5 Exercises You Should Be Doing With a Desk Job
Lacey 5 Exercises You Should Be Doing With a Desk Job
Working from 9 to 5 at a desk job can really mess up your health and cause pain in a number of areas. It’s not just one area that suffers, practically your whole body does, but the more common areas of pain and stress can easily be relieved with a few simple stretches or exercises.
Correct Your Posture To Fix Lower Back Pain
One of the most common work-related problems that can cause twinges or ongoing pain is lower back pain. The easiest way to fix lower back pain is to fix your posture. Slumping or slouching in your means you’re putting a strain on ligaments and muscles in your back. You’ll want to sit upright, with your feet flat on the ground and your thighs parallel to the ground. You also might want to consider doing abdominal exercises, like crunches, a couple of times a week to help strengthen your core muscles, which will make it easier to maintain good posture.
Adjust Your Perspective To Avoid Eye Strain
Staring at computer monitors all day can really put a strain on your eyes. You can get eye fatigue, dry eyes, or headaches. Your eyes have to focus themselves to read the monitor and people tend to blink less when looking at monitors. To quickly fix this, look away at something off in the distance for about a minute every 20 minutes to give your eyes a break. I’d also recommend following The Occupational Safety & Health Administration instructions on computer monitor distance which is about 20-40 inches away from you with the top of the monitor at eye level.
Chin Tuck Can Save Your Neck… and Shoulders
Your neck and shoulders are crucial to do pretty much anything, and you’ll never notice how much you move them around on a daily basis until you’ve injured them. A quick way to relieve neck and shoulder pain is to do some stretches, like a chin tuck where you stand or sit straight, push out your chin as much as possible, then slowly retract your chin as far back as you can. Otherwise following the instructions on monitor level in Eye Strain will also help with neck and shoulder pain.
Wrist Strain and Pain
Writing out on your keyboard all day long can really mess up your wrists. Our hands have dozens of tendons that work parallel to each other. When you use a mouse or keyboard, those tendons work back and forth creating friction which can cause inflammation most commonly referred to as carpal tunnel syndrome. A quick way to relieve pain or tension in the wrists is to do a prayer stretch. Put your palms together as though about to pray, put your elbows out so they are parallel to your body, and slowly lower your hands until you feel stretching in your wrists, then hold that position for a few seconds.
Pain In The Hips
Hip pain can also be a big problem as not only do your hips hurt, it can contribute to lower back pain too. Sitting for extended periods of time can shorten a group of muscles in the front of your hips called the hip flexors. The best and quickest way to alleviate hip pain is to kneel on your left knee with your right foot forward and flat on the ground, shift your hips forward while bending your right knee, then place your butt on your left leg until you feel a stretch in your hips, hold the position for about 30 seconds then switch legs.