Exercises While Sitting for Relief

We're not meant to sit for long times. Better positions like half-kneeling, standing with wide feet, or various ground sitting positions are better options, and if you start to feel some discomfort, you should go for a walk, practice rope flow, open the hips with a couch stretch, or open your thoracic spine with a hang.

However, some situations force us to sit for extended periods of time. What can you do during those situations? First, read this article to learn how to sit better in 6 steps because we're not taught how to sit and most people have poor sitting habits. In this article we'll review some simple strategies to relieve pain from sitting.

Breathe

We take 20,000 breaths per day, and each breath can be helping you to relieve stress or it can be tightening you up further. Good breathing is deep, it promotes movement of the torso and circulation, and relieves muscular tension and stress. The breath is your connection to the nervous system and the primary tool to use to relax your body. Sitting, especially when the option to stand up and move is not available, can be frustrating and stressful. Deep breathing helps to relieve this stress by calming down the nervous system.

Find a comfortable position with a neutral spine, place your hands on your lower ribs, and inhale deeply to expand your torso out 360 degrees and then relax to exhale. Focus on expanding your breath into your sides and your back, instead of into your stomach. Avoid letting your shoulders rise up as this breathing pattern is shallow and can lead to chronic pain. Read this article on how to breathe better.

4 Exercises to Relieve Tension

I'm going to share 4 exercises you can use to relieve tension in your back and neck, but first it's important to understand that isolated stretches, like yanking or pulling on your trapezius muscles, are likely to make things worse instead of better. If you overly isolate you create a habit of focusing the tension in that one area. Instead, while sitting focus on connecting your body from your hips to your head.

As you perform the following exercises, breathe deeply and feel the connection of the body as one unit instead of being isolated. Most of the discomfort from sitting comes from a lack of movement at the hips and thoracic spine. This inactivity can create tension in areas like the back and neck. The following will help to relieve tension.

1. Back Bend

Breathe deeply in each position for 1-5 deep breaths and do what feels good:

• Reach your hands towards the sky.

• Flex and extend your wrists.

• Rotate your arms from your shoulders, not only from your wrists.

• Interlock your hands together, reach your palms to the sky, and breathe deeply.

• Place your hands behind your head, lean back against your chair, and breathe deeply. Avoid holding your breath.

• Reach one arm behind as the other supports your neck, then switch, and take one deep breath each time you reach.

• If it feels good, reach both arms overhead and breathe deeply.

By breathing deeply during these exercises, you connect your body from your hands to your hips. Without deep and focused breathing, the exercises will be isolated and you won't benefit as much.

2. Side Bend & Rotate

Breathe deeply in each position for 1-5 deep breaths and do what feels good:

• Place one hand on your neck and reach that elbow to the sky as you breathe deeply.

• With your opposite hand, massage your tricep, lat, and the back of your shoulder to facilitate a deeper stretch as you breathe deeply.

• Perform side bends and move with the breath.

• Place your hand on your chest and rotate towards that side. Take 5 deep breaths and on each exhale try to rotate a little bit more.

Perform this exercise on both sides and notice what you feel. Often one side is tighter than the other, so give more attention to whichever side needs more.

3. Spread your legs

Breathe deeply in each position for 1-5 deep breaths and do what feels good:

• Widening your base by spreading your glute muscles to provide support to your spine.

• Spread your knees out wide and place your elbows on your legs to gently push out as you breathe deeply.

• Keep a flat spine by trying to stick your butt out and make sure you're not rounding your lower back.

• Place one hand on your knee as the opposite hand rests on your other leg and gently push out.

• Place your hands on the outer parts of your knees and push your knees out to gently engage the glute muscles

Keeping the legs spread wide can help to remove tension from the spine and place it on the hips instead.

4. Sit on one side at a time

Most people have imbalances including one side that is tighter than the other. Pay attention to how you distribute your weight while sitting and notice if you favor one side versus the other.

• Shift your weight to one side, lower your shoulder towards your hip, and breathe deeply.

• Alternate sides, breathe deeply, and notice what you feel.

• If you can discover one side is tighter, think about lengthening that side by shifting your weight to the opposite side while sitting.

Conclusion

The best strategy to deal with discomfort while sitting is to sit less and move more, but since this is not always an option, the above strategies can relieve tension from a seated position. By improving your body awareness, you can make real-time adjustments to take tension off your neck and back and distribute it more evenly throughout your body. The deep breath is the key that makes all of this work, so make sure you're not holding your breath or shrugging your shoulders while breathing.

Hope this helps! - Tom