Pain from sitting all day? These 5 stretching exercises will help you

Many professions take place predominantly sedentary. In this particular year, many companies have also switched to home offices, at least proportionally, because of the Corona crisis. For many, this means that they now don't even have to get up to come into work, so they sit even longer overall.

You may know this yourself: After hours of sitting, the pain then comes. Classically, the neck and back hurt from the mostly incorrect sitting posture. Your back feels rusty, and when you straighten up at the end of the day, the pain makes you feel years older?

Your neck is pinching and you would like nothing more than a good massage? However, these are only the conventional sitting pains. Buttock pain is not uncommon either. No wonder, since you are constantly sitting on your butt. The legs can also ache, feel numb, and simply get rusty from not using them. The same applies to the arms; some complain of shoulder pain after sitting for a long time.

One thing is definitely certain: sitting a lot is not good or beneficial for your health! Therefore, you should remember the following five exercises, with which you can actively prevent pain even in a predominantly sedentary job.

A stretching exercise that is used very often in yoga for many sequences. This exercise is suitable for beginners, but also very effective for advanced students.

Especially for the home office this stretching exercise is ideal, because in the office on site you usually do not have enough rest for this position. In addition, this exercise requires you to touch the floor, which is more comfortable at home than in the office, where everyone walks around in their street shoes.

For the downward looking dog, first get into a quadruped position (knees and hands on the floor), then stretch out both legs, stand with your toes on the floor and at the same time move your hands a good bit forward so that your buttocks are the highest point of your body in this position.

Let your head and neck relax. The sternum feels like it wants to move towards the floor, so you stretch your upper back slightly. This yoga exercise mobilizes the entire back, stretches the spine and releases tension in the neck.

If you can, combine the sequence of tension and release with your breath: inhale as you tense, exhale as you release.

The muscle on which you are sitting all the time should not be ignored. All the weight rests on it and the posture is aligned with it, so it is essential to stretch and mobilize the buttocks and the thighs immediately adjacent to them, as well as the back or neck. You won't believe how easy and fast exactly this so important exercise works.

The first step is to get up from your butt. Stand in an upright position with both legs in a firm and stable stance. It is important that you stand really straight and upright (here especially in relation to your back). Then bend one leg and embrace it with both arms at the knee or shin. If necessary, adjust yourself so that you can balance on one leg, but always stay upright.

With your arms around your shin or knee, create a light, comfortable tension (be careful not to hurt) by slowly pulling your leg towards your torso. This exercise is again supported by your breath when you increase the tension during inhalation (i.e. pull your leg a little more forcefully towards the abdomen/torso) and hold this tension during relaxed exhalation. You then repeat this exercise with the other leg in the same attitude.

Not only with yoga exercises like the first one you can mobilize your upper back. Stretching and loosening it up are important exercises when sitting a lot. Because the back curves over time more and more and hurts as a result, of course. It is even easier than the downward looking dog.

You can do this exercise anywhere, on any floor, with or without an audience, in the office or at home. Stand in a stable, shoulder-width position, upright and stretched. To get into a clean, upright posture, first imagine a string attached to the center of your head gently pulling you into this position.

Now bend your knees slightly, but not too deeply, so that a squat would result. Just a slight bend is enough. Your hands should be touching above your head, it should look like you are forming a roof above you. Now bend your body as far as possible to the side.

Be careful not to bend your upper body backwards or forwards, but only along the side. As far as possible, but not so far that it hurts. Of course, you repeat this process to the other side in the same way.

After the dog looking down, now again an animal comes into play. Again an animal designated position of the yoga sport. In the field of stretching and mobility training, hardly any sport can keep up with yoga, because with these exercises it is possible to mobilize and strengthen the entire body. The Cobra focuses mainly on stretching and strengthening the back and also shoulder muscles.

Thus, it is also suitable for movement problems after long periods of sitting. At this point it must be said that the Cobra is rather something for the home office, if you want to practice it in between. Because in the starting position of the Cobra you have to lie on the floor (at best on an appropriate mat) on your stomach. Place your hands shoulder-width flat (palms resting on the floor) on the floor, then push yourself up with your own body weight on your hands. First, push your upper back up, creating a hollow back in your lower back.

The feet now stand up as well: You should stand on your toes, the legs lift in a straight line and support the stretching of the spine. In this position, pull your shoulders up and down a few times (depending on how comfortable you feel). This mobilizes the entire spine and loosens up the shoulders.

Because the neck and the associated shoulder area are usually the first to experience pain, this exercise is ideal for in-between to relieve tension. Perhaps you still know these exercises for neck mobility from the sports lessons in school, you have certainly done them one or the other time to warm up.

On the one hand, you can perform a combination of stretching and bending as a simple neck mobility exercise. First, bring your chin as close as possible to your chest until you feel a significant stretch in your upper spine/neck. Stay in this position for a short time, then do the opposite and stretch your chin upwards as far as possible, so that the neck is strongly bent, but in the opposite direction to the one in which it normally bends so unhealthily (when sitting).

In addition, you can loosen up your neck by doing the so-called lateral flexion. This is exactly the exercise you probably remember from school. To do this, put your right hand (right arm above your head) to your left ear and bend your neck to the right, bringing your right ear towards your shoulder. You should feel a significant stretch in your neck and left side of your neck, maybe even a crunch when you first do this exercise. Then repeat the procedure with the left side.