5 Simple Stretches to Counteract Sitting All Day

If you spend most of your day at a desk looking at a screen, you've probably felt your hips tighten, your lower back stiffen, and a burning crick in your neck. Sitting for hours can shorten some of your main muscle groups, compress your spine, and throw your posture out of line. 

Thankfully, Tony Zemlinsky, DC, and the team at Active Rehab Clinics in Bucktown, Chicago, and Park Ridge, Illinois, know a few intentional moves that can go a long way toward undoing the damage your chair does each day. 

When you sit for long periods, your hip flexors shorten, your glutes stop firing, and your upper back rounds forward. 

Over time, that creates a domino effect of muscle imbalances that can lead to lower back pain, shoulder pain, and snapping hips, conditions the Active Rehab Clinics team regularly treats. 

Here are five simple moves to add to your day to counteract the effects of prolonged sitting.

1. Kneeling hip flexor stretch

Drop into a lunge position with one knee on the floor. Shift your weight forward gently until you feel a stretch along the front of your back hip. Hold for 30 seconds on each side.

2. Cobra pose stretch

The cobra pose is a gentle backbend that helps reverse the forward slump you experience after prolonged sitting. Press your hands into the floor, lift your chest, and keep your shoulders relaxed to avoid straining your lower back. Hold for a few breaths. This pose opens your chest and strengthens your spine.

3. Stick extension stretch 

Using a broom, hold the stick wide in front of you and slowly raise it over your head and slightly behind it, keeping your arms straight and your core engaged. Stick extensions are known to help restore shoulder mobility and posture.

4. Standing stick cobra with rotation

Hold the stick behind your back, gently extend your chest upward like a rising cobra, then add a purposeful side-to-side rotation through your upper spine to open your chest. Standing stick cobras are great for thoracic mobility (the range of motion in your mid-back area).

5. Seated spinal twist

Sitting upright in your chair, place one hand on the outside of the opposite knee and gently rotate your torso. Hold for 20-30 seconds, then switch sides.

6. Doorway chest opener

Stand in a doorway with your arms bent at a 90-degree angle and rest them on the frame. Step one foot forward until you feel a gentle stretch across your chest and the front of your shoulders; hold it for 20-30 seconds. At the same time, draw your chin straight back in a chin tuck to help counteract that forward head posture.

At Active Rehab Clinics, we offer tools such as OptoJump gait analysis to assess how your body moves so your treatment plan addresses the underlying issue, not just the symptoms.

Contact the Park Ridge or Chicago office to learn more about how stretching can prevent or reverse some of the problems that sitting can cause. Call now or book online.