There are some essential exercises I recommend if you sit for prolonged periods during the day, especially if your job involves desk work. The best exercises for keeping your muscles and joints strong, mobile, and flexible aren't necessarily super fancy, but they do the job they're designed to do.
I'm sharing four of my go-to moves to release tension in your spine, stretch your glutes, lower back, hips, and hamstrings, and create strength and range of motion around your joints, particularly your pelvis.
If you are currently working with a health condition or injury, I recommend seeking personalized advice from your healthcare provider before trying these exercises. All you need is one of the best yoga mats to get started. Check them out below.
4 'essential' exercises to try if you sit at a desk all day
The routine: Perform each exercise for 60 seconds, briefly rest, then repeat for a second round.
Remember, only move within your ability and don't force your end range of motion to a point of pain. These moves are simple, repeatable and scalable, so below I explain how to progress them so that you can keep benefiting at any level or age.
I train clients of all ages and abilities, and I'm seeing mobility training and anti-aging routines being taken up across the board. It's about steering away from just high-impact training and focusing on functional fitness instead.
I like to combine stretching and mobility work to target muscle flexibility and joint range of motion. This will help keep your joints and muscles robust to withstand muscle atrophy, bone density loss, or injury. If you don't load them, you erode them.
What are the benefits?
Each of these exercises focuses on a different benefit.
If you don't load them, you erode them.
Seated windshield wipers: Start seated with your feet planted on the mat wider than shoulder-width, knees bent. Place your hands next to your hips. Roll your knees over to the right side so that the inner left knee and outer right knee touch the mat, then repeat over to the left side so that the outer left knee and inner right knee touch the mat. Keep your back straight and chest proud as you move from side to side.
Don't worry if your knees don't physically touch the ground, as this will be determined by the range of motion available in your hips. This is a great lower-body exercise for warming up your muscles and joints while also relieving tension in your lower back and pelvis as you internally rotate one hip and externally rotate the other.
Tabletop hip circles: Start in a tabletop position; it's important to stack your shoulders directly over your wrists with your hips over your knees. Draw your navel in. You could position a book, yoga block, or dumbbell to your right side as a marker, but this is optional. Lift your right knee to hover above the mat, then create large circles with your right leg, opening the knee away from the body first.
If using a marker, try to circle your leg around it without knocking it over. Spend 30 seconds on one side, then switch sides.
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Reverse tabletop: This is all about strengthening your arms and shoulders and stretching the back body and hips. It's a strong posture, but over time, aim to create a straight line from your shoulders to your knees as you press your hips upward to the ceiling.
Start seated with your knees bent and feet planted hip-width apart. Place your hands behind your hips, fingers pointed toward your feet. Keep your chin tucked and gaze ahead, then press your hips upward as you squeeze your glutes to protect your back. Pause, really engaging your core and drawing your ribs in and down. Lower your hips to the ground slowly and repeat.
Dynamic puppy pose: Your spine will love you for this, as will your upper chest, upper back, shoulders and arms. Consider this a child's pose on steroids, giving you a deep upper-body stretch but with some gentle movement added as a side.
Start in tabletop (as above); your knees must stack beneath your shoulders. Keeping your hips high and toes untucked, walk your hands along the mat away from your body as far as you can. Press down with your palms and either bring your forehead or chin to rest on the mat. Slowly release and repeat for 60 seconds.
Now let's look at some progressions you can try:
- Seated windshield wipers: Experiment with the distance you place your feet from each other and consider holding light weights to your hips or lying on your back or elbows.
- Tabletop hip circles: As mentioned briefly, you could place a dumbbell on its end to one side and focus on creating circles around the object without knocking it over; this tests control and range better. I sometimes add a loop band above the knees of my clients for added resistance.
- Reverse tabletop: Consider walking your feet further away from you to target your hamstrings more. You could also place a weight across your hips and/or slow the exercise to lift and lower for 4 seconds each way.
- Dynamic puppy pose: Consider elevating your hands on a yoga block or similar to create a deficit; this means your chest and shoulders have further to travel to reach the mat. To increase the stretch, hold longer and/or place your chin on the mat and gaze forward. You could also lift your palms away to balance on your fingertips.
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