It’s a safe bet that 75% of our clients at FVT sit down for most of the day. The main problem with this is that the human body isn’t designed to sit in a chair for eight hours at a time. Hours of being in a seated position every day eventually leads to the development of very predictable patterns of tightness and weakness. This is a bad thing because it affects every day movement – and eventually leads to dysfunction and injury.
One of the most commonly tight muscle groups we see in office-dwelling folk are the hip flexors. Here’s a great stretch to hit those muscles that you can do right at your desk:
Get up from your chair. Stand up in front of it. Keep one foot on the ground in front of the chair, put the back foot up on the chair, and carefully let the knee of the back leg drop straight towards the ground. You can use a towel or something similar to pad your knee if you’d like. Sit up tall with your chest up and shoulders back. Hold this for at least one minute on both sides. It’s going to look something like this:
Important: Don’t let your lower back arch. You should feel like you’re ‘tucking’ your hips under. If you let the back arch and lose your neutral spine, you’ll miss out on much of the benefit of the stretch.
Do this stretch on a daily basis – it’s something that should only take you few minutes, but can make a big difference in the overall quality of your every day movement.
Oh, and one more thing: Don’t forget about our Semi-Annual Bring A Friend Event! This week, you can bring a friend along to a workout for free and both of you will have the chance to earn an additional free session – for more details, click here: