Desk Yoga: Keep Stretching During Working From Home

A recent survey has found the vast majority of British workers want to stay working from home or spend the majority of their working week there.

The shift away from the office environment has been a mass migration after the Government called for working from home wherever possible as part of the social distancing restrictions in place to combat the spread of Covid-19.

Just 7% of the YouGov survey participants wanted to return to the office full-time, while 18% would opt to work from home every day and 32% would seek to work from home most days.

This change in perspective puts emphasis on the need to encourage and promote health and wellbeing while sitting at a remote workstation, as an employer’s obligation to ensure this does not simply end when the employee is not working in the office.

With that in mind, have you considered desk yoga, which you can carry out while at your desk to avoid the aches and pains which come with inactivity?

Here are three stretches, as part of desk yoga, which could prove useful:

Chair pigeon pose – Put both feet flat on the floor and then cross your right leg over the left at a 90-degree angle. Be sure that your foot stays flexed, so that the knee isn’t under pressure. Hold this pose for five to ten breaths before switching sides and you should feel less tightness in your hips and lower back.

Finger and wrist stretches – Working on a computer all day can be especially hard on the wrist and fingers. Stretch your arms to your side or above your head and draw up to ten circles with your wrists. Following that, spread your fingers and close your fists ten times in quick succession to relieve further tension. Finally, put your hands on your desk with your palms facing up and your fingers pointing back towards you. Gentle pressure will help stretch both the forearm and wrist.

Seated crescent moon pose – Sitting at your desk doesn’t exactly promote good posture, and the side of your body has a tendency to collapse when you’ve spent too long hunched over your workstation. This leads to neck and shoulder pain that can prove massively uncomfortable, so the seated crescent moon pose is incredibly useful. Lifting your arms overhead and stretching your fingers wide lengthens the spine, while a gentle lean to the right and left (with two or three deep breaths in between) will also help keep your head clear.

If you are a company keen to look out for the health and wellbeing of your employees who are working from home, contact us today by email or discuss with our team on 0344 576 1679.