10 Stretches To Do At Your Desk

It’s likely that when you sit at a desk for a number of hours a week that once in a while you’ll have a few achy, uncomfortable joints or muscles. You may occasionally get an achy lower back, a tight neck or tight hamstrings from sitting at a desk. Even if you feel these don’t effect you now I would still recommend trying and incorporating them for many reasons - the maintenance of your spine, preventing future injury, preventing the rounding of shoulders/poor posture. In addition, taking a few minutes out to breathe and get your body moving, even sitting at a desk, will help you feel energised and more alert during your working day,

The following ten stretches should help you to ease these. Not all of them need to be done together but they all bring a different benefit and open up a different part of the body. Perhaps you find three that work well for you and try to integrate them into your daily routine.

Start sitting in the middle of your seat so that you can sit up tall without touching its back and complete the following sequence - it should take around ten minutes in total with sufficient pausing and breathing in each.

1 & 2. Seated Cat Cow
Take your hands to your knees, lift your chest and pull your shoulders back - take a deep inhale and as you exhale, round your spine, drop your chin to your chest, bring your thoracic (middle) spine towards the back of the chair.

3. Neck Stretch
Take your hands under your thighs and sit up as tall as you can. Let the right ear drop toward your right shoulder, hold here for 30 seconds until you feel a gentle release and repeat on the other side.

4. Reach Up
Take your hands together above your head, interlace them and pop out your first finger pointing to the sky. Stretch arms up as high as you can to lengthen your spine and let your self stretch right and left, staying on one side for a few moments.

5. Seated Twist
Take one hand behind you to the top of the chair and the other to the arm rest or the side of the seat. Lift up as tall as you can, take a breath in and twist as you breathe out. Hold it for at least 30 seconds, keeping long through your spine. Release and repeat on the other side.

6. Hip Opener
Take your right ankle over the top of the left thigh and flex the foot. Gently draw the right knee towards the ground, hold the knee and ankle and hinge forward. Hopefully you feel it in your outer right hip. Repeat on the other side.

7. Eagle Arms, Upper Back Stretch
Reach your arms to each side and then wrap the right under the left, bend your elbows, squeeze the arms together and wrap the hands until they touch. Shrug the shoulders down and draw your forearms and hands forwards and up. Hold for 20 seconds and repeat on the left side.

8. Calf Stretch
Come to stand, bend through one knee and place the other heel on the ground, flexing that foot. Hold on to the desk or the back of your chair and slowly fold forward.

9. Quad Stretch
Stand tall and take the weight into one foot, lift the other and bend that knee, catching the foot in your hand. Keep the knees together and draw your hips forward, bringing the heel towards your bottom.

10. Back body and neck
Interlace hands behind your lower back, draw the shoulders behind you, extend arms, lift hands away from body and drop chin to sternum. You can do this sitting or standing at any point of the day and it should release tension in the shoulders and neck.

A Beginners Guide to the Chakras

Have you ever stepped onto the mat feeling frenzied or worried and after the practice walked off feeling a little lighter? Biologically speaking, you will have mustered up some endorphins to improve your mood (since it feels pretty good to move your body) however, ancient yogis and many teachers would reason this to how yoga and breathwork can unblock channels and pent up energy, allowing it to flow freely.

Chakra is a Sanskrit word that means ‘wheel’, and it refers to the areas in the subtle body where energy flows. The main seven chakras are: root, sacral, solar plexus, heart, throat, third eye and crown. For ease, imagine that they travel from your coccyx (the root) up the spine to the top of your head (the crown). They are a complex network of energetic channels, each relating to a different element (earth, water, air) and each associated with their own colour.

The reality is that most classes flow through the chakras (if planned well). When we practice, we move in such a way to collect prana (energy, life-force) to enliven the chakras and to stabilise the mind so that they can come forward or open up. I know at first it can all seem a little far fetched but I now understand them as second nature which can really aid my self practice. So lets go through them…

1. Root Chakra - Muladhara
   Located at your perineum or coccyx, it represents being grounded, safe and having survival needs met. Associated with the colour red and the element is relates to is earth. If it is out of balance and your basic needs are not met, you tend to have self destructive behaviours with low self esteem. But if it is balanced, you will feel confident, secure and safe.

2. Sacral Chakra - Svadisthana

   Located at your sacrum, it represents pleasure, fluidity, creativity, fertility and sexuality. Associated with the colour orange and the element it relates to is water. Out of balance you might be hard on yourself and feel guilty, but in balance you should feel deserving of living an abundant pleasurable life.

3. Solar Plexus Chakra - Manipura

   Located by the belly button, it represents will power, that ‘gut feeling’, strength and assertion. Associated with the colour yellow and the element it relates to is fire. In balance you have self esteem and confidence and unbalanced you lack courage and become inert.

4. Heart Chakra - Anahata

   Located at your heart, it of course represents love, unconditional love, compassion and intuition. Associated with the colour green and the element it relates to is air. When it is balanced you will be able to forgive, to love unconditionally and when it is closed you may have dysfunctional relationships and you may become possessive or codependent.

5. Throat Chakra - Vishuddha

   Located at your throat, it represents communication, truth and reliability. Associated with the colour blue and the element it relates to is ether. In balance, you will be able to communicate with patience, no judgement and truth. If blocked, you may think your voice is the only truth and you may struggle to communicate and listen to others.

6. Third Eye Chakra - Ajna

   Located in between your eyebrows or in your brain, it represents wisdom, imagination, intuition and the ability to analyse truth in the world. Associated with the colour indigo and the element it relates to is light. In balance you can trust your inner wisdom with life’s challenges, but unbalanced you are cynical and close minded.

7. Crown Chakra - Sahasrara

   The final chakra doesn’t really have a place on the human body, but it is located just above your head. It represents a higher consciousness than yourself, helping you understand that you are far beyond the physical self. Associated with the colour indigo or white and the element it relates to is cosmic energy. When the chakra is closed, you believe that happiness comes from the outside but balanced you feel free and are able to find happiness within.

I hope that didn’t confuse you too much but gave you a general understanding of the chakras so you might be able to think if perhaps they need rebalancing or some time given to certain areas of body.

Please come to yoga with me in Tunbridge Wells to get a deeper understanding of them within your asana practice. Here is my timetable and for the next seven weeks we will be moving through a chakra based practice, focusing on one each week, beginning with Muladhara, the root chakra.

Peace.