7 simple exercises you can do sitting at your desk

What is all this sitting doing to us?

Apart from turning us into Covid Couch Potatoes, or should that be Covid Computer Potatoes??

Sitting at our improvised desks at home; no longer is the day book-ended and buffered by the daily commute by car or train, bus or bicycle, or even Shank’s Pony.

Well that last still applies I suppose, tho it may have become a Shank’s Shetland Pony as we make our way through the sprawling office of our home.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes, sat at my computer, I am so absorbed (or sucked into a black hole of cascading information/distraction lures) that I forget to breathe...

Almost certainly our posture is suffering:- whether head dropped down looking at the keyboard (or our mobile phone) or pushed forward, tortoise like, peering at the (Zoom) screen.

All this sitting is affecting our hips, our leg muscles, and possibly even giving us piles!

and quite possibly piling on the pounds, or Covid Kilos

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Sir Francis Bacon [1561-1626], the Elizabethan and Jacobean courtier, wrote:

Never sit for longer than half an hour

And it’s still good advice nearly 500 years later ??

If you can:

- make phone calls standing up

- eat your breakfast standing up

- eat your lunch standing up!

Yet also eat mindfully – savour your food, take the time to really chew.

A nutritionist said in a lecture that we need to chew each mouthful 30 times – yes, 30 times! to really grind the food down so that it can be better digested further down the line.

Somehow eating standing up can push us to eat quickly and heedlessly – maybe listen to some calming music while you eat, rather than stress-inducing news.

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With your sitting, make sure that the edge of the seat is not cutting into your hamstrings [the muscles down the backs of your thighs].

I am a big fan of sitting wedges – especially if you are not using an adjustable office chair - and have quite a selection. They help to ensure that your hips don’t get too folded up while you are sitting, so that your knees can be slightly lower than your hips. And yet, unlike those kneeling chairs ?, you are still free to move your legs as you wish.

Or you could even try sitting on a Swiss exercise ball, or a wobble cushion.

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Here are a few simple exercises you can easily do at your desk:

1.

Breathe! Slowly and deeply from your belly, feel your ribs expanding and contracting as you breathe in and out. Ladies – feel that your ribs are pushing against your bra.

2.

Do a few tummy tucks, sucking your abdominal muscles in as you breathe out.

3.

Twist your torso - feel your spine and ribs stretching ??. This one is best done on a fixed chair, rather than a swively one.

4.

Stretch your arms upwards and roll your wrists.

Or even pretend that your arms are an octopus – which adds a playful lilt ??

5.

While you are sitting, you can slowly straighten one leg raising your foot, and then bend the knee [underneath the chair] and straighten it a few times. This might depend on what kind of chair you have! Repeat on the other side. Good for the muscles at both the front of your thigh [the quads] and the back [hamstrings].

6.

Rolling your thighs inwards and outwards is a lovely way to loosen up the hips. You can do this one in bed as well.

7.

Here’s one to counteract being slumped over your weary computer:

- clasp your hands behind your head and arch backwards looking at the ceiling:

aka The Thoughtful Executive Pose. That’s a great stretch ??

And #5 and #6 you could even do during a Zoom call . . .

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One final tip:

If you make sure that you drink lots of water, then you will need to keep getting up to go to the loo ??

A double whammy of benefits:

– water for your brain, your skin, your joints and your gut

– and movement and step-count [and also a change of scenery and eye focus] to loosen your hips and your spine, and your thoughts.

Result!

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I have recorded a short video of these exercises, which I shall post separately ??

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What do you find hardest about all the sitting we are doing at the moment - and what do You do to counteract it?