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Work-life balance: Ease muscle tension and stress at your desk
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Hunched over a keyboard all day, phone in the crook of your shoulder while both eyes are glued to a flickering screen? While your productivity maybe high, you may often face unwanted side effects: neck pain, shoulder discomfort, back pain and sore wrists.
Relief is as simple as stretching a few times during the day. Then watch your energy level soar. Poses take a few minutes, and can be done in a desk chair and in a suit. No changing clothes, no equipment needed and no sweat generated.
Tips to ease muscle kinks and daily stress.
1. Yoga at Your Desk
- Shoulder opener: Stand up and reach over your desk, grabbing the opposite side with both hands. Walk the hips back, legs straight with a microbend in the knees, spine flat. Pull the hips back and feel a nice stretch through the shoulders and back side of the body.
- Stretch the upper back: Sit in your chair, move your hips toward the back of the chair, feet flat. Sit up nice and tall, one vertebra stacked on top of another. Take your arms straight out in front of you, cross the right arm over the left far enough so the right elbow comes to the outside of the left elbow crease. Bend at the elbows, try to touch either the outside or inside of the palms and pull the hands in front of the face. Lift the elbows to the ceiling, take the chin to chest for a deeper stretch in the upper back.
- Hamstring and hip stretch: Stand up tall, extend your right leg, place the foot on the floor in front of you or on the chair, hips square, pull toes in towards the shin. Hinge at the hips and bend forward. Feel the nice hamstring stretch. Switch to the left side. You can also stretch seated from your chair.
2. Breathe. Feeling irritated, anxious or stressed? Take a deep belly breath. Sit up tall, move your spine away from the back of the chair, hips toward the edge of the seat and breathe three full, deep breaths. On the inhale, let the breath fill your lower rib cage first, not your chest. Focus on the exhale and letting go. Feel the stress thaw instantaneously.
3. Focus. Yoga practice helps us focus our minds. Apply focus to your work life. Notice how many times throughout the day you multi-task, adding stress and depleting productivity. Helpful hints: get rid of e-mail distractions, such as the chime, or break the habit of stopping a task mid-stream to check e-mail. Try to focus on one task until it’s complete. If your task is too long to complete in one sitting, break it down into smaller chunks.
4. Reverse your habits to your non-dominant side. Move your mouse pad and phone to the opposite side of your computer. Feel those kinks in the shoulder melt away after a day. Utilizing your less dominant hand for phone dialing and mouse maneuvering will also exercise underused muscles.
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