Desk bound to gym bunny?

You may be surprised to learn that doing a strong workout at the gym after a day sat at your desk may not be the best idea. There are some aspects that are great, but there are risks that come with it. It’s really important to get moving after a day spent quite still, but it’s essential to ease into it with the right warm up, perform the right exercises and then cool down in the correct way to prevent injuries.

I commonly see people with knee pain and low back pain from squatting too much, shoulder pain from too heavy weights and poor posture from too little stretching after a workout or stretching the wrong areas entirely.

So what goes wrong?

Imagine that your muscles are a rubber band. If you’ve been sat most of your day at a desk, that rubber band (your muscles) have been stuck in the same position. If you suddenly stretch that rubber band, there's a big risk it will tear and be damaged. You want to gradually build that stretch up or do lots of little stretches throughout the day, so that band is prepared.


For your muscles and your body, the best way to address this is to move more throughout the day, so you're stretching regularly, or start an appropriate warm up regime before a workout… ideally, after reading this post you’ll do both!

When working at a desk, especially without the correct desk setup to minimise strain, a common posture develops and it's called 'upper cross posture'. Picture someone sat at their desk, slumping over, pushing their head forwards towards a computer screen and cramping up the front of the hips- it's that exact posture we want to resolve! You've got to stretch out the tight muscles and then you're able to build up the strength in the spine and shoulders to avoid the posture developing again.




Warming up...

In my previous post I discussed how to move more throughout your day, so today I’ll chat about warming up.

A warm up isn’t the time to do strong stretches into specific muscles. Recent research has found that this actually increases the risk of injury during exercise. A warm up should aim to gently increase your heart rate to get your blood pumping faster and then gently stretch whole groups of muscles in order to loosen joints and prepare your body for the activity you’re about to do.

Start with a gentle cycle on a bike or 5 minutes on the cross trainer and gradually increase the resistance as you warm up. Next, perform gentle swinging movements with your arms and legs that will get the muscles stretching slightly, but not put any particular areas under strain. These are called dynamic stretches. Depending on the activity you’re about to do, you’ll want to alter the routine slightly. However, as a good gentle series of dynamic stretches, follow these steps...

Please remember to stop if there is any discomfort or pain. If you have a pre-existing injury or condition then check with your healthcare practitioner before undertaking this warm up. Be gentle and do the movements in a controlled manner, but creating rhythmical movements. Do each movement 5-10 times as you warm up.


1. Turn your neck left and right, side to side and gently (slowly!) look up.

2. Shrug your shoulders forwards and backwards three times.


3. Moving from your shoulders, swing your arms forward over your head and back behind you as far as comfortable, then across your body and out to the side.


4. Reach your arms up to the ceiling and stretch your back as high as your can. Then keeping your arms outstretched, fold from your hips to reach down towards the floor. Relax your neck and arms to rest there for three seconds and then gradually roll back up to standing.


5. Twist your body left and right, then reach your arms overhead and tilt to the left and right to side-bend your body.

6. Take both arms out to the side, parallel to the floor. Reach your arms behind you and arch your back to stretch your back and the front of your shoulders. Relax your back and bring your arms around to hug yourself, we all deserve a hug!


7. With your feet hip distance apart, swing your hips left and right, forwards and back, then in circles clockwise and anti-clockwise.


8. Bring your knees up to your chest in a high march, then swing your leg directly behind you with your knee bent slightly. Try not to lean forward with your body too much, get most of the movement from your hip.


9. Widen your stance to about shoulder width, then bend your left knee up and bring your right elbow down to touch. Repeat with the opposite elbow to knee.


10. Stand on one leg, then bring your other leg forward slightly to swing it across the opposite leg, and then back out to your side. Be careful to only get movement from your hip; don’t bend your spine to aid the movement.


11. Stand on one leg and roll the other foot clockwise and anti-clockwise, three times each way. Go onto tip toes for two seconds then rock back onto your heels for two seconds, continue to rock like this 5 times for each movement.

12. Take a step forward and bend your knees into a lunge position, keeping your back upright. Then come back up and repeat bringing the other foot forward. (When doing lunges, make sure your front knee doesn’t bend too far and move over your foot. You should always be able to look down on the front leg and see your toes, not just your knee!)


13. Finally do 20 jumping jacks to help get your heart rate up!


You're now ready to work out safely and have minimised your risk of injuries. Workouts should always have a mixture of cardiovascular exercise (getting your heart pumping faster) and strength training (building muscle strength). With a new exercise regime, you always want to start slowly and build up- many problems start when we throw ourselves into a new exercise with a little too much enthusiasm, or too little preparation!


The best cardiovascular exercises for after a day at the desk:

- Cycling

- Brisk walking

- Running

- Interval training

- Cross trainer

- Rowing machine

- Swimming

When swimming, if you have pre-existing knee problems, stick to front crawl kicking to avoid twisting the knee repetitively.

Now build up strength...


The best strengthening work:


- Free weights- lower weight and higher repetition will reduce strain on your body, but still build strength.

- Resistance machines. Always get an instructor to advise you on the right exercises for you.

- Pilates- especially for spinal strength!

It's important to strengthen the muscles of the neck, back and backs of shoulders to keep you supported when seated.


Now for the cool down...


Cooling down is just as important as warming up. The correct cool down can speed recovery from exercise and also improve your performance for the next workout, plus throughout your day-to-day life. Now is the time for strong static stretches, but you can incorporate the dynamic stretches if you feel they suit you.

Going back to that 'upper cross posture', now is the time to loosen off the muscles that tend to tighten. The areas affected are:


- Front of the neck

- Front and tops of the shoulders

- Front of the hips (hip flexors)

- Backs of the knees (hamstrings)

- Calf muscles


Try this gentle seated routine to get you started before you move onto stronger stretches.


Let me know how you get on!


For the next few weeks I'll be sharing my tips on making life working at a desk easier, including tips for digestive problems and how to reduce stress-related symptoms causing you pain.

Zoë Clark is a registered osteopath trained at the British College of Osteopathic Medicine in London.

Practicing in Howe, near Norwich (01508 558373) and Burston, near Diss, Norfolk (07543 557746).