Working long hours sitting all day can definitely boost your income, but not your health. with the advancement of technology, almost everyone can work from home. Working from home, long hours in front of computer screens can also bring more health issues.
Studies show that sitting for long hours weakens legs, especially gluteal muscles. Large muscles are paramount for balance. Weakening muscles can injure and often get strains easily when you want to do any activity.
Your neck, shoulders, wrists, and hands can also get weaker quickly by sitting for long hours. You hear from your colleagues about stiff back, sometimes the neck and even wrists are unsafe.
You can prevent the injury by doing the following stretching exercises. Make these exercises part of your life to live a healthy and more productive life.
A couple of reminders
Always work in time intervals. You can use the Pomodoro technique to work in 25 or 50 minutes intervals to boost productivity. After 50 minutes, take 10 minutes to break 5 minutes break after 25 minutes. The breaks will help you to recharge your brainpower.
Here is my daily schedule, which you can incorporate into your workflow.
- I always take a break after 50 minutes of non-stop work. I also practice deep work technique means 50 minutes without any distraction to boost productivity.
- After 50 minutes, I take 10 minutes break to recharge my physical and mental energy. In those 10 minutes, I do stretching exercises, listen to music, drink water, washroom, or whatever I want to do.
- Sometimes I take a power nap of 10 minutes on a yoga mat which is always there in the office room — Mr. Kiwi (my cat) uses it if it’s not occupied.
- Make sure to stand up after 25–50 minutes.
- You can also invest in an electric standing desk (affiliate link)
Leg Stretches
Sitting for long hours can cause blood to pool in your legs which can cause pain, swelling, or numbness in the future.
Study shows that sitting for long hours can develop varicose vein condition. Veins that look dark purple/blue in color or maybe look twisted. They look like cords on your legs.
Always follow the 10-sec rule while stretching any part of your body. Do the basic leg stretching exercise. Leg stretches improve flexibility and body balance.
These stretches will help to relieve pain, numbness in your legs and feet.
Neck and shoulder stretches
It’s common for a person who spends hours in front of the computer to feel the pinch in the neck or strain in the shoulders. Research shows that around 46% of office work pain is some kind of neck pain due to sitting for long hours.
You can read this article on how smartphones destroy our lives from productivity. The main reason is hunching and constantly looking at the screen. It could be a cell phone.
Levator scapulae stretch
The levator scapulae stretching will really help you to reduce the tension in your neck and shoulders. These muscles connect the base of your neck to the shoulders. There is one on each side of your neck. You can do the exercise while sitting, but I highly recommend to do in a standing position.
- stand up straight
- Turn your head to the left
- Bring your right hand over your head then gently press down
- Make sure to feel a stretch
- Now do the same stretch on your left side
Bent-arm shoulder stretch to get rid of shoulder tension
You can also do deep breathing exercises, simply exhale and inhale while truing to left and right.
Hand and wrists stretch
Hands and wrists are super important to stretch because they are always under a lot of stress while typing or coding.
I highly recommend starting with simple hand wrist stretches exercises. Research shows that stretching training helps to reduce stress injury.
Do the basic stretch as you can see in the image — extend your arm out and make sure you feel the stretching.
You can do the wrist circle. Wrist circles are the best exercise to make your wrists strong and flexible. A good fitness trainer always recommends exercising wrist circles before doing any activity, especially push-ups.
Bottom line
The primary purpose of these stretching exercises is to keep your body injury-free and make it more flexible to combat wrists, neck, and shoulders injuries while working long hours in front of computer screens.
Take a regular break to fight muscle fatigue and stand up. Do push-ups, stretch, listen to music. Develop small habits to do stretching daily, and your body will become more flexible and strong during long computer hours.
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