I remember that time when I used to work in New Jersey. I live in Manhattan so the overall commute was about one and a half-hour, on a good traffic day.
My commute looked a little something like this.
First I walked to the subway station, When I got there, I either sat on the subway, or stood up if there weren’t any seats. Then I took the bus into New Jersey. That was about an hour ride, on a good day. When I got to the bus stop, I walked another 10 minutes to get to work.
When I got to work, I sat on my desk for another eight hours straight. At the end of my workday, I walked back to the bus stop, sat on the bus, sat on the subway, then home. When I got home, I sat down to eat dinner, read a book, and probably another activity that involved sitting or rounding by back forward.
So in total, my sitting time was approximately more than 15 hours per day, sometimes more.
Do you see where I’m going with this?
How can this be healthy, you may ask?
Well, it’s not.
It’s very unhealthy. Very, actually.
And by the way, I quit that job after only six months. Ouch!
The truth is that there are many, MANY scientific studies that now link prolonged sitting to chronic health conditions such as Diabetes, heart disease, and musculoskeletal disorders.
So what can we do about it?
What can we do when we need to get to work and sit on our desk all day to make a living?
The answer to this is what I’ve said before about all the stress and anxiety that we encounter each and everyday. Things like sitting, stress, and overwhelm are normal areas of our everyday lives. The key is to find balance.
So how can we find balance?
Taking the time to move our bodies.
Taking the time to work on strength as well as flexibility, and mobility.
Taking the time to relieve our physical bodies from daily stressors like sitting all day long.
This short, 20-minute class helps to balance all the sitting, texting, reading, and standing that we do on a typical day-to-day.
I lead you through a slow moving sequence with gentle neck and shoulder stretches, hamstrings and hip openers, and mild backbends.
Here’s the sequence:
- Neck and shoulder rolls
- Cat & Cow Vinyasa
- Downward Facing Dog
- Lizard Pose
- Quad Stretch
- Forward fold with blocks
- Sphinx pose
- Chest & Shoulder openers
- Childs Pose with a side stretch
- Bridge Pose
- Supported Bridge pose variation
- Reclined twist
- Savasana
The end.
Now here’s the video.
Props needed:
1-2 blocks
One blanket or folded towel for padding.
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