Working a desk job means spending long hours sitting on your bum, staring at a screen. As a result, many of us become accustomed to the feeling of stiffness or pain and often don't do anything about it.
While the best under-desk treadmills offer a great way to increase your activity levels as you answer emails and take calls, not everyone has space or the ability to work while walking. Fortunately, that’s where a simple mobility routine can help, one that works on easing muscle stiffness and pain caused by prolonged sitting.
This session comes from mobility coach Amir Zandinejad and is designed to target problem areas in the upper body and improve your posture throughout the day. Whether you’re tight on space or just need a quick break from your screen, these exercises offer an easy way to keep your body feeling its best while you work.
What is Amir Zandinejad's 8-move desk mobility routine?
The routine focuses on something called Controlled Articular Rotations (CARs), which sounds complex, but all it refers to is a type of movement that involves rotating a joint through its full range of motion in a slow and controlled way.
As Zandinejad explains: "With CARs, we express our full ranges of motion to remind our nervous system that these ranges are important to us and we want to keep them. We also influence blood, oxygen, and nutrients to our tissues to maintain their health."
You'll perform four to five reps of each exercise, except the final two moves where Zandinejad recommends performing up to six reps.
A post shared by Amir Zandinejad | Mobility Coach (@beardthebestyoucanbe)
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According to research published in the Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, long sitting times are linked to exhaustion, lower job satisfaction, hypertension, and aches and pains, especially in the shoulders, lower back, thighs, and knees.
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So, even if it's just a few minutes of stretching at your desk, it's important to peel your eyes from the screen and inject some movement into your day. And as you can see from Zandinejad's routine, you don't need a lot of time or space to get started and feel the positive impact while sitting down working.
While performing the movements, focus on slow and controlled movements. You mustn't push through pain if you experience it during any of the exercises. Zandinejad says, "Make sure to only work in pain-free ranges of motion. If any range creates pain or a pinching sensation, shorten the range, bypass the pain point, and then continue through the rest of the movement."
As it is quite short, it's important to remember that you won't see vast improvements right away. But you'll get a quick break from your screen and boost your awareness of your body, developing your mind-body connection, and helping bring your focus on the present moment to reduce feelings of stress.
More from Tom's Guide
- I tried this 6-minute mobility routine as soon as I woke up instead of hitting the snooze button — here's what happened
- Forget tight hips — try this 5-move routine to boost your mobility now
- I'm a personal trainer — this is the one move I use to unlock tight hips and boost lower body mobility
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Jessica Downey
Fitness Writer
Jessica is an experienced fitness writer with a passion for running. Her love for keeping fit and fueling her body with healthy and enjoyable food quite naturally led her to write about all things fitness and health-related. If she isn’t out testing the latest fitness products such as the latest running shoe or yoga mat for reviewing then she can be found writing news and features on the best ways to build strength, active aging, female health, and anything in between. Before then she had a small stint writing in local news, has also written for Runners World UK (print and digital), and gained experience with global content marketing agency, Cedar Communications.
Born and raised in Scotland, Jessica is a massive fan of exercising and keeping active outdoors. When at home she can be found running by the sea, swimming in it, or up a mountain. This continued as she studied and trained to become a PPA-accredited magazine journalist in Wales. And since working and living in London, she splits her time between weight training in the gym, trying new fitness classes, and finding scenic running routes. Jessica enjoys documenting this on her fitness-inspired Instagram page@jessrunsherewhere she loves engaging with like-minded fitness junkies.
She is a big fan of healthy cooking and loves learning more about this area with expert nutritionists she has met over the years. Jessica is a big advocate for building healthy relationships with food rather than building restrictive attitudes towards it. When she isn’t eating or running she also enjoys practicing yoga in her free time as it helps her to unwind and benefits her performance in other sports.
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