4 Steps To Keep Your Desk Job From Wrecking Your Body

I know we don’t think of office jobs as back-breaking work, but sitting at a desk all day exacts a major toll on your body. On a big-picture level, sitting for long stretches each day has been linked to significantly higher rates of mortality in multiple studies that have followed large populations for numerous years—and even regular exercise didn’t lessen the harmful effects of sitting.

On a similarly unhappy note, prolonged sitting contributes to a host of chronic ailments, according to biomechanist and founder of the Restorative Exercise Institute, Katy Bowman. Sitting-related ailments include cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, chronic low back pain, and pelvic floor disorders.

The best way, Bowman says, to mitigate the harmful effects of sitting is to do less of it. Using a standing work station throughout the day is ideal, but even quick walks of a couple minutes throughout the day make a big difference (all the more reason to drink plenty of water; it will force you to get up and walk to the bathroom).

And don’t underestimate the power of stretching. “Doing a few exercises can significantly mitigate the risk factors for common chronic ailments,” Bowman says. Here are her top four stretches for desk jockeys:

1. Double Calf Stretch

The issue: Wearing shoes with a heel causes the calf muscles to shorten, and sitting causes your hamstrings to get tight. Both of these muscle imbalances impact your gait and place excess strain on the joints in the lower half of your body.

The fix: Stand up, kick off your shoes, and step the balls of the feet up on a short stack of magazines or notebooks. Keeping heels on the ground and hips over your ankles, bend forward to rest hands on the seat of your office chair. Stay 1-2 minutes.

2. Thoracic Stretch

The issue: Sitting at the computer causes a slump in the chest that creates tension in the chest and shoulders.

The fix: Stand up and place palms on the top of your chair or desk. Walk your hips back until your arms are fully extended and lower your chest toward the floor. Stay 1-2 minutes.

Sitting-related ailments include cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, chronic low back pain, and pelvic floor disorders.

3. Head Hang

The issue: Looking at a computer screen causes us to hold our heads in one position for hours at a time; doing so with poor posture creates even more strain on your neck muscles and can lead to headaches.

The fix: Sit up tall on the edge of your chair seat. Drop the chin toward your chest and hold for 10 breaths, inhaling and exhaling deeply and slowly. As you do this, periodically check in with your shoulders and jaws, releasing any tension you might find.

4. Eye Balancer

The issue: “Because we tend to lift our chins and jut the head forward while working on the computer, we only look out of the lower half of our eyes, which causes eye muscles to atrophy and get tense,” Bowman says. This contributes to age-related vision decline.

The fix: To stretch the tight muscles and strengthen the underused portion of the eye, keep your chin down while you slowly trace the shape of a rainbow with your eyes, looking left, up, and right. Then re-trace the rainbow back to where you started.