Counteracting the numbness that comes with a desk job

Jan 16, 2009 21:41 GMT  ·  By
Experts urge office workers to constantly correct their posture by stretching their back
   Experts urge office workers to constantly correct their posture by stretching their back

A desk job can have potentially harming effects on our body and overall wellbeing, which is why lots of attention has been recently paid to the little things that we can do to counteract them. FitSugar and Glamour magazine say that there’s more to the exercises we can do to feel better than what we have previously discussed.

One simple exercise, says Glamour, is specifically meant to ease away all that tension accumulated throughout the day. It’s easy to do and requires no more than just two minutes of the time we have little to spare as it is. Ob-gyn Christiane Northrup, M.D., tells the mag about a little tip for posture correction that we can perform every night before bedtime.

“Every night before going to sleep, lie on your back and hang your head and shoulders off the bed for up to two minutes.” Northrup advises, stressing the many benefits this small exercise has. “[It] opens up your chest, increasing blood supply to your lungs and heart, and can help prevent bad posture from hours of hunching over a desk at work.” This way, our muscles will be toned again, since they will no longer feel the strain we put on them at work, even if we do not always realize it.

Another easy exercise we can do right at the office to correct our posture and no longer feel as if we just lost a boxing match is, as FitSugar explains, stretching. This, unlike the other exercise, can be performed whenever we get up from our desk throughout the day, and consists of holding our hands behind our back and stretching our arms as further as we can, while straightening our upper back and clenching our abdominal muscles. It is meant to alleviate back pains and ease the feeling of something bearing down in between our shoulderblades caused by hunching in front of a computer or doing paperwork.

With this in mind, remember that doctors and fitness experts also warn us that a desk job could make the pounds pile on, which must be counteracted with a proper diet and constant workouts.