Two-minute desk stretches for your neck, back, wrists and hips

You can loosen most of what a desk day stiffens in about two minutes. Pick three or four of the stretches below, hold each one for 20 to 30 seconds or do a few slow repetitions, and do that a few times a day. Most of them need no more room than your chair and the edge of your desk.

Every stretch here should feel like a mild pull, never like pain. Move slowly, keep breathing, and stop if anything hurts, tingles or goes numb.

A few ground rules first

• Gentle beats deep. Go to the point where you feel a mild stretch and stay there. No bouncing and no forcing.
• Hold or repeat. Hold a stretch for 20 to 30 seconds, or do five to ten slow repetitions of a movement.
• Keep breathing. If you find yourself holding your breath, you are pushing too hard.
• Use a steady chair. A chair on wheels can roll away from you. For the standing stretches, hold the desk.
• Stop if it hurts. Sharp pain, pins and needles, numbness or dizziness all mean stop. If you have an injury, have had recent surgery or have pain that keeps coming back, ask a physiotherapist or a doctor which stretches suit you before you start.

Neck

Chin tucks

1. Sit tall and look straight ahead.
2. Slide your chin straight back, keeping your eyes level, until you feel a gentle pull at the base of your skull.
3. Hold for three seconds, then relax. Do it five times.

This is the simplest way to undo an hour of leaning in toward the screen.

Ear to shoulder

1. Sit tall and let your shoulders drop.
2. Slowly tip your right ear toward your right shoulder, keeping that shoulder down.
3. For a little more stretch, let your left arm hang and reach your fingers toward the floor.
4. Hold for 20 seconds, come back to the middle, and switch sides.

Shoulders

Shoulder rolls

Lift your shoulders up toward your ears, roll them back, then let them come down. Do five to ten slow circles backward, then a few forward.

Shrug and drop

Pull your shoulders up as high as they go, hold for three seconds, then let them fall all at once. Do it three times. It shows you where relaxed actually is, which is often lower than where your shoulders have been sitting. Why your shoulders creep up at the desk covers the reasons and the setup fixes.

Chest opener

Hours at a keyboard tend to round the shoulders forward, and the front of the chest and shoulders can start to feel tight.

Seated chest opener

1. Shift to the front of your chair so your back is clear of the backrest.
2. Clasp your hands behind you, or hold the sides of the seat just behind your hips.
3. Gently draw your shoulder blades together and down, and lift your chest.
4. Hold for 20 to 30 seconds, breathing slowly.

Door frame version

Stand in a doorway and rest a forearm on each side of the frame, elbows at about shoulder height. Step one foot forward and lean gently until you feel a stretch across your chest. Hold for 20 to 30 seconds.

Upper back

Seated round

1. Hold your arms out in front at shoulder height and clasp your hands.
2. Push your hands away from you, letting your upper back round and your head drop slightly between your arms.
3. Feel the stretch between your shoulder blades. Hold for 20 seconds.

Seated twist

1. Sit tall with both feet flat on the floor.
2. Turn your upper body to the right. Put your right hand on the back of the chair or an armrest and your left hand on the outside of your right knee.
3. Turn only as far as is comfortable, with your hips still facing forward. Hold for 20 seconds, breathing normally, then switch sides.

Leave the twist out if it bothers your lower back.

Wrists and forearms

Typing and using a mouse or trackpad keep the forearm muscles working for hours with very little rest. If your wrists are already sore, wrists at a Mac covers the setup side first.

Back of the forearm

1. Hold your right arm out in front of you, elbow straight but not locked, palm down.
2. With your left hand, gently bend your right wrist so your fingers point toward the floor.
3. Hold for 15 to 20 seconds, then switch arms.

Front of the forearm

1. Hold the same arm out, this time palm up.
2. With your other hand, gently bend the wrist back so your fingers point toward the floor.
3. Hold for 15 to 20 seconds, then switch arms.

Fist and spread

Make a loose fist, then spread your fingers as wide as they go. Do it five times, then shake your hands out.

Hips and calves

Sitting keeps your hips bent and your lower legs still for most of the day. These help, and the standing ones also get you out of the chair.

Seated figure four

1. Sit near the front of the chair with your feet flat.
2. Rest your right ankle on your left knee and let your right knee drop out to the side.
3. Keeping your back straight, lean forward slightly from the hips until you feel a stretch in your right hip and buttock.
4. Hold for 20 to 30 seconds, then switch. Skip it if your knees or hips complain.

Standing hip flexor stretch

1. Stand beside the desk and hold it for balance.
2. Step your right foot back a stride, with both feet pointing forward.
3. Bend your front knee slightly and gently tuck your hips under until you feel a stretch at the front of your right hip.
4. Hold for 20 to 30 seconds, then switch.

Calf stretch and heel raises

1. Stand facing the desk with your hands on its edge.
2. Step one foot back, keeping that leg straight and its heel on the floor.
3. Lean forward gently until you feel the stretch in the calf. Hold for 20 to 30 seconds, then switch.
4. Finish with ten slow heel raises: rise up onto your toes, then lower down slowly.

Three ready-made two-minute sets

If choosing feels like work, pick the set that matches where you feel it.

Each set takes about two minutes. Do one, then go back to work.

Stretching eases everyday stiffness. It doesn't fix an injury, and it is no substitute for getting checked. Anything that hurts for more than a few days, gets worse, or comes with numbness or weakness in an arm or leg is a reason to book a physiotherapist or a doctor.

Fitting stretches into the day

The best time to stretch is a gap that already exists: after a call, while a file exports, after you send an email you have been working on. Pair a set with getting up from the chair and you cover both at once. How often should you get up from your desk has a rhythm for that.

If you would rather not keep count yourself, a Movement character in Notchpals can do it. Whichever one is in your crew (Bizzy, Coach Flex and Honk are three of them) brings a Stretch reminder now and then between 8 AM and 10 PM, and most of its lines name one quick stretch rather than a vague "move around":

BizzyWrist wiggles! Like antennae! Wiggle wiggle! You're doing great!

That one maps straight onto the wrist set above. Press Done once you have done it, or Later if you are mid-thought, and Bizzy comes back once, 20 minutes on. Stretch is a repeating reminder, so it comes out of the same daily allowance as the crew's other repeating reminders, such as eye breaks. Stretches get a share of that allowance, not a slot every hour, which is why the natural gaps above still matter.