8 Yoga Poses You can do on Your Desk

2. Open Chest Stretch

The chest is one of the body parts which even if not stretched doesn’t easily come to your notice. But it is important to stretch your chest muscles because it has various benefits. Open chest stretch can help you to increase your blood circulation. And prevent neck and back pain.

It’ll also help you in the chest region, improve your posture and increase flexibility.

Instructions – Sit on the edge of your chair and move your arms behind you interlacing your fingers. Make sure that your palm is facing your back. Lean a bit forwards and slowly move your arms upwards, you’ll feel a stretch in the chest region. Inhale slowly and lift your chest.

Then exhale and relax your shoulders. Hold about 10 breathes and slowly release your hands back to your sides.

3. Neck Stretch

The neck is one of the most sensitive areas where you can easily feel the pain more often than not after an hour of work. Sitting in the wrong postures can be very harmful to your neck. Neck stretching is one of the best ways you can make sure that you don’t have sour muscles around your neck and keep them moving at regular intervals. It helps you to increase your flexibility and strengthen your muscles.

Instructions – Sit upright with your back touching the back of your chair. Make sure your head is directly over your spine. Then bend your head slowly towards your right such that your right ear moves towards your right shoulder. Hold the posture and take a few breathes so that you can feel the stretch.

To increase the stretch, keep your right hand on the left side of your face on the left ear and hold for 3-5 more breathes. This will increase your stretch but make sure everything is done gently and slowly so that the process doesn’t bring you a negative result and increase your pain instead. Repeat the same process on the left side, forward and backward.

4. Chair Twist

Having back pain has become so common nowadays. Thanks to all the desk work people are glued to in wrong postures. People spend thousands and lakhs of rupees just to cure the pain which they have caused to themselves by not being conscious of how they sit and in which posture they sit.

But I don’t want you to suffer any of that so I have come up with a chair twist. Chair twist will help you to strengthen your lower and middle back and make sure you are away from the pain. It will increase your flexibility and also tone internal organs including the kidney and digestive organs. This will help in detoxification and keep you healthy overall.

Instructions – Sit on the edge of your chair and move your legs towards your right such that you are sitting diagonally. Move your right hand behind your back and hold the left side of the chair. Keep your left hand on the armrest or your right knee.

Then slowly and steadily move forward in a way that your shoulder is pressing downwards. Twist to your right and press your right hand against the chair to increase your stretch. Make sure you do everything at your own pace so that you don’t hurt yourself by going too fast or stretching excessively.

Take 10-15 deep breathes and hold the position. Finally, come back to the center and relax. Repeat the same posture on the other side

5. Reverse Prayer Posture

If you have problems in your wrists and shoulders while working on your desk, this can be a very effective way to overcome and avoid the pain. It helps to improve your digestion and loosen muscles in the shoulder, chest, and wrists region.

This will also help you to successfully manage your work stress and anxiety which is very necessary for one’s mental health. A peaceful mind is one of the key requirements to work with effectively and efficiently. This posture will make sure improvements in both, physical as well as mental health.

Instructions – Sit on the edge of your chair and take both your arms behind you. Join your arms such that your fingers are pointing downwards. Now slowly and steadily rotate your arms in a way that your fingers point towards the spine and then upwards.

Gently press both hands against each other so that they form a prayer posture. This posture can be a bit tough for beginners so make sure you only rotate your arms to the extent you can.

It is not compulsory to complete the whole posture on day one. But make sure to whatever extent you do, do it with the right form such that your shoulders are straight and not rounded. If you try too much with the wrong form it can increase or cause you pain.