Jheri Olsen's Posts - The Tall Street Journal

a small survey for a tall person's product

2010-01-29T20:58:03.000Z

Hey there

This is Jheri and I am helping out a bit on the Colleenified Countertops for tall people. We're not making any money on this, it just seemed like a good idea because cooking can be a pain if you are tall.

There are some other ideas for products for talls and particularly tall women, but the maker needs to be convinced this is a viable product before she goes ahead - it is a small woman-run business in Kentucky that is tall friendly, but they can't afford to make mistakes. Your help will make it more likely that something will come of this.

I have some questions to feed back to Colleen who is really trying to promote this more than me. If you have time we would greatly appreciate your answers. It will take about 5 minutes to read Colleen's blog pages and watch her video if you haven't and a couple of minutes to fill out the survey.

If you haven't seen it, could you look at the post's on Colleen's blog (there are only 4 short posts) first and watch her short video?

http://www.6footsix.com/colleenify/

and the manufacturer's page

http://www.awpbutcherblock.com/products/Help_cooks_find_comfortable_counter_heights.htm

here is the survey

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9B8GTCH

thank you!!!

exercises for tall people

2010-01-23T23:30:00.000Z

Cheyenne asked about this as I worry about it.

Some of you are athletes and maybe you can add.

The first thing to note is that I am NOT a doctor and you might want to talk to one who understands this sort of thing. Your normal physician might be a fine person, but you need to talk to someone who specializes in sports medicine. Get assessed by them and they might prescribe a few sessions with physical therapists who specialize in sports physical therapy. This makes a huge difference.

I also don't want to come over as a fanatic. I do a lot of exercise I guess, but it is part of my life. Running is where I unwind and think. I don't own a car, so I use a bike to get around and that is combining transportation and exercise - a really good thing. Of course it is very easy to use a bike here. I do visit a gym maybe twice a week for thirty minutes to an hour to use their machines, but I mostly hate that. I also hate cardio exercises led by people. I do have a set of back exercises that are pretty easy, but boring that I talk about that get done maybe three times a week.

A lot of tall people develop neck and back problems and there can be permanent damage - just going out and doing something might worsen your condition.

It was stressed to me that I need to do exercises that strengthen my back. Yoga was strongly recommended, but I don't have the proper mindset for that. If you can do it, it is great and you are unlikely to damage yourself. I was given this link from the Mayo clinic showing some safe back exercises. I'm not very good about following them, but go through most of them about three times a week. I feel good afterwards.

Stretching, warming up and cooling down are all important when you are worried about the back and this is an area where you should probably get advice from a sports medicine guy. What I do as a taller than average person is a bit different than what an average person should do.

Walking, running and biking are all great exercises. Walking and biking are particularly safe. If you haven't run in awhile you might get a bit of coaching and pay real attention to your feet as it is easy to get injured. Keep good in good cardiovascular shape is important and an expert can tailor the right sort of exercises as we all have different muscle types. I am a distance type, so I run about an hour a day at least five days a week. Plus I don't have a car and bike everywhere - and I am not a slow rider. On my last few visits I was told I am very similar to an athlete, even though I am certainly not one.

I'm not a swimmer, but you might want to check on that if you are.

i was told weights are not a good exercise as we have longer lever arms and the forces can get too high for the bone and muscle cross sections. You can do them if you are careful and have someone show you, how, but usually they aren't good. By weights I am talking about heavy weights. They said light weights are fine.

Rowing and the elliptical were recommended as good all purpose gym exercises. The problem is some of the machines are not big enough to handle tall people and that can cause problems. A gym I use has three beautiful rowing machines and when I push back I run to the end of the track to a jarring stop. The company has a tall model. but my gym doesn't have it.

Keeping a good posture as much as you can is very important. I was told to walk as if I was short and trying to appear as tall as possible.

Learn how to lift things properly as you have this long back that can be damaged. They even stressed things you do a lot in the house - cooking, ironing and other housework should be done at the appropriate height or you are in risk of damaging your back. This also holds for work. I was told if I can't find an appropriate desk and chair that I should think about tracking down an expert and having one made.

At the risk of too much promotion I think things like the raised cutting board makes a lot of sense. Shipping one here was too expensive, so I had one made and it is *great*!!! Notice the amazing difference in her posture. if you live in the US, it is probably cheaper to get one from the place Colleen recommends. She loves hers as does a friend of hers who is only 6'1. Be innovative and figure out activities that may be causing problems and find fixes for them!!!

Keeping weight off is particularly important for tall people. It is that lever arm thing again. A moderately overweight tall person is much more at risk for back problems than someone who is of average height, but is similarly overweight. This turns out not to be a problem for me as I'm very thin, but if you have a problem with weight try to take it down for the sake of your back.

Oh - and this is important for women - be *very* careful about wearing heeled shoes. Many of them are pretty or even downright sexy, but they can throw your posture and hurt your back in addition to your feet and legs. If you must wear the uncomfortable sexy ones, make sure you don't actually walk or stand in them very much. My sports physician said he has seen a lot of 40 year old women who seriously damaged their backs and feet with improper heels when they were younger. It is much worse on tall women because we have longer backs. If you feel any back pain when you wear heels you should not be wearing them. All is not lost though. I like having a bit of extra height at times and find my Danskos to be more comfortable and giving me better posture than my flats. My running sneakers and bare feet are better than anything though.

I dance for fun and imagine that can be good, but I have never asked about it specifically. For those of you who are shy and have problems meeting people - I recommend this for other reasons:-) Most women love to dance and guys just don't figure that out.

So posture, posture posture; strengthen the back and make it more flexible and improve your cardio performance with regular walking, running and bike riding. Plus we have to be extra careful about how we life things.

(I can say a lot on finding bikes that fit too:-)

comments?

Jheri out

a raised height cutting board for tall cooks

2010-01-12T15:00:59.000Z

I have a lot of lower back pain when I'm bending over the low counter in the kitchen for more than about ten minutes at a time. My friend Colleen has a longer way to bend.

She and a friend came up with a raised height counter top. It is much cheaper than having custom cabinets and counters put in. They found a manufacturer and a product will be announced in soon on her blog. Feel free to share it with tall or even just tallish cooks.

The length and width can be custom and the height is set by a measurement to your elbow.

If you're in an apartment like me or your budget is tight, this may be the best way to get some back relief. I'm going to get one of these.

Watch the outtakes video on her blog, she awesomely funny.

http://www.6footsix.com/colleenify/2010/01/the-first-colleenification-videos-and-a-safety-tip.html

This is an edit now that it is an official project. Here is how you can measure yourself o find he right height. There is a link n that page to the company that makes it that has photos and more details.

Jheri out

oh

Her friend who helped out on this wrote about his, which is for someone who is 6'1

http://tingilinde.typepad.com/starstuff/2009/12/a-bi-more-on-colleenifying-.html

a fantastic way to deal with stares and those questions and comments

2010-01-09T13:49:36.000Z

Face it, it you are tall you get a lot of stares and questions and comments. I think tall women get it even more because it is more ok to be tall if you are a guy.

I deal with this by being positive. When someone asks a dumb question or makes one of those comments we all hear, I smile and give them a complement. It completely changes what goes on and can leave both of us happy. I've had some very nice conversations that have started this way and have been able to have met some great people I would have never met on my own.

Colleen was interested in making more people happy and decided to give strangers high fives. Here is her blog post and a video.

Look at some of the people! This is really wonderful and I will try it myself soon. It takes getting your nerve up a bit and may be easier if you convince a friend to do it with you, but it is going to make some people smile and that is a good thing.

We talls have a natural advantage here. It is probably much harder to do if you were of average height. This is a way to take advantage of our stature and make a lot of people smile.

Colleen rocks!

a height related survey

2009-10-24T23:52:19.000Z

I've been corresponding with a professor who has been studying sexual dimorphism in humans - lots of traits that are different for women and men. Height and height preferences come under this heading. He has done a lot of work on mostly average sized people and finds that, surprise, guys like shorter gals and gals like taller guys. He has been able to look at this question deeply across cultures and other things.

Reading his papers, it is clear he was focusing on women under 6'0 and guys under 6'6. The short end of the scale is also-under represented. He is very careful to point this out in his studies, but others have made blanket statements that I and a few of my taller friends don't feel hold water, but that is just anecdotal evidence. I don't have any data.

I decided to do my own survey and this seems like a great place to ask people. There are only ten questions and two are essay questions if you like to write. I doubt most people will take more than five minutes and probably less.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=HbQ_2fbKGPncZ1ZPs76rS9vA_3d_3d

I'll write up what I've found and what the professor says afterwards. There may or may not be surprises, but there is only one way to find out. Feel free to comment here too.

thanks!!!

Jheri out