COVID has been hard on many people’s bodies, causing work from home stiffness. When your commute is from one room to another, it greatly decreases your everyday movement.
While interruptions in the office might hurt focus and concentration, they often provide a chance to get up and move. Stretching keeps you flexible and supports good health. If you’ve been experiencing work from home stiffness, exercises like a work from home stretch break can make a big difference in your comfort and well-being.
Being sedentary and staying in front of a computer non-stop for hours has been shown to be bad for your health, increasing the odds of developing diabetes, cancer, and other health problems. Sitting for long periods of time adversely affects one’s metabolism and ability to regulate blood sugar and blood pressure. The American habit of sitting around watching TV or playing video games makes it worse.
Starring at a computer screen can cause eyestrain, dry eyes, and long-term vision problems like nearsightedness. Repetitive stress injuries are also possible. That’s why experts suggest scheduling work from home breaks.
How Often Should You Stand Up and Take a Break?
According to experts, 40 times in an eight-hour workday. That sounds like a lot, but each break only needs to be one to two minutes, five minutes max, to counteract the negative impact of sitting, and can be as simple as standing up while on a phone call. Here are some additional ideas for how to work more movement into your daily work routine for better health.
While doing a full daily stretching routine in addition to breaks would be best, work from home stretches or desk stretches are also an effective solution. Just make sure the office stretches you do include the neck, shoulders, back, and hips at the minimum if you can’t do full-body stretching.
Easy Work From Home Stretches / Deskercises
Neck Stretches:
This exercise can be done either standing or sitting.
- Relax and gently move your neck forward
- Slowly roll your head to the right. Hold for 10 seconds.
- Do the same to the left.
- Return to the starting position.
- Repeat for 3 more full sequences.
Healthline has more easy office stretches. That same link also includes three exercises to avoid “tech neck”.
Shoulder Stretches:
This exercise can be done either standing or sitting.
- Reach your arm out straight in front of you.
- Slowly swing it toward your opposite side.
- Hold your arm with your opposite hand, gently pushing it closer to your chest until you feel a light stretch in your shoulder.
- Hold for 30 seconds.
- Repeat with the other arm.
USA Today has more easy desk stretches you can perform.
Torso Stretches:
- While seated, cross your arms over your chest.
- Rotate your upper body from the waist, twisting as far to the left as you can comfortably.
- Hold for 10 seconds.
- Return to center.
- Repeat to the right side.
More deskercise options can be found here.
Hip Stretches:
- While seated, cross your left ankle over your right thigh.
- Flex your left foot. You should feel a stretch in the left outer hip and glute. If you don’t, lean forward slightly until you do.
- Hold for 20-30 seconds.
- Return your foot to the floor.
- Do the same on the opposite side.
NBC News has more hip exercises you can do at a desk.
Total Chiropractic Will Help You Maintain Good Health and Wellness
At Total Chiropractic, we understand the benefits of stretching, maintaining flexibility, and how it all plays into your overall spinal wellness. If you find that stretching is painful or impossible to do in your current condition, or you suffer from limited mobility, we’re here to help. We can conduct an evaluation at our offices and recommend a treatment plan that’s right for you to help increase your mobility and manage your pain. Contact us today to learn more.