Being seated for long hours is an unnatural position that may cause severe damage to several parts of the body like weakness, strain, pain, lowered flexibility etc… Our quotidian work involves sitting for so long be it while working in the office or in the cars. In order to avoid these injuries in the long run, carry out these practically useful desk exercises while sitting. Sit on your office chair and relax each and every part of your body with the seated exercises.
Practically Useful Desk Exercises While Sitting
Lift Up The Legs!
Legs being the most useful part of the body, goes through a huge amount of pressure when seated. In order to strengthen and make the legs more flexible, try the easy reverse crunch exercise.
- Sit on the chair keeping the back straight.
- Push the legs out and pull the knees to your chest.
- Carry these push and pull movements for 5-10 number of times.
Rest The Ankles!
Strong and flexible ankles are necessary in order to prevent the injury while doing exercises or carrying out day to day activities. So, try to relax your ankles with the easy ankle rotation movement.
- Sit on the chair and put the body weight on one of your legs.
- Rotate the ankle without moving the legs.
- Repeat few times and then carry out same activity with the other leg.
Knock-Out The Knee Pain!
Knees cannot be directly stretched but they can be relaxed and relieved of stiffness by sitting on the chair and stretching the lower leg.
- Sit on the chair straight with knees bent at angle of 90⁰.
- Raise and stretch legs as much as possible and point foot outwards.
- Repeat for about 10 times.
Flex Up The Back!
Working while being seated for hours causes severe pain the back. Back being the most affected body part while sitting, can get dangerous injuries and may become a reason for joint diseases in the future. Carry out the following Cat-Cow exercise to avoid the pain.
- Sit on the chair an erect spine. Move into the cow pose, lift your sit bones upward and chest forward and lift your head too.
- Move into the cat pose while rounding spine outwards and pubic bone forward.
- Repeat for 3-5 times.
Shrug The Shoulders!
One of the best seated exercise is the seated shoulder shrugs. If there’s a pain in your shoulder or you feel some kind of stiffness, then this workout can definitely help you out.
- Sit straight keeping your spine erect.
- Shrug your shoulders, taking them near ears and back.
- Repeat this exercise for 10-15 times.
Relax the Arms!
Arms being one of the most essential body parts, need to be full of strength. So, keeping them balanced with the help of exercises is necessary.
- Raise your hands in the upward direction.
- Interlock fingers and stretch the arms upwards making the palm face the ceiling.
- Bring the arms down and place the interlocked fingers on your head.
- Repeat activity this 5-10 times.
Ease Up The Fingers!
While working at offices mostly involves typing work, fingers are the most affected body parts. Typing can cause pain in fingers and might also cause stiffness. So, in order to strengthen your fingers, follow the stretching exercise.
- Place any round object on your palm.
- Try to squeeze the object for few seconds.
- Release your fingers and stretch them wide.
- Repeat this exercise whenever there is pain or stiffness.
Workout The Wrists!
The repetitive motions like typing and other work can cause weakness and other injuries to your wrists. Follow the wrist exercise to lower the risk of injury and also to increase the flexibility.
- Extend one of your arms in the front.
- Press the fingers in downward direction, with the help of other hand.
- Pull the fingers and wrist towards the body and for 30 seconds.
- Repeat the motion for 5-6 times.
Free Up The Neck!
The desk work can definitely cause a pang to your neck muscles. So, to undo the pain, carry out the easy neck swing exercise listed. This exercise can help you lessen the stiffness and also to improve the posture.
- Bend your head downwards so that the chin touches the chest.
- Lift up your head and turn it towards right side in a circular manner, bend the head at the back and look up.
- Similarly, turn the head towards left and bring it back in front.
- Perform this activity in clockwise as well as in anticlockwise fashion.
De-Stress The Eyes!
Eyes being the most vital and the most part of the body gets more affected while doing the office work. Eyes come in contact with the screens of the computers or mobiles, which emits harmful radiations powerful enough to damage the eyesight. So, the eye needs to be taken special care of. A very simple and easy eye exercise is blinking. Blinking eyes 5-10 times faster than usual can be a best eye rejuvenation therapy.
So, turn up your office chair into an exercise machine and make most of it to reduce or get over the pain that arises when being seated for hours.
