If your backside is perilously close to melding with your seat, it’s high time for a brief stretch during your midday break.
In the newest installment of Good Stretch, Chloe de Winter from Go Chlo Pilates will guide you through a seven-minute session of exercises aimed at lengthening the spine and opening up the hips and shoulders, all tailored to break the monotony of your work grind.
Sitting at a desk for extended periods can lead to poor posture, discomfort in the neck, shoulders, and lower back, and can also escalate stress levels. Especially now with many individuals continuing to work remotely, opportunities to move around for meetings and quick breaks are even more limited. However, dedicating time to loosen up those muscles can counteract the downsides of desk-bound work, making it essential to integrate stretching into your daily regimen.
Moreover, after hours of being slouched over a keyboard, stretching can provide a satisfying relief.
To begin, de Winter will prompt you to rise from your chair in order to alleviate the tension in your spine caused by prolonged sitting. Sitting compresses our spinal discs, which can be worsened by slouching, making stretching beneficial in creating more space.
The next focus will be on those tight, restricted hips. Responsible for supporting the weight of your upper body, hips are surrounded by crucial nerves. The constant pressure, coupled with extended hours of sitting, can lead to tight hip flexors. Investing time in opening them up and improving blood circulation can keep your hip joints functioning optimally and prevent the onset of “dead butt syndrome.”
Lastly, de Winter will concentrate on the essential shoulder area — a common casualty of our technology-centered society. Desk work can have various adverse effects on our shoulders; stress might cause them to elevate, while prolonged sitting often results in poor posture, leading to the shoulders rolling forward and the muscles shortening. The entire shoulder-neck-back region can become a tangled mess of tension. This is what renders the final segment of the video particularly gratifying: if your shoulders are anything like ours, the stretches will clearly demonstrate the necessity for their movement and rotation instead of remaining hunched over.
Phew, that was truly invigorating!