office stretches to maintain great health

10 Office Stretches to Maintain Great Health

Employee engagement is crucial to company success. Your team needs to be happy and healthy to perform at their best, which is what these office stretches to maintain great health aims to prove.

A strong corporate culture means your employees and your business can perform at their best. Though many factors lead to a strong workplace culture, the most important is caring for your employee’s well-being.

Workplace injury seems like a non-issue in the corporate community; yet office workers have increasingly high rates of carpal tunnel, strains and obesity. As more people move to the city and take up office employment, rates of office related injury have rapidly increased.

Stretching daily, especially in a work environment is proven to reduce these injuries and ailments. Furthermore, staff who stretch regularly are more focused and produce better work. It’s something that should be encouraged if not required.

Here’s 10 office stretches to maintain great health

Neck stretch

Neck strain is one of the most common health issues office workers face. Ranging from a slight discomfort to needing chiropractic intervention. Maintaining neck flexibility and tension release is paramount in a corporate environment.

  • Sit at your chair facing forward
  • Bring one arm down below your seat, as if you were reaching
  • While maintaining a straight back gently lean your head to the other side
  • For an added stretch rest your hand on your head at the same time
  • Hold and repeat on the other side
10 office stretches to maintain great health

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Shoulder shrugs & rolls

When working at a desk, our shoulders and necks hold a lot of stress from slouching. As we type, talk on the phone and look at screens we don’t often release how much we slouch.

Shoulder shrugs and rolls are great to ease tension in your neck and shoulders.

  • Sit up straight and look forward
  • Gently shrug your shoulders as high as possible
  • In a similar motion, roll both your shoulders forwards and then backwards
  • Repeat these exercises

Wrist stretch

Repetitive strain injury was common among typists in the early days. Now as every office worker relies on their computer, RSI is a prevalent workplace injury in the office.

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Wrist stretches are fantastic to relieve tension and improve circulation after working on a computer for a long time.

  • Interlock your fingers in front of you so your palms are facing away
  • Maintain a straight back up against your chair
  • Push your hands forward as if you were reaching for something
  • Hold then relax and repeat

Upper arm stretch

Another of our favourite office stretches to maintain great health is the upper arm stretch. This exercise works to loosen the shoulders and ease tension in the upper arm.

  • Lift your arm and bend it behind your head
  • Use your other hand to gently apply pressure to the bent elbow
  • Hold then relax and repeat on the other side

Overhead reach

Also known as the Latissimus stretch, this works particularly well for those who find themselves slumping. Stretching muscles in your back, arms and side it helps prevent back ache and fatigue.

  • Raise one arm above your head and stabilise yourself with the other
  • Reach your arm to the opposite direction
  • Slowly allow your torso to follow your arm and stretch out
  • Hold for 20 seconds and repeat on the other side

Upper body & arm reach

This stretch helps shoulder and arm strain by improving circulation.

  • Interlock your fingers above your head, palms facing outwards
  • Push your hands up to the sky while inhaling
  • Hold
  • Slowly bring your arms down to your sides while exhaling
  • Repeat three times

Looking for more information on improving workplace moral? Have a look at The 5 Crucial Steps to Employee Happiness.

Torso twist

The torso twist is a fantastic spinal and lower back stretch.

  • Sit at your chair, cross one leg over the other
  • Keeping you back straight, turn your torso towards the side of your crossed leg, looking past that shoulder
  • Use your arm as leverage to twist

Touch your toes

Though simple, this stretch is one of our fantastic office stretches to maintain great health – it helps loosen leg muscles and improve circulation. You can do this stretch sitting at your desk or with your legs stretched in front of you, as well as standing up.

  • Attempt to touch your toes
  • Hold for 20 seconds and repeat

Ankle stretch

The ankle stretch works great to revive circulation in your legs and is particularly recommended for long haul flights. It’s simple but important for our 10 office stretches to maintain great health.

  • While sitting at your desk, lift one leg up horizontal to your body
  • Slowly rotate the foot at the ankle
  • Repeat the rotation going the other way and on the other foot
10 office stretches to maintain great health

Photo by rawpixel.com on Unsplash

Lunges

Finally, lunges may seem strange for an office, but they’re fantastic for boosting strength and stretching tired muscles. It goes without saying that some situations lend themselves better to lunges. We don’t recommend them in your next board meeting, but our team has been caught on many occasions lunging behind a desk.

  • Making sure you upper body is straight with eyes looking forward, take a step forward
  • As you step lower your hips until both knees are at a 90-degree angle
  • Your forward knee should be in line with your front foot and the back knew should not be touching the ground
  • Push yourself up to the a standing position and repeat stepping forward with the other leg

In Summary

Caring for your employees is much more than a bonus or office juicer. Putting practices in place that benefit their lives and futures is much more profound.

Making sure your team take regular breaks to stretch is important to keep them happy, healthy and working hard. Remember to use these office stretches to maintain great health.

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