Relax Your Body with a 7-Minute Stretch

If you’ve been sitting for too long and feel like your body is merging with your chair, it’s time for a quick stretch break.

In this installment of Good Stretch, Chloe de Winter from Go Chlo Pilates will guide you through seven minutes of exercises aimed at stretching your spine, opening up your hips and shoulders, all tailored to break the monotony of your workday.

Sitting at a desk for extended periods can lead to poor posture, discomfort in the neck, shoulders, and lower back, and increased stress. Especially with more people working from home, the lack of movement for meetings and breaks can worsen these issues. Incorporating regular stretching into your daily routine can counteract the effects of prolonged desk work.

Additionally, after bending over a keyboard, stretching just feels incredibly satisfying.

Initially, de Winter will guide you to stand up from your chair to elongate your spine. Prolonged sitting compresses the spinal discs, and slouching only makes it worse. Stretching helps create more space and relieve pressure on the spine.

Next, the focus shifts to the tight hip area. Hips bear the weight of your upper body and are surrounded by important nerves. Hours of sitting can cause tightness and even shorten the hip flexors. Opening up the hips and improving circulation can alleviate discomfort and prevent issues like “dead butt syndrome.”

Finally, de Winter addresses the often neglected shoulders, which bear the brunt of our screen-centered routines. Desk work can strain the shoulders in various ways, leading to raised shoulders due to stress or poor posture resulting in forward shoulder rolling and muscle shortening. This leads to tension in the shoulder-neck-back region. The last part of the routine focuses on soothing these areas; if your shoulders are tense, the stretches will reveal how much they needed that movement and rotation instead of remaining slouched.

Phew, that was truly refreshing!