![]() The best thing you can do to avoid injuries and keep making gains is to warm up properly before every workout. If it helps, set an alarm to remind you to get up and do these exercises every 30 minutes. Gently press your hands into your desk as you try to expand your upper back with your inhales. Straighten your arms and round your back. Raise your arms to shoulder height and extend your elbows, while simultaneously pushing your palms away from your body.Īnd for your upper back, use this stretch from Oetter: While seated, place both hands on your desk. Next stretch out your wrists: Interlace your fingers and flip your palms to face away from your body. Then stretch out a few common tight spots: Nod your head up and down and stretch your neck side to side, then do a few shoulder rolls forward and backward as far as you can, Tamir recommends. “Standing up hits reset to help counteract some of the negative effects of sitting.” ![]() Sitting applies constant tension, and the rubber band stretches out some,” he says. Take a break every 30 minutes and walk around for about a minute, recommends physical therapist and strength coach Eric Oetter. The best thing you can do to alleviate the muscular woes of working at a desk all day is to move more. Taking a few minutes at the gym and throughout your day can make a big difference in helping you feel better, avoid injuries, and hit your fitness goals. “You might build up your traps and get big muscles in your shoulder, rather than targeting your rhomboids and other muscles in your back,” Tamir says. ![]() If you try to bang out reps anyway, other muscles may step up to compensate for tighter, weaker ones, causing you to build muscle where you don't want it. “Adequate range of motion around the joints is imperative to perform loaded movement patterns safely and effectively,” says Jessica Matthews, master trainer for the American Council on Exercise and author of Stretching to Stay Young. In addition to the risk of injury, all these tight muscles can inhibit your strength gains. Plus, if your shoulders are rounded forward, it can make it harder to press overhead, and if you force it, that can lead to bone spurs, tendinitis, or torn tendons. “If you bust out bench presses, you're tightening pecs that are already tight,” Tamir says. ![]() And if you jump into a workout in that hunched-over position, you could be setting yourself up for an injury. Not only does that give you the posture of Quasimodo, it can also lead to neck pain, wrist mobility issues, and muscular imbalances. “Your neck is forward, your shoulders are slouching, there's more rounding of the upper back, and you're closing up your body,” says Noam Tamir, C.S.C.S., owner and founder of TS Fitness, a strength and conditioning studio in New York City. Now, experts say we have to worry about "text neck," a plethora of problems that come from being hunched over your phone all day. Add in the constant attention we give to our smartphones, and your neck, shoulders, and back are likely to be in even rougher shape Work out all you want on your own time, but if you spend all day sitting at a desk, you're bound to develop some poor posture habits. Life as an office drone might be good for your bank account - but your cushy job is not great for your body.
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