Desk Stretches

Desk Stretches You Can Do Right Now to Ease Aches and Pains

Sitting at a desk all day long is hardly conducive to good posture or good health. Do you notice your shoulders getting tight? Your neck or back getting sore? Legs feeling stiff towards the end of the day?

Regular physical activity is an important part of well-being, especially when you work a desk job. There are also a number of desk stretches that you can do to ease stiff muscles and maintain good range of motion. In this article we'll discuss some of the best desk stretches you can do right now to ease aches and pains.

Start With a Proper Posture Assessment

Leaning forward like this can result in injury.

It’s tricky to assess your own posture, but a friend may be able to help you to understand how you're actually sitting at your desk by taking some pictures during the workday. Many people work in poor ergonomic positions with improper posture without even realizing it.

A physiotherapist can also properly assess your posture to help you learn what changes you need to make. The key tool used for this practice is called a plumb line. This can be a physical string hanging from a ceiling with a weight at the bottom to keep it straight, a straight stick, or even just a visualization of a straight line that goes through the very center of our bodies. Our head should sit centered atop our neck, which sits centered atop our shoulders, and so on and so forth. 

If you try to assess your own posture, start with your head.

If you look at yourself from the side, your ears should line up with your shoulders when you’re facing straight ahead. The center of the hips should line up below the shoulders, and the knees and ankles should fall in this alignment as well (when standing). 

While the stretches below will help to ease discomfort caused by sitting at a desk for extended periods, it is also important to practice good posture and strengthen supporting muscles to enforce good posture.

To learn about how to achieve and maintain proper ergonomics, use our free Ergonomic Desk Height Calculator and ergonomic resource page.

Head and Neck Stretches You Can Do at Your Desk

Often when we sit at our desk at work we are either hunched over documents or hunched forward staring at a computer screen.

Neither position is good for our neck muscles, which have a big job to support your head. For each inch forward your head is out of alignment, you add 10 pounds of strain on the neck and spine! The neck muscles are constantly contracted to support our head, which itself already weighs 8-10 pounds. If you lean forward 3 inches out of alignment during an 8 hour workday, you're asking your neck to support 38-40 pounds ... that's a lot of weight.

The following are examples of stretches for the head and neck (some may also stretch the top of the shoulder) that target muscles such as the top portion of the trapezius, levator scapulae, the scalenes, and sternocleidomastoid. These are stretches you can do right at your desk to alleviate neck pain, and we recommend doing these in addition to correcting issues with your posture.

1. Sitting in your chair with your arms at your sides, reach one arm up and arch it over your head to touch the opposite side of your head (i.e. left arm reaches up and over head towards the right side of the head and vice versa). With your other arm still hanging down by your side, tilt your head towards the raised arm and use the weight of your arm to apply very gentle pressure. To deepen the stretch, the arm that is by your side can also grasp the edge of the chair and pull into a deeper stretch. Hold for 30 seconds and repeat on the other side.
2. To stretch the muscles and connective tissue at the back of your neck, tuck your chin in towards your neck. Imagine you are taking your fingers and pushing your chin in towards your body.
3. Neck CARs (controlled articular rotations) involve rolling your head slowly around your neck on your shoulders. Try not to hyper-extend your neck as you roll backward as this can result in injury. Focus on going forward, and side to side (right ear to right shoulder, chin to chest, left ear to left shoulder, etc.). 

Related:  Health Tips for Working Professionals

Desk Stretches for Your Core & Trunk

The trunk of your body is the space from your shoulders to your hips, not including your arms. Desk stretches for your chest and core will help to alleviate stress and strain on muscles in the chest, abdomen, and back.

As we sit all day, we are susceptible to compression in the spinal column due to the cruel forces of gravity. We also lose mobility by staying in one position for extended lengths of time. To maintain mobility and decompress the spinal column here are some simple desk stretches for the trunk:
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1. Stretch your arms above your head and clasp your hands together. Reach up as tall as you can. Optionally, while in this position, you can also bend to either side to stretch out the sides of your body.
2. Give yourself a hug (you've earned it!). Wrap your arms around yourself as tight as you can, then twist slowly in one direction as far as you can, hold for a moment, then return to center in a controlled motion and repeat in the opposite direction. Repeat several times back and forth. We don't recommend sighing or moaning during this stretch, as this may get you reported to HR. 
3. Put your arms straight out in front of you. Without bending at the hips or waist, reach forward slowly and arch your back. Hold for 30 seconds.
4. Put your arms behind you and clasp your hands together. From here, lift your hands away from your body (back behind you) as far as you can to open up the chest muscles.

Related:  Our Favorite Ergonomic Exercises for Office Workers

Desk Stretches for Your Hips and Legs

The hips and legs can grow stiff while we sit immobile all day, even if you have a quality office chair and are sitting in a proper ergonomic position.

This can lead to tight gluteal muscles, which can cause sciatica nerve pain. It can also leave the hip flexors at the front of your hips shortened and tight when you go to stand.

Venous blood flow from the legs returns to the heart with the support of the calf muscles, otherwise blood can become stagnant in the legs and increase the risk of blood clots especially for older folks or individuals who are taking certain medications.

All this is to say that regularly getting up and moving is important, and stretching your legs and hips at your desk is important too.  Here are a few desk stretches you can try to target these areas of your body:
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1. While sitting at your desk, hug one of your knees into your chest as much as you can. Hands can be placed either wrapped around the knee or even around the thigh while you pull your bent leg towards you. This is an important stretch for the hamstrings and gluteal muscles.
2. Sitting in your chair, put your legs straight out in front of you with your heels on the ground. Flex your feet so that your toes point to the sky. Then lean forward and reach towards your toes as much as you can - it is completely okay if you cannot touch your toes ... the act of stretching and reaching for them will have the desired effect. Be careful not to bounce as you do this; hold steadily for 10 to 30 seconds. You should feel a good stretch throughout the whole back of the leg.
3. The classic stretch for hip flexors, which also includes the quadriceps muscles, is to stand and bend your knee for your heel to reach your butt and hold your foot. You often see runners doing this. Press your hips forward as you do this for a deeper stretch. If you don’t have the greatest balance or cannot reach your foot behind you, you can also stand at your desk, supporting yourself with one hand on the desk. Or you can place both hands on your desk and bend your knee to rest the top of your foot on the seat of your chair. From here, push your hips forward to deepen the stretch.
4. It is good practice to regularly work the calf muscles by pointing and flexing your feet repeatedly to get the blood moving out of your lower limbs. Point your toes as hard as you can, hold for 10 seconds, and then flex to point your toes to the sky as hard as you can, hold for 10 seconds, and repeat several times. This stretch can be done at your desk as you work.

​Related:  Our Favorite Under-Desk Ellipticals and Foot Peddlers

Better Than any Desk Stretch: Move Your Body Regularly

In addition to these stretches, it is important to maintain movement throughout the day to counteract sitting at work.

Take breaks to get up and get a drink of water or coffee, walk around your office for a few minutes to stretch your legs and connect with colleagues. Where appropriate, see if you can make your meeting a standing or a walking meeting.

Motion and stretching are key ways to maintaining good physical health, and changing positions throughout your workday could be the best thing you do to ease your aches and pains. If you're interested in learning more about the best products to get you up and moving while working a desk job, we have a whole section of the site dedicated to creating the perfect active workstation.

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