24 Mar Three Easy Desk Stretches To Energise Your Day Now
That work zone… the one where you get sucked into working away for hours. Ever forget to eat, drink water, move… or even realise you’re dying for the toilet hours later? And right now, you may not even be at a desk anymore. Here’s a reminder of how to create a little more mindfulness and wellness around your working hours. Whether you absolutely love or hate your job, spending all these hours on hours sitting hunched over your laptop will still leave you feeling like a super stiff person. Oh, that back pain. #grandma2.0 Just getting out of your chair is sometimes already an achy mission. Stretching is good, we all know, but we often are too engrossed in our busyness, typing away that we forget to stretch. We have gathered three easy desk stretches that you can do in between tasks or during your breaks. Let’s rejoice and stretch it out.
First of all, even if you are working from home, choose a desk over your sofa. Been there done that, haven’t we all? It might seem super comfy to just plop down and work away, it will leave you more achy and stiff than at a desk. Trust us on this one. So, setting up a proper workstation is critical here. Still won’t spare you of an achy neck, hello, tech neck! Add on some stiff shoulders, achy back and let’s not forget about those tight hips. Ouch!
A little bonus stretch hack for you, as we all know when we get busy we tend to forget these stretches again, so set your alarm to every few hours so you won’t forget to get up and stretch it out.
Here are three easy desk stretches for your mini-breaks:
1, Shrug your shoulders.
Our shoulders and necks hold a lot of tension from not only our stressful jobs but also us spending most of our time slumping over our keyboards or phones. Sounds familiar, right? Ok, this stretch is pretty straight forward, BUT we still don’t do it regularly. So here it goes.
Again you can do this stretch either sitting upright in your chair or standing up.
Inhale and start to slowly lift your right shoulder to your ear. Exhale as you slowly roll your shoulder around and back, dropping it away from your ear. Now switch to your left shoulder. Repeat these for three times on each side.
Then, inhale as you lift both shoulders up to the ears. Exhale as you release them. Repeat these for five times or even more if you feel you need more release. Then relax your shoulders.
Doesn’t that feel oh so good?
2, Stretch your chest out.
This one is one of the best ones you can do for your “hunched over” self. Stretching your chest and shoulders is the best.
You can sit down or stand up for this one.
Interlace your hands behind you. Then slowly straighten your arms and gently lift your hands a few inches until you feel a stretch in your chest. Open that chest and your heart up to the sky.
Hold for 10-30 seconds.
Another alternative for this one is to stand in a doorframe and stretch your arms out to the sides, like a capital T. Then gentle press forward until you feel a stretch in your chest. YUM!
3, Show your wrists some stretchy love.
You might love being super productive typing away for hours, while at the same time your wrists might not feel so much love. They also feel tight and crampy sometimes. Let’s show them some stretchy love.
You can sit down or stand up for this one. Extend your right arm out. The palm of your hand facing up, then gently pull your right fingers down and back with your left hand. You should feel a stretch in your forearm and wrist. What a relief!
Hold from 10 to up to30 seconds on one side. Then switch hands.
Repeat as many times as you want.
Don’t these feel amazing? What a little stretch can do for your body! There are even stretches for your eyes, that you can do in between long hours staring at your screen. Most importantly, don’t forget that getting stretchy is also like pushing a refresh button for your busy mind in between. Two birds, one stone. WINNING!
Now you feel refreshed, stretchier and ready to work full speed ahead. These are just three stretches out of many more that you can do. We have a guided desk stretch sequence for you below. Yogi approved. Bonus, you can just sit back and let us guide you through your stretches. You are feeling refreshed in no time. And if your work life seems to take over, sometimes that’s just what happens, start your stretches with a few rounds of deep conscious breaths. You will feel even more refreshed afterwards.
Keyboard warriors, stretch your day out.
As promised here is your guided desk stretch. Just hop over to Power Living‘s online yoga studio, yogaholics, and let Shauna guide you through some juicy desk stretches to break up your day working away. A little secret, you won’t even have to leave your chair. GOALS! It only takes 10 minutes, and you will feel like a new super stretched human. Supercharged and even more productive than before. You are welcome.
Aaannndd this is just a snippet what you can find on yogaholics. There are many guided meditations, yoga flows and inspirations talks to choose from. How about a juicy Yin sequence for desk workers to end your day. If you work from home you can just roll off your chair and onto your yoga mat. Let Duncan Peak guide you through some yin and drifting off to sleep afterwards should be a piece of cake. You are oh so welcome!
Show your stiff desk body some stretchy love, yogis!
Written by Yogaholics team
