Countless hours in the office staring at a computer screen can really be taxing on the body, causing headaches, neck pain, back pain, and undue discomfort throughout the day.\u00a0 In this article I\u2019m going to point out some great exercises you can do to help avoid or relieve neck and back discomfort without standing up from your chair.\u00a0 Getting up and moving around for about 5 minutes for every 1 to 2 hours of sitting is recommended; however, if the madness of the job has you glued to your chair, these exercises will help to relieve any aches and pains that are brought on by the postural compensations related to long hours of sitting.\u00a0 A great idea is to try and do an exercise while you are on the phone or waiting for the phone to be answered on the other end.\u00a0 In order to remain as productive as you would like to be at work it\u2019s important to be comfortable, but if you are cross eyed from staring at a bright computer screen, have a pounding headache, and are constantly suffering from neck and back discomfort you will not be able to focus all of your attention on the task at hand.\u00a0 Take some time out for you, feeling better will result in increased productivity and job satisfaction overall.<\/p>\n
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Here are a few exercises to get you started:<\/p>\n
1.) Neck Stretch<\/em><\/strong>-sit up straight, relax your shoulders, and tilt your head to the side bringing your ear towards your left shoulder.\u00a0 You should feel a stretch in your right upper trapezius muscle, which sits right on the top of your shoulder.\u00a0 Hold this stretch for 25 to 30 seconds and perform twice on each side.<\/p>\n 2.) \u201cSqueeze the Pencil\u201d<\/em><\/strong>-pull your shoulders down and back as if you were trying to squeeze a pencil between your shoulder blades.\u00a0 You should feel your upper trapezius muscles (as mentioned above) relaxed and the muscles between your shoulder blades working.\u00a0 Hold each \u201csqueeze\u201d for 5 seconds and repeat for 10 repetitions.<\/p>\n 3.) Upper Back Stretch<\/em><\/strong>-extend your arms in front of you and grab your right wrist with your left hand.\u00a0 Pull your arms forward while rounding out your upper back, releasing tension between the shoulder blades.\u00a0 Hold for the stretch for 25 to 30 seconds and repeat twice on each side.<\/p>\n 4.) \u201cReach for the Sky\u201d<\/em><\/strong>-interlock your fingers and reach your arms straight up over your head, locking out your elbows.\u00a0 Try to pull your arms as far back over your head as you can without discomfort and hold for 25 to 30 seconds, repeating twice.<\/p>\n 5.) Low Back Stretch<\/em><\/strong>-sit up straight and place your left arm behind your left hip.\u00a0 Gently twist to the left using your right arm to pull you further into the stretch, hold for 25 to 30 seconds on each side.<\/p>\n For more information about how to create an ergonomically friendly work space email Michelle@CORE-Condition.com<\/p>\n Michelle Roots BA KIN, CSCS, PES<\/p>\n www.CORE-Condition.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Countless hours in the office staring at a computer screen can really be taxing on the body, causing headaches, neck pain, back pain, and undue discomfort throughout the day.\u00a0 In this article I\u2019m going to point out some great exercises you can do to help avoid or relieve neck and back discomfort without standing up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles-and-media","category-updates-and-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.core-condition.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.core-condition.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.core-condition.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.core-condition.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.core-condition.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=573"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.core-condition.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4786,"href":"https:\/\/www.core-condition.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573\/revisions\/4786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.core-condition.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.core-condition.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.core-condition.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}