Sometimes there’s just not time to make it yoga or get your daily workout in. Totally understandable. However, that doesn’t mean that you have to accept a whole day of zero movement. Check out these ways to help your muscles stay limber and for you to keep energy while you do everyday tasks.
1. Instead of standing while you’re waiting somewhere, squat while you wait. Keep your heels down and work your elbows inside of your knees, swaying back and forth to help get deeper into your back. This works on hip flexibility and helps take pressure out of your lower back while developing lower body strength.
2. If you need to reach down to get something, keep your legs as straight as possible to work on hamstring flexibility. Hold it for a few seconds to give the stretch some time to do its thing.
3. Instead of sitting at your desk, stand up in mountain pose. Move your work to a higher surface so you can stand while you work. Focus on engaging your core and standing up tall, as if someone were pulling a string on your chest.
4. Balance in tree pose. If you’re standing somewhere (anywhere), pick your leg up the ground. Your knee doesn’t have to be that high off the ground. It only needs to be 1 inch off the ground for the muscles in your standing leg to start working, so people probably won’t even know that you’re doing it. Bonus points if you do this while standing on the bus or subway.
5. Sit cross-legged. This helps to open your hips and can help relieve sciatica by taking pressure out of the piriformis.
6. Cross your legs over one another, and squeeze your knee into your chest for a glute stretch and spinal twist. You can do this while seated.
7. Something sturdy above your head? Low ceiling? Press your hand into it so that your palm is facing up, and then lean forward and down for a stretch in your armpits.
8. Tilt your head in one direction while sitting up tall to stretch your neck and shoulders. If you can, extend the arm opposite the direction you are leaning towards to insert a bicep stretch.
9. Turn your chair so that your hips face sideways, sit up as tall as possible, and turn your torso in the direction that you need to in order to your work.
10. Actively pull your shoulders down and back to feel a stretch around your collarbones. I’m doing this now as I type.
11. Lunge down the hallway. Instead of walking, try lunging down the hallway. YOLO.
12. Downdog variation – While standing, place your hands on your desk, straighten your arms, and push your chest toward the ground. Turn your biceps to face upward to get an extra stretch in your upper back and shoulders.
13. Sit on a lacrosse ball. While seated, place a lacrosse ball right where your hamstring meets your butt, and slowly, slowly roll back and forth. This will break up the knot that usually builds up in that area. Make sure to add a hamstring stretch in after that (forward fold or anything involving your head going toward your knee).
14. DESK LIZARD POSE. Put your foot up on the desk, wide enough to place both hands to the inside of the lunging leg, and push your chest toward the computer screen, keeping the standing leg straight.
15. Squat hold – move your chair out of the way, and squat down to desk level. Keep your shoulders relaxed, and your arms straight out in front of you. Type away…
From: Man Flow Yoga