Desk Exercises
Today’s increasingly sedentary lifestyle makes it very difficult to stay in shape. However, you could reduce stress, increase your endurance, and relieve stiffness by incorporating some of these safe tips and exercises into your daily work routine. You’ll look better and feel much better. Fitness experts agree that exercises are very important. Lack of it is associated with heart disease and other health problems.
Stretching (flexibility) exercises help prevent joint and muscle stiffness and keep your body limber. If you do a series of stretches when you first arrive at work, they loosen you up and produce a sense of well–being and enthusiasm for the day’s events. When done at the end of a day, you will feel relaxed and less stressful.

Strengthening exercises make the muscles stronger. Weight–lifting comes to mind when thinking of strength, but you don’t have to lift hundreds of pounds to develop strong muscles. “Strength” in this context refers to the ability of a muscle to perform work, not to the size or bulk of a muscle. No time? No motivation? No equipment? Stretching and strengthening exercises on the chair, chosen with the sedentary worker in mind, is simple, takes only a few minutes and could be performed right at your desk.

Even though you work at your desk for seven hours each day, there are a few ways to keep your legs, arms and abdominal toned. First of all, you can set an alarm on your computer to remind you to stretch or do a quick exercise six or seven times each day. Every hour would be ideal. Make sure you are sitting on a high–quality chair. Remember to sit tall, maintaining a natural curve to your lower back. We also present some yoga–based exercises which you can do in the office during the course of the day to help prevent a few common injuries like carpal tunnel and repetitive stress injuries. The most important part of each exercise is to become aware of your body and your breath.

Chair Exercises
1. Neck
In a seated position, straighten your back then extend your neck muscles and move them in a big circular motion.

2. Back/Stomach
In a seated position, raise both your arms, then while lowering and raising your chin, bend your chest backwards.

3. Shoulders
In a seated position, lightly bend your elbows and very smoothly, rotate your shoulders.

4. Arms
In a seated position, loosen up your arms and hands, then shake, rotating from front to rear and side to side.

5. Chest
In a seated position, bend your back against the chair and expand your chest upwards, then straighten out your arms downwards. After that, continue the motion by bending your upper body forwards.

6. Ankles
In a seated position, put your feet together lightly and pull your toes towards yourself, and then release.

7. Knees
While holding onto the desk with both hands, place your neck between your arms and while straightening out your back, shoulders, and waist, slowly, squeeze your body downwards. Then, continue the motion by straightening out your body and bending backwards.

8. Waist
While holding onto the desk with one hand, twist your arm and waist to one direction and straighten out coming back. You should then change directions while keeping your eyes on the hand in motion.