5 Quick Exercises to Take Away the Pain of Working From Home

2020 was certainly a very unusual year for us all and 2021 is proving just as challenging for many people. A significant change for a lot of us is the new experience of working from home full time. Do you remember those days when it was such a treat to be able to work from home occasionally! This pandemic has taken away that choice for most of us and for some, the enjoyment too.

Home working does have its advantages, I doubt many of us are missing the daily commute and are loving the additional hours added to our days due to its absence. There’s also the luxury of achieving the weekly shop during a lunchtime and taking long extravagant walks during our working days.

There are also of course downsides to homeworking. Most of us don’t have a Health and Safety Officer at hand to check that our workspace is arranged correctly. Our computers and keyboards may not be at the right height or our chairs not supportive enough. Some of us don’t even have a desk or table to work from so are spending hours working from beds or sofas.

Sitting poorly for long periods of time can be really detrimental to our postures. Poor posture is commonly known to cause neck and back pain. However, there are a myriad of other symptoms that can effect us such as poor balance, headaches and breathing difficulties. Posture can also have an effect on our mood and our sleep. In an article originally published in the Harvard Heath Letter Meghan Markowski, a physical therapist, found that poor posture can also be linked to incontinence and constipation as well as heartburn and slowed digestion.

Let’s face it even when we weren’t working from home, how good was our posture when we sat at our desks? How well do we hold ourselves when we sit on the sofa or in the car and when we’re looking at our mobile phones? Posture is really important for our health so we should try to sit as upright as we can and try not to sit in one position for too long.

I’ve put together a short video of 5 quick exercises you can do while sitting at your desk or workspace to help alleviate any neck and shoulder aches and pains you may be experiencing. It won’t take long to complete and you can do it as often as you like throughout the day.

If you’re serous about improving your posture long term then take a look at my class descriptions to see which would suit you best.

Click here to watch video on YouTube directly.