Even us yoga teachers sit at desks or in front of computers and experience poor posture and all the bad feels that come with it. More often than not it's one of the main reasons why we quit our jobs and became yoga teachers.
So if you've slogging it out in front of the keyboard and time just keeps passing by and the back keeps hurting, try these easy stretches to keep the blood flowing to that brain of yours!
The main thing with these stretches is to open pathways or channels through the body that have been crunched up whilst seated, so if you think about how your body is positioned while sitting, and where it is bent, or where the weight drops down onto, these are the focus areas.
First things first... stand up.
This will not only give you the most out of the stretches, but it will give you a moment's break away from the computer. It's all well and good to have a stretch whilst seated, but you're probably still looking at your computer and focussing on work.. so take a break!
Mountain – side body focus
With two feet flat on the ground, sweep hands out to the side and up to the sky
Make a shot gun shape with your hands together, reach the pointers up up up
Ground through the feet, veer over to the right. Linger for a moment, breathing into that side body
Repeat on other side
Reverse clasp – shoulders and neck
Whilst standing, sweep hands out and up again, then cactus open the arms, opening up the heart a little and draw hands all the way behind you, clasping the hands together
To start, you can bend the elbows and squeeze through the shoulders
From here, bend elbows again and draw the clasped hands over to the top of your right hip, nestle it in here, then drop your right ear towards your right shoulder
You can hold here for a bit, breathing into this long side of neck, you then might like to slowly drop your head back and forth getting into the front and back sides of the neck
Release and repeat on the other side
Forward fold – hamstrings and spine
From standing, feet a little apart from each other, sweep hands out and up, draw palms together through centre and fold all the way down to the floor, bending your knees as much as you can so you belly rests on your thighs
Take hands to opposite elbows into a rag-doll position and sway gentle left to right, back and forth
Let the chin tuck so you can elongate your neck and spine
Keep the knees bent to support your low back
You might like to then let go of your elbows, letting the hands drop to the ground, and peddle out through the feet
Use an inhale to sweep the hands back out and up to the sky, or bring the hands to the thighs to support yourself back up
Balance – quad stretch
You might like to be near the wall or a chair for this one
Ground through both feet to start, then as ready, bring your right knee into your chest, giving it a squeeze
Then, flip things around drawing your right foot towards your butt, grabbing on to it with on or two hands
Rolling the shoulders back, navel in, gentle squeeze that foot in towards your butt, keeping your knees in line with each other
Release and repeat on the other side
Figure 4 – hips
You can sit back down for this one!
With feet a little wider than hips width, bring your right ankle onto your left knee, flexing through your right foot, adding a little gentle pressure onto that right leg to feel into your right glute
From here, you can stay, this might be plenty of that hip, otherwise, with the breath you can gentle draw the torso forward, folding over that bent knee
Release and repeat on the other side
Lol at my filthy socks!
Remember to focus on your breath as you move through these shapes, and if something doesn't feel right, come out of the shape.
Consistently stretching the body will always help prevent injury, we recommend these stretches in addition to a balanced lifestyle and a yoga practice. For some free online classes, try our Morning Practice series. 30 min yoga, stretching and meditation classes to start your day off well.