Sitting at a desk, hovering over a keyboard, and straining to see a monitor for eight or more hours a day can lead to a variety of aches and pains. Sitting with your hips engaged at a 90-degree angle causes tightness in the hips, legs, and lower back. Also, straining to see your monitor or hunching over your keyboard can result in poor posture and shoulder, back, and neck pain.
Even when away from the desk, most of us are staring down at our smartphones. This pressure on our spines causes misalignment and can result in chronic aching or stiffness.
It’s important to exercise and stretch your entire body to keep it limber, loose, and pain free. Yoga not only stretches your muscles, but it strengthens your muscles to combat overcompensation by other body parts. As an added bonus, yoga also helps you relax so that you can focus on your awareness of both body and mind.
Yoga Poses For Desk Jockeys
One of the easiest and most beneficial poses to do is Downward-Facing Dog. It stretches and strengthens many parts of the body — shoulders, neck, back, legs. To come into the pose, start at the front of your mat and bend at the waist to place your hands on the mat. Walk your feet backwards and lift your hips so that you’re in an inverted “V” shape. With hands outstretched in front of your at shoulder width, lift your hips and ground your feet firmly on the mat at about hip-width part. Pay attention to your breath and hold this stretch for 30-60 seconds.
To combat poor posture, strengthen your backn and open your chest, practice Mountain Pose. To start, come to a comfortable standing position with feet grounded at about hip width. Next, bring your hands up over your head with palms facing forward and thumbs hooked. Then slowly bend backwards and breath deeply. This really loosens up chest, back, and shoulder muscles that may become tense from hovering over a keyboard all day.
The Standing Forward Fold is a great pose to stretch the legs and shoulders. It also provides a soothing sense of release, which helps reduce stress. To start, stand with feet grounded at hip width and slowly bend forward at the waist. To take any strain off of your lower back, bend slightly at the knees. Next, interlace your fingers behind your back with straight arms and let your them fall forward over your head and towards the ground. If you have tight shoulders, you can hold a belt between your hands; this allows for a deep, but less intense stretch.
To loosen your hips, try Bound Angle Pose. To start, sit tall on your mat with the soles of your feet touching and knees spread open. Bring the feet towards your pelvis and wrap your hands around your feet. Slowly move your knees up and down like butterfly wings. After a few of those movements, sit still and focus on your breathing and the tension releasing in your hips.
As with any new exercise routine, it’s important to ease into it slowly to avoid injury. If you’re new to yoga, start with easy beginner poses and work up to more advanced movements. Do not strain your muscles. The flexibility will come in time with practice.
Airrosti Relieves Stiffness
If you find that your aches and pains aren’t relieved with yoga, give Airrosti a call. Our providers specialize in relieving pain due to tight muscles or other musculoskeletal issues. At each treatment session, your provider will thoroughly assess your issues and develop a custom treatment plan. Then, they will correct the underlying issue by treating directly it at the source.
In addition to this one-on-one treatment, we also educate our patients on special exercises and stretches to do at home to speed recovery and prevent future injury.
Our focus on outcomes and exceptional patient care ensures that our patients’ pain is eliminated quickly and they are free to continue with their active lives.
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