How To Do Stretching Exercises At Your Desk

Working at a desk all day long can really take a toll on the body. It's usually not strenuous work. Typically it's pretty boring. Whether answering phones or inputting data in a spread sheet, your body is pretty static which can make the muscles tight and weak. This tightness and weakness can lead to a myriad of problems.

I've seen a lot of people asking this same question even though they do not work together, nor probably even know each other. And while they may have different fitness goals or reasons for asking, the question is usually the same. They simply want to know good "exercises to do at your desk".

There are several different reasons that people want to increase their activity while at work. Some people want to do computer stretching to treat or prevent things like carpal tunnel syndrome symptoms. Others feel that they are a little too heavy and want to know the best way to lose weight when they are working at their desk. Still others may be a little bored with their jobs and are looking for some productive distraction to help pass the time at work. These are a few reasons for wanting to exercise at work and there are several others.

I wrote an article about things to consider when you are looking for the best exercises to do at your desk. The main point of that article was to say that while you may be able to increase your activity while you are on the clock, it'll be hard getting in a good solid workout for a number of reasons. The primary reason to me is that while you're at work, you can't focus on your fitness goals.

What you can focus on is gentle stretching and get some good stretches in through out the day. Typically, when you stretch, it's not something that you move a lot with. So, because you don't move a lot, you don't stand out in the office. I would say that people would expect to see you stretching before they see you doing a lot of reps of something.

There are three stretches that I have my patients focus on and they involve the upper body and arms. The first stretch is the the wrist flexor stretch. This stretches the back of the hand toward the arm. This really stretches out the carpal tunnel and its contents.

The second stretch is the chest stretch. You can do this by clasping your hands behind you, rolling your shoulders back while at the same time lifting your arms. This will undo a lot of the negative things that happen when you have to sit in front of a computer for most of the day.

The third stretch is the tricep stretch. This is done by simply placing one hand overhead and reaching down the center of the back. This is great for people who find that they are using their mouse for a long period of time.