The benefits of yoga are well-known to most of us now, but making it a daily practice might not always be easy. So many people are now sitting for several hours at a desk all day, which wrecks the posture and leaves us too drained for most forms of exercise. Yoga also requires a bit of concentration, which is not possible when you’re all wound up from work at the end of the day.
Fortunately, potential yoga enthusiasts don’t have to limit themselves to physical yoga classes or sessions with a personal trainer. If we want to start benefiting from the effects of doing yoga, we should be taking regular breaks and doing some exercises to deal with our body stiffness as well as sore eyes. There are even some exercises that you might be able to perform at your desk in case there’s a strict supervisor watching. Here are some tips for doing yoga at the office; with these, you can benefit both your body and mind without compromising on work:
1. Get Ready for Desk Yoga
If you look up any exercise for desk yoga, keep in mind that you can also perform it on your knees using a yoga mat. In case you don’t have time or the space to do that, it’s always good to know that there are exercises that can be performed without leaving their desk. There are also a lot of benefits of getting a stand-up desk, so look into that as well.
First of all, you have to switch off your computer monitor or screen. Next, take a couple of seconds to break your mind away from work. After that, see if your coworkers will join in; it’ll create a teamwork mindset and also deter them from bothering you. For female coworkers, you can read up and tell them about the top 10 yoga health benefits for women.
2. Warming Up
After these initial steps, do a warm-up. You can loosen your body by rolling the shoulders forward a couple of times. Then, roll them back the other way. Stretch your spine up as long as possible, and turn your head on one side, then to the other side. Make sure not to overdo the stretching, but focus on areas that feel a bit tighter. It’s ok if one side feels stiffer; just stretch it for a bit longer. Office workers who have to use the mouse a lot usually have this issue. Next, we’ll talk about some of the exercises you can try out after getting your body nice and loose.
3. Gomukhasana / Cow Face Arms Clock Watching
This entails brining the arms out and internally rotating the right arm. The palm should face behind and the thumb should be pointed at the floor. Then, bring your arm back around and put your palm on your spine–make it as high as comfortably possible. Next, bring the left arm upwards, bending it to meet your left hand with your right. Clasp the hands if possible; if not, hold onto your clothes. This pose will help to release that tension at the front of your chest and the shoulders.
4. Some Easy Exercises
The above exercise might seem a bit complicated. While you
- Gomukhasana: Focus on any spot in front of your body. Imagine that you’re looking at the dial of a large clock. Don’t Move your head, but look up at where the ‘12’ should be, and then where the ‘6’ should be. This is a fairly easy and less strenuous pose that you can repeat around 10 times.
- Palming the eyes: This involves bringing the palms together, rubbing them until they’re warmed up, and then lightly placing them over closed eyes. Again, this is a very simple exercise but can give you a lot of benefits. Here, the main benefit is that it soothes the eyes and lets them relax. You might want to conduct this exercise a couple of times between other poses or exercises. You can even do it randomly throughout the day while working with computers or other eye-straining work like reading or sewing.
5. Change the Focus
Changing your focus while working might not actually be a yoga pose or exercise. However, it is a way to get your body a bit more capable of relaxing and letting you do your best. Working at a computer screen, sewing, reading, writing, and drawing require a lot of focus and concentration. You have to stay fixated for several hours at once, which is not always possible without getting burned out in the long run. Visiting www.bestusacasinosites.com can be a quick break to try.
What’s more, the increased focus makes a lot of people frown or squint while they’re working on fine details or ready very small text. The overall work can dry out your eyes, so it’s necessary to have an exercise to help moisten those eyeballs and generally relax the eye and face muscles.
In addition to this exercise, make sure to blink as much as you can. Regularly doing this might help in improving eyesight; at least, it will assist in refreshing those tired eyes.
You can relieve some of the tension in your eyes by holding up a finger and focusing on it for some seconds. After focusing, look away and transfer your focus on something at a distance. Focus there for a few seconds, and repeat. Follow up with the warm palms exercise, and you might have one of the most alert and healthy eyes in the workplace.
6. Stretch That Neck, Shoulder, and Back
When you work on a computer, draw, or sew for long hours at once, it takes a heavy toll on your body. Even if you’re not sitting down, the constant weight on your feet can cause swelling, tightness, and strain in the back, shoulder, and neck muscles. When you’re sitting, the results are even worse; some people are even calling sitting the new smoking because of its adverse effects on one’s health.
Unless you attend to such issues properly, the strain might be enough to negatively impact your quality of life. This also means that you won’t be able to give it your all in the workplace either.
One way towards better muscle health is to get in a nice stretch of the upper shoulders and neck at least once during the day. Sit up as straight and tall as you can, bring your hands together behind your back, and clasp them. The palms should be together and the elbows should be bent. After that, you bring the hands to the left side of your waist, also tilting your head the same way. Hold this pose for some seconds, and then repeat with the right side. Do a few repetitions of this exercise for each side, making sure you stretch all the problematic muscles and loosen them as much as possible.
Conclusion
Doing yoga in your workplace is a fun way to relax your body and refresh the mind. It might get a bit complicated at first, but one gets used to it after they start regular practises. The next time you’re starting to feel overwhelmed at work or just have a few minutes to yourself, try out some of the simple exercises outlined above. If you want, it’s also possible to do these yoga exercises in addition to a 15 minute workout routine method.
With office yoga, you get a lot of simple exercises to perform unobtrusively and without disturbing anyone. While these exercises are fine for any point during the day or night, it is probably best to set a schedule for these sessions. The more you practise yoga, the easier and more beneficial it will be. Try out a few exercises and see for yourself.