Air Carrier Captain reported jet blast from an aircraft taxiing on the ramp physically moved him as he approached his aircraft.

Narrative

I arrived at the aircraft approximately 45 minutes before departure. The aircraft was parked at spot 'Kilo'; in the center of the horseshoe at the 12:00 position. As I reached up to open the main cabin door; I was blown into a garbage can about 12' away. My hat was blown up against the walkway. This blast lasted for about 4-5 seconds and went away. The garbage can was full or the two of us would have rolled over onto each other. As I went over to pick up my hat; I saw a CRJ taxiing out of 'spot 1' (east side of our exit/entry point) located at 'Mike' (just short of Alpha) in the horse shoe. From the heat waves; it appeared to me that the aircraft was 'single engine'; although operations notes specify that we use two engine taxi. Earlier today; we pushed back from spot 'Kilo' and onto 'spot 1'. We started both engines normally. After we received clearance to taxi out; I applied thrust very carefully to get the aircraft to move. From my perspective; it takes a great deal more thrust to move an aircraft from 'spot 1' than to taxi away from 'spot 2' (just west of spot 1). When we pushed back; I was paying extra attention to see if I felt the aircraft settle into a low spot or otherwise soft area at spot 1 - nothing was felt. In the past; I've been told that the ramp is not 'stressed' to handle our aircraft; and also I've been told that this issue is being addressed (regarding the ramp overall). However; I've not seen or heard of anything about this actually happening. In retrospect; I never realized that the thrust from our aircraft would reach into the ramp that far. Fortunately; it was me who experienced this jet blast (without any injury) as opposed to a vulnerable passenger who could have been seriously injured. It is easy for me to speculate about whether the ramp is not stressed; or the pavement is soft or many other possibilities; but I'll leave that to the experts. In the mean time; I am concerned that a passenger or co-worker could be injured should they be in the wrong place at the wrong time.