirmed that he had C.T.E.
C.T.E. cannot be diagnosed in the living, though some ex-football players, like Hall of Fame running back Tony Dorsett, presume they have it. Some players, like Chris Borland and John Urschel, walked away from their professional careers early as a preventive measure to protect their brains.
The growing roster of C.T.E. cases has done little to diminish football’s popularity. The N.F.L. reportedly earned more than $23 billion in revenue in 2024.
“The N.F.L. continuously strives to make the game of football safer, including by implementing strategies to reduce concussions and head impacts,” the league said in a statement. “The N.F.L. remains committed to ensuring that the N.F.L. community has access to a robust — and expanding — set of resources to enhance their physical and mental well being.”
The N.F.L. Players Association, the union representing players, said that the new study “is a sobering reminder that football carries real risks, and those risks can have lasting consequences for players and their families.”
It added: “The findings should serve as a call to action across the entire football ecosystem.”
Scientists hope to soon be able to clinically diagnose C.T.E. in the living with a large degree of certainty, the way that other neurodegenerative diseases, like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, often are.
For now, most brains of former N.F.L. players are never examined, so an unknown number of possible C.T.E. cases go undiagnosed. As awareness of the disease grows, family members are increasingly donating the brains of recently deceased former players who displayed C.T.E.’s stew of symptoms. The brains that are donated are not a random sample. Telltale signs of the disease were often evident.
In 2017, 110 of the first 111 brains of former N.F.L. players that had been donated to that point were diagnosed with C.T.E.
What is different for the latest study is that it applied C.T.E. cases to the broader context of a general N.F.L. population in the same time period — not just those whose brains were donated.
Researchers tallied all of the former N.F.L. players known to have died between 2008 and 2021 (2,079 of them) and found that 16.6 percent — one in six — had been diagnosed with C.T.E.
They narrowed the data to the most recent six-year period because, they said, it coincided with a surge of brain donations after several well-publicized cases of C.T.E. and the 2015 film “Concussion.” (In 2014, 17 brains were donated to what is now called the UNITE Brain Bank. In 2018, 53 were.)
In that subset, 235 brains had been donated for examination. Most of them, 215, were found to have at least some level of C.T.E.
That means, “under the most conservative of assumptions,” researchers wrote, 24.5 percent of the players who died had C.T.E. The total does not include several other brains examined by scientists not affiliated with the researchers, and thus unverifiable, or those widely presumed to have had C.T.E. due to the severity of symptoms but who were not tested at death.
The identity of most C.T.E. diagnoses is not made public, but loose extrapolation can be revealing. How many C.T.E. victims in N.F.L. history played for, say, the New York Giants? (Thousands, perhaps.) Or for coaches like Bill Belichick or Pete Carroll? (Hundreds, probably.) How many were teammates of Tom Brady? (Scores, at least.)
The growing sample size of C.T.E. cases makes for stark realizations. For example, eight members of the 1972 Miami Dolphins, the only undefeated team in modern N.F.L. history, have been diagnosed with C.T.E.
The latest, previously unreported, was Mercury Morris, the speedy halfback who played eight seasons in the N.F.L., struggled with headaches and drug addiction in retirement, and died in 2024 at age 77.
Not all C.T.E. cases belong to long-retired players in their geriatric years. The 2001 New England Patriots, who won the Super Bowl, had seven former players die between the ages of 35 and 50, according to The Boston Globe. At least three were diagnosed with C.T.E., researchers said.
The latest research, however, suggests that at least 10 others from that team might have C.T.E., if the one-in-four ratio applies.
The 2009 Chargers, a team that went 13-3 in the regular season, already have three deceased players who were found to have C.T.E. and whose names were made public.
One was Vincent Jackson, a three-time Pro Bowl receiver who died in a hotel room of alcohol poisoning at 38. Another was Kevin Ellison, a defensive back who died at 31 when he was struck by a car after wandering onto a California freeway.
The other was defensive back Paul Oliver, who was 29 in 2013 when he shot himself on the stairs of his family home in front of his wife, Chelsea, and their two young sons.
Ms. Oliver said that she occasionally hears from her husband’s former teammates or their family members, worried that they, too, are feeling the effects of C.T.E. She suspects that the 25 percent figure is far lower than the reality.
“I feel like if we were able to test everybody for C.T.E. while they’re still alive, the majority would have C.T.E.,” she said.
Her husband played four years in the N.F.L. and sustained a series of concussions, she said, and then became someone “who just wasn’t him.” He lived with headaches, became delusional and paranoid, and began drinking heavily, she said. The couple discussed the prospect of C.T.E. shortly after Mr. Seau, the longtime Chargers star who finished his career with New England, shot himself in the chest to preserve his brain for testing.
Learning that, statistically, her husband might have had a dozen or more teammates with C.T.E., that he was not alone with his disease, does not bring any measure of solace, Ms. Oliver said. “It just makes me sad.”
She does not expect fans to understand. She reads comments on stories about former football players behaving badly or dying by suicide. “You’ll see multiple people, like, ‘Bet they’re going to blame C.T.E.’ I just shake my head. These people have no clue. They just don’t, because they haven’t lived it firsthand. So I can’t fault them.”
“To them,” she added, “concussions, C.T.E., that’s a not-them problem.”
If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources.
John Branch writes feature stories for The Times on a wide swath of topics, including sports, climate and politics. He is based in California.“
Monday, August 24, 2026
6 Exercises Physical Therapists Wish Everyone Did to Age Well
6 Exercises Physical Therapists Wish Everyone Did to Age Well
“Try these simple movements to stay strong and limber.
Sign up for the Well newsletter. Essential news and guidance to live your healthiest life.
In many cases, aches and pains can be a reflection of your daily routines.
Habits like sitting at a desk all day, looking down at your phone or even straining to pick your socks up off the floor can lead to a body that feels creaky, tight and sore. Making time to practice good movement habits can keep you feeling limber and strong.
Physical therapists know this all too well.
“People come in with the same problems over and over again,” said Theresa Marko, a physical therapist in New York City.
She often finds herself recommending the same exercises as solutions, she said — exercises that, for example, “counteract, you know, going to see ‘The Odyssey’ for three hours.”
We asked physical therapists to share the exercises they wish everyone incorporated into their fitness routines. Here are six that came up again and again.
1. Standing on one leg
Good balance is important for both fitness and everyday life, but it deteriorates with age, unless you’re “really deliberate about practicing it,” said Conor Nordengren, a physical therapist in Wellesley, Mass.
One of the simplest ways to do this is by regularly standing on one leg, experts said.
This simple exercise can “strengthen all the muscles in your foot, your ankle, your knee, your thigh,” Dr. Marko said. It also helps to build stability — not only in your legs, but also in your hips, pelvis and lower back. “I stand on one leg in the kitchen, waiting for coffee, waiting for the elevator,” she added.
If standing on one leg is challenging for you, lightly rest your hand on a chair, a wall or a countertop until you feel stable enough to let go. If the exercise feels easy, close your eyes.
Stand on each leg for at least 30 seconds every day.
2. Hip hinges
The ability to properly bend forward, or hinge, at the hips is useful both for daily tasks, like picking things up off the floor, and for exercises like deadlifts and kettlebell swings.
But many people struggle with hip hinges, said Dhara Shah, a physical therapist at Emory Healthcare in Atlanta. It’s common to round your back and lock your knees when you bend over, which puts pressure on your spine and can lead to pain or injury.
Regularly practicing hip hinges can also strengthen your glutes and hamstrings.
To do a hip hinge, send your hips backward while bringing your chest forward. Keep your back straight, your shoulders pulled slightly back, your abdominal muscles pulled toward your bellybutton and your knees softly bent.
Practice this movement daily, doing two sets of 15 hinges.
3. Sit-to-stands
The act of sitting down and then standing back up may seem simple, but with age, it can become increasingly difficult without proper strength and stability. Making time to practice “sit-to-stand” exercises will pay off by strengthening your quads, glutes, hamstrings, calves and core muscles, and improve your ability to to do lunges and squats, the experts said.
To do a sit-to-stand, lower yourself into a chair and stand back up in a slow, controlled way. If this feels challenging, practice it several times a day until it feels easier.
If it already feels easy, lower your body even more slowly and just barely tap your butt to the seat before slowly standing up again. The lower the surface, the more challenging it will be. “That control piece makes it a little harder,” Dr. Shah said. Do two sets of 20 repetitions several times a week. For more of a challenge, do it while holding weights or a kettlebell.
4. Dead bugs with diaphragmatic breathing
Many people feel the effects of sitting for long periods in their neck, shoulders or back, but the problem often begins in their innermost core muscles, said Carrie Pagliano, a physical therapist in Arlington, Virginia. “With a lot of these issues, people are just missing fundamental strength,” she said. When your core is weak, your neck and shoulders often compensate to keep you upright.
Physical therapists recommended doing the dead bug exercise while practicing diaphragmatic breathing to build core strength at the deepest level.
To do a dead bug, lie on your back and raise your legs at a 90-degree angle, then raise your arms straight toward the ceiling. With your spine pressed into the floor, slowly straighten and lower your left leg while also lowering your right arm, until both are fully extended. Return to the starting position, then repeat with the opposite sides.
While extending, slowly exhale through your mouth to contract your deep core. While returning to the starting position, inhale and feel your belly expand. Do two sets of eight exercises a few times a week.
This breath work helps “stabilize your core from the inside out,” said Alicia Ferriere, a physical therapist in Maplewood, N.J. Together with the dead bugs, it can help support your spine and relieve aches in your neck and shoulders.
5. Wall push-ups
Push-ups allow you to practice lifting your body weight, which is essential for staying independent as you age and getting up if you fall, Dr. Nordengren said. They primarily strengthen the chest, shoulders, arms and core.
Unless you’ve regularly been doing push-ups from the ground, experts recommended doing them with your hands on a stable, raised surface such as a wall or a countertop. As you build strength, you can gradually lower the surface until you reach the ground.
“I’ll very rarely have people do them from the floor right away,” Dr. Nordengren said, especially since “a lot of people struggle with the technique.”
Start in a plank position, with your back flat and your feet pressed into the floor. Next, engage your core and slightly tuck your tailbone underneath you to prevent your back from arching. Bend your elbows into a 45-degree angle, while slowly lowering your chest, then push yourself back up. Imagine that you are pushing the floor away, Dr. Nordengren said, and be sure to reach your arms long at the top. Do two sets of 10 reps twice a week.
6. Cat-cows
To counter the effects of sitting or standing for long periods of time, many physical therapists recommended the cat-cow stretch, in which you alternate between arching and curving your back while on all fours. Take a few deep breaths in each position to feel a deeper stretch. This classic stretch can help relieve stiffness in your spine, shoulders and neck and improve your mobility.
When you’re in an all-fours position, you can limber up other body parts, too, Dr. Ferriere said. Try reaching forward with each arm or stretching each leg out behind you and doing a few hip circles.
Ultimately, these exercises are “giving you a little extra buffer to live your life,” Dr. Nordengren said, so your body is strong, steady and prepared for the unexpected.“
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