Sitting or standing, working from home is hard on your upper body!

Those lucky enough to be able to work from home during the pandemic know all too well the aches and pains that have often accompanied this privilege. As we learned in part one of our work from home series, sitting (or standing) for long periods of time, is hard on the lower body, wreaking havoc on our hips, knees and ankles. In part two, we’re moving our focus to the upper body, uncovering how the neck, shoulders and back are impacted by long days spent in front of a computer. Included are relatively easy but highly effective movements for you to try throughout your day to both prevent and relieve some of the most common stresses and strains. If you’re a movement professional, consider sharing these exercises with your clients to keep them feeling their best in between longer private sessions or group classes with you.

How the upper body is affected by sitting or standing

One of the biggest challenges in sitting or standing at a desk throughout the workday is the lack of movement for long periods of time, basically making aches, pains, fatigue and discomfort inevitable. In the case of the upper body, as we get more and more focused on our work, our bodies tend to hunch forward. The spinal erectors (back muscles) and anterior deep neck flexors (font of neck) lengthen, leaving us with a hunched and “head forward” posture. This creates immense pressure on the spine. In fact, for every inch your head is forward of your spine, it increases the weight of your head by 10 pounds! Our posterior cervical spine muscles (back of neck) shorten, creating tension in the neck, head and jaw. Shoulders also tend to round forward and become misaligned as the shoulder blades abduct (pull away from the midline) and ribs remain static, impeding our ability to get a good deep breath. There’s a lot going on in the upper body during a long day of sitting!

Even though we may desperately want to “stretch things out” after a long period of sitting,  moving in a functional way rather than statically stretching out individual muscles is the best thing we can do reduce tension and create better alignment and less strain on our joints. Five minutes of movement every hour every hour is ideal, but if that’s tough to squeeze into a busy schedule, even five minutes in the morning, at noon and in the afternoon will improve how our bodies feel by the end of the day.

Try these exercises to mobilize, strengthen and realign the upper body (and if you can’t get up out of your chair, try one of our popular upper body Desk Sitters videos below):

1) Cervical Spine Mobility

Sitting or standing, move your head in three motions, keeping the movements small and focusing on moving from the top two vertebrae of your spine. First, move your head side to side, like you are shaking your head “no.” Next nod your head as if you are saying “yes.” Finally, imagine you’re drawing a horizontal figure eight with your nose. Try 10-15 repetitions of each movement.

2) The Kayaker

Sit or stand with your hands at the back of your head with your elbows in your peripheral vision. Curl your upper back forward slightly and remain rounded as you begin to make a kayaking motion with your arms. Your entire upper body will start to rotate as the arms move, allowing you to mobilize your thoracic spine (upper back). Do this motion for one to two minutes.

3) Extension and rotation

With hands behind your head, press your head into your hands and begin lifting your breastbone up to the ceiling as you extend (bend back) through your upper spine. Repeat 10 times and on the final repetition, hold the extension and rotate the ribs from side to side. Rotate 10-15 times.

4) Quadruped Shoulder Blade Glides

On hands and knees, let your head hang so there is no tension in your neck. Keeping your elbows straight, begin gliding your shoulder blades towards your spine and then away from your spine. Move from the lower tips of your shoulder blades and focus most on bringing your blades towards your spine, feeling for muscle activation horizontally across the mid back. Repeat 10-12 times.

5) Side Bridge

Build strength and stability in your shoulders and spine with this exercise. Lie on your side, knees slightly bent with your forearm on the ground and elbow directly under your shoulder, slightly shift your ribs up to the ceiling to create a neutral spine (aligned, not curving up or down; waist long on both side). Press into your forearm and knees and lift the hips off the floor and lower with control. Repeat 8-10 times on each side.

Note: if there is any discomfort while doing any of these exercises, try reducing the range of motion, or omit the exercise for now.

Seated Pilates & Movement

Stretching out the upper body, starting with the hands, can make a huge difference in releasing the stress and tension that so often comes from sitting at a desk. With this short series of exercises you will learn several targeted stretches that you can use throughout your day to melt away tension and relieve stress.

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