Yoga Tricks to do at your office & workDesk
SIMPLE TRICKS & TIPS, + A CHAIR-YOGA VIDEO TO PRACTICE ANYTIME you need some calm, Energy and a Stretch
Summer is wrapping its wings and many of us are returning back to their desks and offices. We have never spent as much time seated and hunched over as we do now as a population. Additionally I also don’t think we’ve ever been so consistently stressed.
Most of us spend around 8 hours, most days of the week sitting at our desks with limited blood circulation, not enough of activation of the muscles in our back-bodies and in a hunched forward posture, flexing our hips. All this contributes to weaker and weaker glutes and back muscles and therefore achey lower- & upper backs (yes! It is not only a stretch that we need to keep our backs less achey, often it is much more important to strengthen it!). Weak back muscles and hunched forward laptop or phone- position with tense shoulders leads to shoulder and neck tension and further towards headaches, whereas constant sitting creates that tension to the front of our hips - our hip flexors. We feel tired and keep on grabbing for yet another cup of coffee to keep us alert. If you’re reading this, you’re probably familiar with all this yourself as well!
It is so-so important that we take moments, event just a minute or three to move, stretch and activate the various muscles in our bodies once in a while throughout every working day to move the blood around and loosen the stiffness to your body and stress to your head that slowly but surely gathers.
There’s a couple of things you can do every day to keep your mind and body healthy during your workdays:
GET SOME FRESH AIR
This might be so simple but the little act of getting outside and taking a short, 5-10 minute walk around the block or the building does wonders to oxygenate our brains and create blood flow to our bodies, activate our musculature and also clear the head. Try to make a habit, maybe at a certain time of the day (after lunch or before you start working if you work from home to get some fresh air and daylight!).STRETCH YOUR SPINE
So simple- just lift your hands over your head as you press either your hips towards the chair when sitting or heels towards the ground when standing - grab your right wrist with your left hand, inhale to lengthen the spine and hands towards the sky and exhale to lean to the left side. Stay for around 10 breaths, with every inhale keep on imagining that extra space creating to between your ribs as you keep on pressing especially the right hip or heel towards the ground. See if you can lean the right shoulder a bit more behind you and scoop the left shoulder a bit more under you as you open the chest more and more towards the sky - this one is a great energiser and activator of your core and upper back for a good posture. Repeat to the other side and as many times you need. Keep the focus on your breath and body and away from the to-do list! ;)
SPINAL CIRCLES
When seated place your hands on your knees, as you inhale roll your shoulders to your ears and behind and arch your spine while you activate your shoulder-blades towards each other in your back to again activate those back muscles and bring some blood flow there. As you exhale round tour shoulders to your front, round your spine and lean behind as much as you can to stretch the upper back while you keep on holding on to your knees while allowing tour chin to be heavy on your chest. Do this a couple of times and finish up in rounding and leaning behind to take a couple of breaths to the space between your sohulderblades - every inhale puffing up your upper back, every exhale relaxing the shoulders downwards and sidewise.
NECK CIRCLES
A classic. Keep the movement slow and your jaw and toungue really really relaxed (maybe even the teeth apart) as you drop your chin to your chest with your exhales and slide your ear towards your shoulder with your inhales, exhale back to the middle. Essentially drawing half-circles as you keep your shoulders really heavy and relaxed. Slow it down and again focus on your breath. When you find an extra sticky spot then stay there and wiggle the chin side to side to loosen that spot a bit.
FORWARD FOLDS
Simple standing forward fold - feet are hip with apart and knees area bent as much as necessary to allow the lower back to lengthen and stretch. You can keep your hands either on the ground or grab from the opposite elbows to wiggle side to side with your elbows and bring the weight of your body from one leg to another - inhale to one side, exhale to the other side - there’s no rush! ;)
MASSAGE YOUR EARS
Trust me on that - grab your ears between your fingers and with quite a lot of pressure massage them for around a minute - up and down - this will energise and refresh you immediately and will help you skip that next cup of coffee!
These are just a couple of the simplest things you can do every day to keep your back and neck a bit healthier. Breathing exercises are great to find that inner calm to your nervous system and reset + refresh the brain a bit. Twists are amazing for the spine as well as is a little bit of tapping, shaking, and some balancing poses to improve your calm and focus and strengthen those back muscles.
I have several short videos on my ever-growing online yoga library you can do either standing or at your chair for a quick break without any need of a yoga mat or leggins.
As a little present you can try this twisty 15-minute calming yet energising yoga-break you can do at your desk, on your chair - gather your colleagues and take a 15-minute break to do it together. We’ll move through the shoulders, spine, stretch the lower back and hips and refresh the brain - try! ;)
Sign up for my newsletter at the bottom of this page to get 3 more yoga videos to do before, during and after your workday into your inbox!
WANT REGULAR WEEKLY YOGA BREAKS AT YOUR COPENHAGEN OFFICE?
Office yoga classes are one of my favourite ones to teach as often times it’s the people who don’t go to a yoga classes themselves who end up coming and the difference they can feel after a yoga class is huge! The shoulders drop, breath softens and they finish the class lighter, calmer and happier.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t have a big or separate room for these classes or yoga mats. The classes can be in any length the suits your needs and it’s perfectly fine to do a 30-minute standing yoga break in your regular clothes.
If you do have space and a wish for more longer and ‘classical’ yoga sessions then we can arrange that as well - A 45 minute lunch-time class seems to be a perfect mid-day energiser!
I’m happy to help you with yoga mats and other props from a very reliable and socially and environmentally responsible yoga prop producer as well.
At the moment I have timeslots available Tuesday and Thursday lunchtime (either before or after lunch), and Friday early afternoon - send me a message and let’s help those necks, shoulders and learn how to loosen that stress a bit!
I can either come to your Copenhagen office or we can do the session online.
Another treat you could offer to your team is a deeply relaxing and reseting soundbath. Read more here and here.
