Fixing 30 Years of Deskbod: How this Graphic Designer Loosened Painful Joints and Got Strong

You face trade-offs every day: Save time by ordering in or cook to save money? Watch a show to relax or make progress on a project you’ve been meaning to finish?

But one of the biggest trade-offs people rarely think about is what your job is doing to your body. Especially since so many people work at computers these days, getting progressively stiffer and achier week after week.

That’s what happened to our client Kamomi.

For the nearly 30 years she’s worked as a graphic designer, the past 17 in New York City. And her body felt like it.

“I realized it was just wreaking havoc on my shoulders and back,” she said. She spent a few months going to the gym but it wasn’t a great fit.

“It’s too intimidating,” she said. “I had to amp myself up just to get there.” Then COVID hit, the gyms shut down, and she started searching for a better option.

“I just wanted to find a way to not be in pain and to move better than I was,” said Kamomi. “I was looking for a program or just any way for me to keep moving during the pandemic.”

She saw a video of our Head Coach, Ryan, teaching L-sits and eventually she discovered our Elements program.

“I was watching the testimonials with people moving around and tumbling around and I didn’t think that I would ever be able to do any of that,” she said.

But then she saw a video of a woman training at home with her kids and thought, “Okay, well, if she can do it, I can do it.”

Not only did she dramatically reduce her aches and pains with Elements, Kamomi found herself increasingly capable of moving in ways she never thought she’d be able to. Now she says she literally jumps out of bed and has started practicing martial arts.

All at 50 years old.

“I didn’t think any of this was possible,” she said. Here’s how she did it:

When Kamomi found Elements she was in a pretty tough spot.

Her body hurt from hunching over a computer all the time. She had to work from home on her laptop because of COVID lockdown. She’d hardly trained before. And the only place she could exercise was in her New York City apartment, which aren’t known for their wide open spaces.

Let’s take a closer look at how she was still able to get great results.

Elements

Practice essential movements for practical physical fitness

Get Over the ‘New Program Hump’ and Start Making Real Progress

When you start a new exercise routine you’re not just learning new movements, you’re often getting used to a new coach or interface, a change in your schedule, even figuring out how to use your space to do all the exercises.

That’s why so many people quit new workouts before they get meaningful results.

But Elements is designed to help you quickly overcome the hurdles that derail lots of folks. Here are the three ways it did that for Kamomi.

“It was really easy to follow. I always got something out of it and I felt good after. Even just 15 minutes a day helped.”

First—and very importantly for a New Yorker on lockdown—Elements was doable in her apartment. “It’s a one-bedroom,” she said, “but I made use of whatever little space there is. That was the great thing about Elements is I didn’t need much space.”

We’ve seen folks do Elements in apartments, tiny houses, even one guy in an RV. For Kamomi, fitting an exercise program into her space was essential, and Elements made it easy.

Second, Elements has a super intuitive interface that adapts to your schedule.

“It was really easy to follow,” said Kamomi. “I could do it as long as I wanted or as little as I wanted. I could pause if I needed to, that was really important. But I always got something out of it and I felt good after. Even just 15 minutes a day helped.”

Because it was so easy to use, Kamomi had no trouble fitting it into her workdays.

And third, even when her body struggled with the new movements and workload, Elements helped her adapt and keep making progress.

“It was completely foreign to me,” she said, “just getting down on the floor, hands and knees and trying to do an A-frame. It was really difficult at first, I must admit.”

At first her wrist got sore because she wasn’t used to loading her hands so much. So our coaches shared our wrist routine and encouraged her to slow down and give her body time to adapt.

“I think that was the most important part, learning how to slow down and accept the fact that I may not be [way up] here, but I am here. That was the challenge. To see what I can do, see what I can’t do. Then, I guess the word is, to autoregulate. That was a new thing for me. And maybe someday I can work my way up.”

And that’s just what she did.

Since Elements fit her life and helped her body adapt and improve over time, Kamomi got results she hadn’t thought were possible.

Get the Targeted Mobility and Strength You Need to Address Your Pains

It’s no secret that hunching over a computer most of every day isn’t the ideal plan for building a strong, pain-free body. Aching backs, tense shoulders, sore hips, and stiff necks are all pretty common side effects of a desk job.

But that doesn’t mean you have to quit your job and start hunting and gathering for a living.

Kamomi wanted the best of both worlds. Something that would help her relieve pain in her shoulders, back, and neck while still letting her enjoy the graphic design career she’d spent two decades building.

“I didn’t want to be in pain anymore from sitting at the desk, working on the computer,” she said.

Each Elements session starts by walking you through targeted mobility exercises to prepare your body for that day’s training. So you’re consistently relieving tightness in your hips, shoulders, back, wrists, and more. Then you practice four key movement patterns that build strength, flexibility, and control in all your major body areas.

What you end up with are stronger, more limber joints that move better and hurt less.

For Kamomi that quickly translated to much less pain in her body. A little over a month after starting Elements she wrote this:

“Ever since I started training with Elements my perennial shoulder and lower back pain have subsided. My jaw and neck are also noticeably better. I never thought I’d be able to get rid of all of that pain. With an adequate amount of sleep, I wake up feeling relaxed and ready to face the day. I feel like I can get out of bed each day by jumping out of bed. I actually roll and jump over and I assess how I feel, and usually it’s pretty good.”

By consistently following the exercises Elements walks you through, Kamomi reduced and relieved pains she’d lived with for years.

Which of course is its own reward.

But it also makes a lot of things possible that didn’t seem possible before, as you’ll see below.

Become Capable of New Movements and Skills You Never Imagined You Could Do

What you believe your body’s capable of basically comes down to two things.

1. What you’ve been able to do in the past
2. How your body feels in the present

So if you’ve never been able to run a mile, and if your body feels worse now than it did when you were younger and fitter, of course you’re not gonna think it’s a possibility now.

That’s the bind Kamomi was in when she started Elements.

“All I did when I was a teenager was I bowled,” she said. Without the experience of feeling athletically capable, and with all the pain she had before starting the program, her sense of what was possible for her body was pretty limited.

But just a short time into her Elements training that started to change.

“I feel so much better than when I started this program. I’ve never felt more at ease in my body than I do now. This is how I want to feel for the rest of my life.”

“I was able to go into a deep squat more comfortably for the first time,” she wrote in her training log after session 12. Later she said, “Never in my life could I have imagined doing that and now I constantly do it.”

As her pain dwindled and her strength and mobility increased, more skills opened up. Simple things like being able to sit on the floor comfortably, which helped her work with less pain. And more challenging movements like L-sits.

But even then she thought some things might always be out of reach.

“Looking at [GMB Head Coach] Ryan in that pose that he’s in, the Spiderman, I never imagined myself trying to do that,” said Kamomi.

But by the end of the program she proved herself wrong.

“Being able to do the Spiderman with Knee Float and Monkey 180 made me so happy,” she wrote in her training log. “It didn’t matter that my workday was busy and stressful. I kept returning to that feeling I have of making slow and steady progress with Elements.”

And that feeling of watching her body become capable of things that once seemed impossible started to open up new possibilities:

“That’s definitely impacted me beyond just Elements, beyond GMB. I just started doing Filipino martial arts. I am amazed that I felt so much at ease that I started Filipino martial arts at the age of 50. I’ve never done martial arts my entire life. I mean, I was always in awe of gymnasts and martial artists. I didn’t think I could move and transition into different kinds of foot work and striking patterns. It took Elements to do that, really.”

Elements helped Kamomi get over the beginners hump, ease the pains that held her back, and build strength and mobility that opened up new skills.

And those changes have compounded into a much better quality of life.

“I feel so much better than when I started this program,” she said. “I am more at ease in my body and can move without pain. I can also do things that were once challenging more easily and gracefully. My energy has changed—I am more positive, open, and free.”

Even though she finished the program, Kamomi still uses what she learned in Elements virtually every day to keep feeling good and improving.

“I’ve never felt more at ease in my body than I do now,” she said. “This is how I want to feel for the rest of my life.”

Follow a Trusted Path to a Stronger, Less Achey, More Capable Body

It’s virtually impossible to get through a modern-day adulthood without accumulating some tightness, aches, and pains.

But that doesn’t mean you’re stuck with them.

Elements is designed to meet you right where you’re at, then walk you through a proven system for loosening tight joints and building capabilities that translate to tangible improvements in your life.

As your body gets stronger and less stiff session by session, movements that seemed impossible start to feel doable. Which builds your confidence not just in what you can do right now, but in your ability to continue improving, exploring, and having more fun.

Over 0 have used Elements to lessen their pains, get stronger, and feel more confident in their bodies.

So if you could use a body that hurts less and can do more than you ever thought possible, click below to check out Elements.

Elements

Practice essential movements for practical physical fitness