Lin­da Stein­berg

Many of us sit be­hind our desks and stare at com­put­er screens for far too much of the day. Al­though con­cen­trat­ed work can be ben­e­fi­cial to our jobs, it can be tax­ing on our bod­ies. The fol­low­ing yo­ga ex­er­cis­es will help you re­lieve any ten­sion you might feel af­ter too many hours of por­ing over spread­sheets. The pos­es al­so pro­vide long-term ben­e­fits with reg­u­lar prac­tice. Each pose takes few­er than two min­utes to com­plete, and you can do the whole se­ries in just 10 min­utes, but you’ll feel the ef­fects long af­ter.

Breathe deeply through­out the pos­es be­cause send­ing oxy­gen to your mus­cles al­lows them to re­lax.

Open Chest Stretch (1 minute)

• ↓Sit near the edge of your chair and in­ter­lace your fin­gers be­hind you, palms to­geth­er and fac­ing your back.

• ↓Lean for­ward slight­ly, lift­ing your arms so that you feel the stretch in your chest.

• ↓In­hale slow­ly, lift­ing your chest.

• ↓Ex­hale and re­lax your shoul­ders away from your ears.

• Hold for 10 to 15 breaths.

• ↓Slow­ly re­lease your hands and re­turn them to your sides.

Neck Stretch (1 minute)

• ↓Sit up­right with­out let­ting your back touch the back of the chair.

• ↓Hold your head di­rect­ly over your spine, as if there is a string lift­ing the crown of your head up.

• ↓Drop your right ear to­ward your right shoul­der with­out lift­ing your right shoul­der or turn­ing your head.

• ↓Take sev­er­al breaths in and out, feel­ing the stretch on the left side of your neck.

• ↓Re­peat on your left side.

Chair Twist (2 min­utes)

• ↓Sit near the edge of the chair, but turn your thighs to­ward the right side of the chair so that you are sit­ting di­ag­o­nal­ly. If you have an arm­rest on the side of your chair, bring your thighs as close to it as pos­si­ble.

• ↓Move your arm to the back of the chair on the op­po­site side, tak­ing hold of the chair back with your right hand. With your left hand, take hold of your right knee or arm­rest.

• ↓Breathe deeply, fo­cus­ing on length­en­ing your spine.

• ↓Twist to the right, press­ing your right hand against the back of the chair to deep­en the stretch. Fo­cus on draw­ing your shoul­der blades down.

• ↓Breathe deeply, com­plete­ly fill­ing and emp­ty­ing your lungs.

• ↓Hold the pose for 10 to 15 breaths.

• Re­turn to the cen­tre.

• Re­peat on your left side.

Twist­ed Arms (2 min­utes)

• ↓Sit up­right with­out let­ting your back touch the back of the chair.

• ↓Reach your arms out in front of you at shoul­der lev­el.

• ↓Tuck your right el­bow in­to the crook of your left arm, and curl your fore­arms up in­to a 90-de­gree an­gle. The backs of your hands will be against each oth­er.

• ↓If you can, place your left fin­gers on your right palm, keep­ing palms straight in a sin­gle line with your nose.

• ↓↓Breathe deeply, com­plete­ly fill­ing and emp­ty­ing your lungs. Hold the pose for 10–15 breaths.

• Re­turn to the cen­tre.

• Re­peat on your left side.

Sit­ting Dis­ease

In­clud­ing these pos­tures in­to your dai­ly rou­tine and oth­er floor stretch­es (as shown in pho­tos) can com­bat these neg­a­tive ef­fects.

You may want to in­clude stand­ing pos­tures, as these de­pict­ed here are on­ly sit­ting pos­es, that can be eas­i­ly tried at work.

Im­prov­ing your strength, flex­i­bil­i­ty and bal­ance pos­i­tive­ly im­pacts your well-be­ing. Any­one can try yo­ga, at any age!

For a full Chair Yo­ga work­out:

https://www.web­md.com/fit­ness-ex­er­cise/video/chair-yo­ga