5 Mobility Stretches for Desk Workers That Ease Aches Without Leaving Your Seat
If you work at a desk all day, every day, you're bound to pick up some aches and pains.
Thankfully, there are solutions to ease your discomfort without ditching your desk entirely. These five exercise will help to increase mobility and take away stress and stiffness in your neck, wrist and hands, spine, and lower body, courtesy of Sam Chan, DPT, ATC, C.S.C.S., physical therapist and athletic trainer from Bespoke Treatments New York and personal trainer Vaugh Gray, NASM-CPT. “We're going to use these exercises to create dynamic motions, just really improving blood flow, and creating a nice dynamic stretch mobilizing those soft tissues,” says Chan.
Watch the video to see each exercise and read the brief overview below. Bonus: All of these moves can be performed without leaving your chair.
5 Mobility Moves for Desk Workers
Upper Trap Stretch
This targets the upper trapezius muscle on the outside of your neck. “The reason we're sitting on your hand is to lock down that shoulder preventing the shoulder from raising to really ensure we're giving a stretch from both ends of that muscle,” says Chan. Do three repetitions with a five-second hold.
Neck CARs
These controlled articular rotations (CARs) are essentially neck circles that home in on your neck and upper back. “You’re trying to create contact between every level of your neck between the vertebrae and the neck, really opening up and creating that pressure within the spine,” Chan says. Do three to five times slowly in each direction.
Median Nerve Floss
“This is an exercise we're going to use to mobilize the nerve,” explains Chan. “So the median nerve is a structure that runs right through the carpal tunnel. You might have heard of carpal tunnel before. This is a common injury that occurs when you're working at the desk or at the keyboard.” Nerves are elastic structures and this move mobilizes and stretches that nerve. To make it more of a challenge, bend your hand in the opposite direction to create tension at both the neck and also wrist.
Spine Extension
It’s time to focus on your back. “This is a great exercise just to really open up the chest again, stretching up those anterior fibers in the chest,” said Chan, noting that you're creating a nice back bend posture to reverse all that forward sitting that you've been doing at your desk. Breathe deeply throughout.
Hamstring Stretch
This is a great stretch at the back side of your hamstring and backside of your thigh to open up the muscles in the posterior chain. If you want to intensify this stretch, add in a little bit of rotation, suggests Chan, spinning your foot inward and outward to place the sciatic nerve in a little bit of healthy tension.
And we’re done. “If you can't get out of the office, these are your five exercises you can perform to really get yourself feeling healthy, stress-free, and mobile,” says Chan.
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