Yoga for Desk Workers
Working at a desk can be a rewarding career although it often comes at a cost: lower back pain, shoulders and neck tightness and bad posture. Long hours in front of a screen and a demanding job can also tax our nervous system, finding ourselves in a constant hyper-arousal state towards the sympathetic nervous system mode/fight or flight. Chronic stress can have detrimental long-term repercussions and lead to many non-communicable diseases such as autoimmune diseases, strokes, heart diseases, cancers, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, Alzheimer's disease. Dr. Timothy McCall, in his book Yoga as Medicine, states: “It can be argued that stress is the number one killer in the Western World today”. To age gracefully and limiting chronic pain, it is essential to nurture both the body and the mind, to find peace also in the most demanding environments.
This comes from experience, having worked as a growth hacker in some of London’s fastest-growing startups, with eager VCs wanting to see their investments blossom ASAP. Daily, I work with private clients paying the costs of the sedentary high-intensity lifestyle and they all find in yoga a way to bring equilibrium to body and mind.
The sequences below have been planned mindfully accounting for the most scarce resource in the world: time. These can be performed in 10 to 15 min, anywhere, no need to have fancy props or clothes. Most importantly, you can practice these on your own at your pace and between meetings.
You can always switch your camera off during a long meeting and while you are listening do a few of the postures. If you really have no time, you can do these when you are listening to a podcast or watching TV. Ideally, you should find 10 minutes to have your total awareness towards the exercises but if you cannot, it’s better to do them while listening to the Q1 company strategy meeting than not doing it at all.
If something is unclear, you can book me for a 30 min online private class and I can give you feedback.
Often fixing your seated posture can have drastic repercussions on your shoulders and neck pain. Have a play with the recommendations below.
This information and practices have been collected to deliver a Yoga workshop and offer participants techniques to potentially help minimize the negative symptoms. These practices are not meant to be prescriptive or replace your Health Care Provider (HCP) advice. If you suffer from chronic pain, you should visit your HCP or a physiotherapist. If your stress and anxiety are taxing and you have trouble sleeping, you may want to visit a trained councillor or therapist.
Better Seated Posture
To limit the negative repercussions of seating for long hours, follow these simple recommendations (Avison, 2015):
Set on your seat bones, not on your sacrum. Slouching impacts our internal organs and respiration, limiting their optimal function, sit up from your sitting bones, belly bottom slight tucked in, opening the chest.
Maintain your spine’s natural curves (cervical, thoracic and lumbar)
Keep your feet grounded on the floor under your knees
Have your hips slightly higher than your knees (sit on a pillow)
Have the screen at eyes height
Have the elbows higher than the wrists
Breathwork Sequence
Seated or laying on your back
Close your eyes and observe your breath for a minimum of one minute
Equalise breath - inhale for a count of 4 exhale for a count of 4
After a few rounds (min 2 min) inhale for a count of 4 and exhale for a count of 8 paying attention to the exhalation.
Let go of the technique and observe for a few moments
Squared breath (Sama Vritti) 4/4/4/4 inhale 4, hold the breath for 4, exhale 4, hold 4
Repeat for a few rounds. You can slowly increase the count to 5/5/5/5, 4/4/8/4, 5/5/10/5
Let go of the technique and observe
Asana Sequence
Seat with crossed legs on something on the floor - bring the right ear to the right shoulder (5 breath) repeat on the left
Hands behind the neck, chin to chest
Bring your right hand outside the right knee and bring your left arm over the right into a lateral flexion repeat on the other side
Fold forward from seated
Swap leg - twist L&R, fold forward
3 cat cows
Forearm Plank (10 secs and build up)
Child pose
Puppy stretch
Sphinx
Locust (min 10 seconds)
Downward facing dog
Optional Sun Salutations
Shoelace - cow face arms, eagle arms, fold forward L&R
Want to learn more?
References
Avison, Joanne. Yoga: Fascia, Anatomy, and Movement (Handspring Publishing Limited, 2015)
McCall, Timothy. Yoga as Medicine: The Yogic Prescription for Health & Healing: a Yoga Journal Book (Bantam Books, 2007)
Stephens, Mark. Yoga Sequencing: Designing Transformative Yoga Classes (Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2012)