TIPS AND TRICKS

Sit All Day? Add These Stretches to Your Routine.

1. The Back Arch
This basic move elongates your abdominal muscles and stretches the hip flexors and chest. There are a few variations of this move, depending on how flexible you are. Start standing with your back about a foot from a wall, feet shoulder-width apart. Reach your arms overhead and raise your face skyward, feeling a stretch in your torso. Arch your back and reach arms behind your head, aiming to touch the wall behind you. (You can bend elbows slightly to aid your cause.) If you have the flexibility, let your hands touch the wall, and using this for support, push your hips out in front of you, feeling a deep stretch in your hip flexors. Hold for 30 seconds then release.

2. The Figure 4
Start facing something you can hold onto for support, like the edge of a table, towel rack, or back of a couch. Cross your right foot over your left knee, keeping your bent right knee out to the side so that your legs form the shape of the number “4.” Holding the support in front of you, bend your left knee and sink into the stretch, which you’ll feel in your glutes and iliotibial band (along the outside of your leg). To achieve a deeper stretch, bend the left knee more. Hold 30 seconds, then repeat on the opposite side.

When you sit all day, your muscles become tight and your movement is limited. These stretches can help counteract the damage.