Continuing our theme of exercises that are targeting people that sit all-day,
This video will take you through how to release back tension for desk workers.
As we all know, if you're sat, you're likely to be fairly slouched so it can
increase the tension in the upper back. We'll run through a combination of
different exercises that you can try to see if that helps you regain some of your flexibility.
My name's Claire. I'm a physiotherapist from PhysioFit Health.
This variation is really straight forwards to do. You can try it sitting in
your chair and you're using your leg and the back of the chair as a little bit of leverage.
So if you're turning your upper body to the right, you want to get your
left hand on the side of the right leg and then that right hand is going to
come round onto the back of the chair or really, you're using anything that you
can can find that can help bring these shoulders around to the right.
I'd suggest five or six repetitions or so in that same direction so you're
going to put the back on a little bit of stretchy-rotation, ease it off as you
come forwards and then you're going to repeat. Once you've done your five or six of
those then you can repeat in the opposite direction.
This variation involves a combination of different movements. In a different video
we discussed sitting on the edge of your chair and arching your back and curling
it into a C-shape and then arching it in the opposite direction. If you haven't
had a look then click the link and it will take you through.
So when you're combining the movements you want to get that rotation that we've just discussed
and then you want to try four or five of your cat-camels in sitting, so you're
going to arch your back into that C-shape and curl it in the opposite
direction four or five times. Again working in that one direction to begin with
and then you're going to repeat get these shoulders rotating in the opposite direction.
And then you're gonna arch your back and then un-curl it.
For our third variation, it involves a combination but in a slightly different way
So the one that we've just gone through is rotating and in effect you're
going forwards and backwards but you can also go side to side, so if you take the
movements just as a pure movement you're going to dip your shoulders to the right
bring yourself back up to centre and then go in the opposite direction, but as
you want to combine it you are going to rotate your shoulders and then you can
start the side bend to the right and to the left. Again, working just in that one
rotation, to begin with. Do your four or five repetitions then you rotate and
you're repeating in the opposite direction.
These combined movements can be particularly awkward especially when you
first try them but it's definitely worth persevering with them because they're
really good at just freeing up that back and taking the tension away.
The repetitions you can do for all of these can be five up to twenty or thirty.
If you're sitting for a long time during the day you might need to increase the
repetitions of how many you do during the day, because the more you're sitting
you're not moving, the stiffer everything becomes so then the more exercises
you'll need just to free everything up.
You'll need to try the exercises for a good couple of weeks, if not a little bit longer
just to see the difference. Try it out and see what you think.
Please let us know if you have any questions.