Best stretches for the ‘Desk Athlete’

As you look around the office you can be sure that most people sitting at their desk have or will hit the gym before or after work a couple of times that week, if not more. With all of us taking our health and fitness more seriously the evolution of the desk athlete is in full flow. What does this mean exactly?

Let Wheyhey give you an example:
Paul is a typical desk athlete. He works in the city and commutes into work every day on his bicycle. Paul heads to the gym before work and hits the weights hard. He doesn’t do a thorough warm up or stretch, as he’s warm already, from cycling to the gym quickly! (As a trainer I hear this a lot!). Paul pushes himself hard on the gym floor and spends 2 minutes ‘stretching’ after. He stands on one leg a stretches his quads for 10s each leg. He puts his leg up on a step and reaches with his hand towards his feet. He then pulls his arm across his body to stretch his shoulder and then heads for the showers. He cycles to work, grabs a quick bite to eat and heads into a day of meetings.

Now hats off to Paul for having the dedication to get into the gym before work every day and for keeping his cardio up and his carbon footprint down by cycling to work. The problem is however that Paul will sit at a desk all day often not moving for a couple of hours at a time. He will sit hunch backed at his computer screen day after day. If you pair these long periods of inactivity and inefficient posture with regular intense exercise and an inadequate stretching routine what we see is awful posture, a breakdown of ‘normal’ movement patterns, aches and pains, sore muscles and joints, poor exercise technique, the list goes on!

For this reason our fitness expert and resident PT James has put together a list of the most effective and beneficial stretching exercises your average desk athlete can do..

Common issues you see with people working office based jobs:
– Tight hip flexors (this applies to anyone working a job that requires extended periods of sitting)
– Tight Glutes
– Short and tight anterior muscles of the upper body
– Long and weak muscles of the upper and lower back
– Weak/Sore lower back

Best Hip Flexor stretch:

2 Plyo Box stretch

Best Glute stretch:

Best Pec Minor stretch:

Best Anterior Deltoid stretch:

Best Thoracic Spine (upper back) stretch:

Best Lumbar Spine (lower back) stretch:

Make sure you share all of these with your work mates… maybe even try and whole office work out! Send your pictures too @wheyhey

Enjoy your week, love the Wheyhey team!