Ever since the Covid-19 pandemic more people than ever before are finding themselves working from home, or ‘home office’.
And despite the length of time we’ve had to optimise our home office set up, in many cases, we still aren’t set up ideally for this new norm and instead try to replicate the exact same working schedule that we had in the office. Except instead of spending our 40+ hours per week at ergonomically designed office desks and state of the art meeting room set-ups, we find ourselves hunched over a laptop at the dining table, or worse still, our sofa – whilst we contend with one Skype, Zoom or Teams meeting after another.
What we really need are a series of simple and effective home office exercises that we can do anytime we feel a little stiff.
So I called upon one of the best experts I know when it comes to the science of movement, Henry Neumann, a Mixed Movement Coach from Bamberg Germany. With the ‘home office’ situation in mind, Henry created this effective office exercises and easy six-movement routine we can slot into five-minute breaks throughout our workday.
“Try this 5 minute movement snack routine whenever you can throughout your day. As a general rule, I would recommend to do each movement for about 30-60 seconds.“
Henry Neumann
1. Full Body Rotations
After several hours of sitting at your home office set-up, it’s crucial to get up and bring some movement into your spine. A fantastic way to bring natural rotation in your body is what I like to call ‘Full Body Rotations’. It is one of the best office exercises you can do frequently.
Start in a standing position with your feet about hip-width apart. It is very important to be as relaxed as possible. You might want to jump up and down a few times to really feel the shoulders heavy and relaxed. Then start to rotate your entire body from side to side. The arms remain heavy and really focus on feeling the rotation from your feet up. Do not start the rotation from your upper body, but rather from your feet and hips, and then your upper body follows automatically. That way, your body stays relaxed and it becomes a more gentle movement.
2. Waking up the Spine
‘Waking up the Spine’ is crucial as we tend to hunch over our computers. Especially in your movement snack, you want to break this pattern.
A great way to do so is folding forward, as if you were trying to touch the floor. Take your time to slowly come down into this position. From there, imagine someone pulling you up, one vertebra at a time. You start rolling up from your lower back, move vertebra by vertebra further upwards until you are standing again. You can even add a slight backbend here, again slowly finding into the position leaning backwards. To repeat the movement, bring your chin to your chest and start rolling down from your neck downwards.
3. Free the Shoulders & Spine
Use this movement as an additional way to break the pattern of a rounded back.
Simply start standing up with your arms in front of you, palms facing down. Now try to round your spine as much as possible. From this rounded position, we want to open up. Start drawing the arms towards your side and then even beyond your shoulders. The palms rotate and are facing upwards now. Try to find as much opening and extension as possible, before returning back to the front position. Repeat the movement as much as needed.
4. Squat It
From Standing, we now move into another crucial movement, the holy squat. This has been the natural resting position for humans for thousands and thousands of years. In this case I don’t want you to see it as an exercise, but rather as a position to ‘hang out’ in. It is fantastic for giving your back a break, while also giving your hips, ankles and knees a much-needed stretch.
Feel free to explore the squat. You can twist from side to side, maybe even lifting the heels of one or both feet. Bring movement into your squat and don’t see it as just a static shape. To come up, you can either squat to standing or straighten your legs while remaining in a forward fold and then roll up vertebra by vertebra (see Waking up the Spine).
5. S-Seat Switch
Come into a seated position with both your hands touching the floor behind your back and the feet a little more than hip-width apart. You are going to start moving the knees from one side to the other, just like windshield wipers. For the first option, keep the hands behind the back to add a gentle shoulder stretch to this nice movement-based hip opener.
For the second option, you can incorporate a rotation into the movement. Therefore, simply let go of one hand and let it follow the movement of your knees naturally (i.e. if your knees come to the right side, let go of the left hand and bring it in front of your body. And vice-versa.)
6. Gentle Side Backbends
To finish things off, we’re going to add another opening of your spine, shoulders and complete side body.
Start in a kneeling position. Feel free to adjust depending how comfortable you can sit on your heels. From this position, start to look for a big circle and initiate the rotation. Circle over to the left side, place the left hand behind your left foot, while the right arm remains long and extended reaching back. It’s important to really push the hip forward and up to feel the full movement and stretch. Then come back to centre, hip lowers down again and the same to the other side. Rotate to the right, place the right hand behind the right foot, while the left arm reaches back and your hip pushes forward and up.
Try taking this five-minute ‘Movement Snack’ two or three times throughout your day to keep your body healthy and minimise the negative effects of long days hunched in your makeshift office set-up.
If you enjoy this Movement Snack and would love an extended version of it to form part of your regular body health routine – especially important for us all in this time of enforced minimal movement – I highly recommend Henry’s online movement programme, The Moving Room.
In it, Henry demystifies the ‘movement culture’ and brings state-of-the-art teachings from martial artists, dancers, yogis, acrobats, calisthenics athletes and many other movers into a single learning environment. No matter whether you are already experienced in yoga, dance, martial arts, or strength training, you’ll find a variety of movement courses for all levels and great office exercises.
For an introduction to movement basics and bodyweight training to build your strength, try the free ‘Kick-start into Mixed Movement’ programme. Or dive right in to the full programme: Budokon Mobility: A Guide to Becoming a Movement Artist. Good for Men readers can enjoy a 10% Discount when you use this link.
Finally, if you’d like to hear more about Movement from Henry, check out episode 1 of the Man Body Spirit podcast in which we discuss Movement, Mind & mentors.Â
I hope you enjoyed these 5-minute home office exercises and stretches. If you did, please tell us in the comments what’s your favourite movement?
