Desk Exercises: 6 Moves to Stay Active While Working From Home

Everyone is an athlete and life is your sport.

Nowadays many people are working from home.

Which is a great thing don't get me wrong..

The commute, interpersonal relationships, and being under constant observation from your boss. For 8 hours at a time takes it's toll. Wearing people out and adding stress onto their lives.

One thing that they're giving up from working in a regular job, is the steps and movement it takes to get there.

To be truly healthy, you need to get this movement back into your life.

Here's how.

1.) Body Weight Squats

The lower extremities, arguably the most important part of your body.

Giving you the ability to move from one place to the next. Without them, you'd be immobilized.

Building muscle and muscular endurance here. Will not only improve your metabolic rate by increasing your metabolism.

It will also contribute to having a nice butt after sitting on it all day.

2.) KettleBell Swings

Now that we have our knee extension dominant exercise out of the way.

We need to incorporate those hips that aren't activated much in the traditional squat. This is where the Kettlebell swing comes into the equation.

By performing this exercise correctly. You'll be swinging your hips in a back to front motion, which will result in a change of level. This activates the hip extensors. (Glute Maximus, Hamstrings) to bring your hips back forward.

(Make sure to squeeze them cheeks at the top of the lift for maximal contraction.)

Increasing the effectiveness of the exercise with more time under tension.

3.) TRX Recline Pull (Row)

This exercise does a great job at undoing the sitting position. By stretching the entire front side of the body. (Pecs and hip flexors.)

You'll also be simultaneously working the posterior (backside) of the body. That is completely shut off when sitting down in poor posture.

This common muscle imbalance is referred to as the Upper crossed syndrome.

"It is a condition that occurs when the muscles in the neck, shoulders, and chest become unbalanced."

Which results in the hunch back posture.

4.) Dead Hangs

For this exercise you'll need a pull up bar.

This is a great way to decompress the spine. Help with shoulder health and like the previous exercise, improve your posture.

Work your way up to 1 minute. Start with 15 to 30 seconds if you're having a hard time.

Use a timer on your watch, phone, or go by feel.

5.) Push Ups

I incorporated two pulling exercises here. Rather than two pushing exercises for obvious reasons.

But it's important to not leave any muscular system of the body underdeveloped. For this reason you can't neglect the entire front side of the upper body.

You can modify the push up any way you'd like if you find the traditional push up too hard. From having knees on the ground, or pushing off an elevated surface. Now if push ups hurt your wrists or if you have wrist issues, I recommend using push up handles. Link is at the bottom of this page.

Regardless of how you do your push ups, get them done.

6.) Crunches

Not to be confused with a sit - up.

A crunch only involves lifting the upper back (scapula) slightly off the ground. About 1-2 inches, to engage the rectus abdominis.

This is the muscle that's involved with flexing the trunk of your body. You don't need much movement here, again 1-2 inches. I like to use an ab mat to accomplish this with comfort. To avoid the hard surface of the ground on my spine.

Note: It's important to work out this muscle, not only for aesthetics, but for back health to prevent the Lower Crossed Syndrome.

Conclusion:

(Doing all 6 of these exercises. Not biasing one for the other.)

Will ensure that you're getting a balanced and total body workout. That will elevate your overall life satisfaction.

One of the worst things in life is not being able bodied. So remember to take care of yourself during those long desk hours.

You'll be able to go where you want, do what you want and live your life to the fullest.

Help support the blog. Below are my affiliate links for all the products I personally have used and recommend.

KettleBell - https://amzn.to/3VKqXJW

TRX - https://amzn.to/3XGVrPL

Pull Up Bar - https://amzn.to/3W7MWMw

Ab Mat - https://amzn.to/3zohPDv

Perfect Push Up - https://amzn.to/4bsVZfl