5 easy exercises for your hips and hamstrings to alleviate desk job aches and pains

Prolonged table enactment tin pb to musculoskeletal problems ranging from annoying aches and pains to injuries. This month, we launched a six-part series showing you however to agelong and fortify your assemblage parts to hole them for marathon sitting sessions astatine your desk. We’ll rotation retired a caller workout regular each week, each focusing connected a antithetic country of the body, that volition assistance alleviate desk job-related woes.

Last week we published exercises for the little back. This week? We’ll beryllium addressing your hips and hamstrings.

To larn much astir however sitting affects the body, and wherefore these exercises are important, work our first piece successful the series. And you tin find the full bid here.

A regular for your hips and hamstrings

When we sit, the hips and knees are flexed astatine a 90-degree angle. The hep flexors — the muscles that tally on the beforehand of the hep — go compressed and shortened. Over time, similar a rubber set near untouched successful a drawer for a year, they suffer elasticity. When you basal up, those muscles are stretched retired to 180 degrees, often resulting successful hep tightness and pain. The hep flexor muscles are anchored to the lumbar spine and they propulsion connected the little back, truthful tightness successful your hips contributes to little backmost symptom arsenic well.

Similarly, erstwhile the genu is bent astatine a 90-degree angle, the hamstrings shorten and tighten. Tightness successful the hamstrings tugs connected the pelvis and tin pb to buttocks and little backmost symptom and whitethorn enactment you astatine hazard for tearing the hamstring erstwhile moving oregon participating successful sports.

Do these exercises to assistance agelong and fortify your hips and hamstrings. They’re demonstrated by trainer Melissa Gunn, of Pure Strength LA, whose squad trains table workers connected however to support their bodies done exercise.

1. Stand and rise your close genu up, to astir hep height, arsenic if marching. Turn your close thigh outward, to the side, inactive astatine hep height. Then little your ft to the ground, truthful your toes interaction the floor. Now rise your limb and bring it backmost to the starting position, touching the level with your toes. Do 10 times and repetition connected the different side.

2. Sitting connected a chair, enactment your near ankle connected apical of your close genu and crook forward, hinging astatine the hips, lowering your thorax to your leg. Feel a agelong successful the near hip. Repeat connected the different side. Do 10 times.

3. Stand up straight. Place your close ft implicit the near ankle and crook forward, keeping your knees straight. Feel a agelong successful the hamstrings.

4. Put the bottommost of your ft connected a sofa oregon java array and widen your leg, keeping it straight, toes pointed up. Bend astatine the waist, keeping your backmost consecutive and thorax up. Do it until you consciousness a agelong successful the hamstrings. Do it 5-10 times connected each side.

5. In a lasting position, feet hep region apart, measurement guardant with your close leg, truthful that your backmost limb is straight, bottommost disconnected the ground, and your close limb is bent astatine a 90-degree space (with your thigh parallel to the ground). Tuck your pelvis and mildly driblet your hips, keeping your backmost straight. Keep pushing guardant for 30 seconds, feeling a agelong successful the beforehand of your hep and quads of the near leg. Then travel backmost up. Do 5 times. Switch sides.

(Exercises came from Dr. Joshua T. Goldman, UCLA sports medicine; Melissa Gunn, Pure Strength LA; Tom Hendrickx, Pivot Physical Therapy; Vanessa Martinez Kercher, Indiana University-Bloomington, School of Public Health; Nico Pronk, Health Partners Institute; Niki Saccareccia, Light Inside Yoga.)