Sitting for long hours at your office desk increases stress and tension in your nerves, muscles, and joints and cramps up your body. Besides maintaining a suitable sitting posture, it is critical to give yourself a break every hour or two and stretch your body to prevent aches and pains from occurring in your body.

The following exercises and stretches will help you relieve tension and provide you with instant relaxation to proceed with your work.

Exercise #1: Head Rotations

Since your head is usually focused all the time whether you are on a computer screen or a board meeting, it is crucial to help flex it to prevent neck soreness.

• Move your head left to right and proceed to repeat them 10 times after that move them up and down 10 times.
• After following this proceed to rotate your head clockwise 10 times and anti-clockwise following that.
• Rotate your eyes clockwise and anti-clockwise for 10 rotations.

Click here for a video detailing how it’s done.

Exercise #2: Shoulder Shrugs

Stretches for the shoulders to avoid soreness.

• Raise your arms equivalent to your shoulder length wide apart each side. Now proceed to make circles with them for 10 counts.
• Next, put your arms back down, breathe deeply and rotate your top most shoulder portion clockwise and anti-clockwise for 10 counts to provide much-needed comfort.

Exercise #3: Wrist, Hand, and Finger Stretches

Your hands do most of the activity such as typing, carrying documents, etc. It is critical to keep them stretched to avoid spraining them.

• Hold your arm out in front of you and with your other hand pull back your fingers stretching them the opposite way as much as they can go but do this gently to avoid massive injuries.
• Individually bend your thumb and hold it in a bent position while stretching your other fingers, now repeat this with your other fingers each time around.

Click here for a detailed video guide on how it’s done.

Exercise #4: Torso/Oblique Twists

This stretching is targeted towards your midsection to release tension.

• Either hold an external object like a chair or table with both your hands and gently twist as far as you can to the backside, repeat this 10 times on both sides of your torso to flex them all the way.

To get an idea on how it’s done click this video link here.

Exercise #5: Leg Stretches

Legs remain inactive for most part of the day due to a sedentary lifestyle. You need to stretch them from time to time to keep them limber.

• With both hands on your hip, raise one leg towards your side and put it back down, repeat this for 10 counts every alternate leg.
• To stretch your hamstrings at the back of your thighs, get up from your chair, stand with your legs shoulder width apart and slowly bend your trunk at the waist and let your head and arms hang to the floor. Keep your knees slightly locked and feel the stretch in your hamstrings. Hold for at least 30 seconds then come back up slowly.
• To stretch your quadriceps at the front of your thighs, stand with your legs shoulder width apart, with one arm hold on to your chair for balance while you grab the ankle of one leg and pull your foot slowly back toward your buttocks until you feel the stretch in the front thigh. Engage your abdominals to prevent the lower back from arching.

Stretching your body is more likely to keep you healthy and minimize discomfort than not stretching all day. So find the time to repeat these exercises. If you do not have your own office you can do the stretches in your cubicle. You can also do some of these when you are watching TV. In addition, going to a nearby gym for 20 minutes will also help your wellbeing.