Exercises You Can Perform From Your Office Chair
August 29, 2017
How long do you honestly spend sitting behind your desk? Our guess is probably too long, which can have a detrimental effect on your health and fitness. This problem can be further compounded if you also don’t have much free time to head to the gym or go for a run. Whilst standing desks are certainly helping to curb the issue, they aren’t available in every workplace and aren’t suited to every kind of profession that’s out there.
Fortunately, there are some exercises that you can perform simply using your office chair that will help to improve your health and fitness. At the very least, they’ll offer a nice breather from the stress of your work. Below, we have outlined these exercises for your convenience. Many of the suggested exercises should be familiar to you, they’ve just been altered for the office environment.
If you don’t have a private office and you’re worried about your coworkers giving you weird looks, you can always duck into an empty meeting room, lunchroom or even outside (if you can take an office chair with you). It’s also best if you use a chair with legs rather than castors (unless you can lock them).
For beginners, we recommend performing 3 sets with a 2 minute rest in between. For midlevel, we recommend performing 5 sets and a 2 minute rest in between. And for advanced, we recommend performing 7 sets with a 2 minute rest in between.
- 20 chair squats (stand with your feet shoulder width apart and hands stretched out in front; lower yourself towards the chair and stop just as your bottom touches the seat).
- 20 chest squeezes (whilst seated, hold your hands straight out in front of you, palms together; squeeze your chest muscles so that your hands move forwards slightly).
- 40 criss-cross arms (whilst seated, hold your arms wide open and swing them inwards, allowing them to cross over in front of your chest).
- 40 leg extensions (sit right on the edge of the office chair, holding onto the sides for balance; raise one leg so that your knee is straight before lowering it and repeating on the other side).
- 10 chair body lifts (whilst seated, hold onto the sides of the chair and raise yourself upwards; hold and lower back to the seat).
- 10 knee pull-ins (whilst seated, hold onto the sides of the chair with your legs extended out in front of you at a slight angle; draw your knees in towards your chest and return).
- 20 oblique bends (whilst seated, place your hands behind your head – clasping them if this is most comfortable; bend at the waist towards your left, return to centre and then repeat to the right).
If you have 15 minutes to spare throughout your workday, we really hope you give the above exercises a go. Not only is it important to take a break every now and then (especially if you spend all day staring at a computer screen), these exercises can help you to feel more in shape, healthier and even more productive. And all you need is an office chair! Why not do it together by organising a quick exercise session with your coworkers once or twice a day?