Flexibility expert recommends four stretches for easing back pain and tight hips after too much sitting
If you think it’s not worth stretching every day, think again
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It’s highly likely that you’re sitting at your desk as you read this. At the very least, you’re probably sitting down – we do a lot of that nowadays. But too much sitting can have unwanted effects on the body.
“Any time we’re doing something for a long period of time, there can be positives and there can be negatives,” says Cody Mooney, managing partner at stretching app Pliability.
“When your knees are at 90 degrees while sitting, the hip flexor muscles are held in a shortened position – you’re keeping them there for hours and hours, and they stay tight. If you’re not doing something to help elongate and relieve these muscles, you can develop hip impingements and pain.”
Excessive sitting can also lead to tightness in the upper back and rounded shoulders, according to Mooney. As a result of this tightness, “compensation” can occur when exercising, with the body subconsciously changing your movement patterns to shift emphasis away from the impacted muscles. “And usually when compensation happens, you get injuries,” Mooney says.
Regular movement is among the best remedies for this, be that stretching, strengthening or mobilising the affected areas. Below, Mooney shares his four favourite stretches for soothing tight spots after a day at his desk, and talks through the plus-points of each one.
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How to do Cody Mooney’s stretching routine
- Pigeon pose - 2 minutes each side
- Puppy dog pose - 2 minutes
- Saddle stretch - 2 minutes
- Couch stretch - 2 minutes each side
“Start with two to three minutes in each position, that’s a great baseline, then gradually work up to four or five minutes,” Mooney advises. “I think doing this routine consistently will massively benefit a lot of people. But don’t push yourself into discomfort where you don’t breathe, you’re sweating, you’re tense and it hurts. Allow yourself to be passive in the stretch.”
You can do these stretches as a 12-minute routine at the end of a shift. Or you might break up the working day by stepping away from your desk every now and then to do one – a more digestible approach known as exercise snacking.
Read more: I trained like Anne Hathaway for a month, and the results surprised me
Pigeon pose
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How to do it
- Start in a high plank position.
- Bring your right knee to your right hand, then place the outside of your right thigh on the ground, so your right shin runs across your body in front of you.
- Extend your left leg behind you so your hips sink towards the floor.
- Lean forward, placing your hands or forearms on the ground inside your right knee for support.
- Hold this position for two minutes, then repeat on the other side.
Benefits
“The pigeon pose is great because it really hits the hip, glute and lower back area,” Mooney says. “When you’re in a sitting position, your hip flexor muscles aren’t able to elongate or stretch, and you develop aches and pains around the joint, as well as in the movement patterns that use it.
“If you have a little lower back or hip pain going on, the pigeon stretch can help by releasing that hip, glute and lower back area.”
Puppy dog pose
How to do it
- Start on all fours.
- Keeping your hips over your knees, slide your hands out in front of you, allowing your chest to drop towards the floor.
- Hold this position for two minutes.
Benefits
The default position for a desk worker is one where you’re hunched over a keyboard. The puppy dog pose provides the antithesis of this, elongating the spine for a welcome stretch through the back and shoulders.
“You’re allowing your shoulders to sit back and open up, while getting the thoracic [mid spine] out of that rounded position,” Mooney says. “I think the puppy dog and child’s pose are wonderful for that.”
Saddle stretch
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How to do it
- Start in a low kneeling position, with your knees roughly hip-width apart and your bum resting on your feet.
- Keeping your spine long, lean backwards as far as you comfortably can. The further you lean back, the more intense the stretch will be.
- Place your hands on the ground underneath your shoulders for support.
- Hold this position for two minutes.
Benefits
The quads (the muscles on the front of the thigh) are another area that can become tight from too much sitting, and Mooney says this tightness can contribute to the development of patella tendonitis – inflammation of the patella tendon, causing knee pain.
“A lot of the time with pain, you have to look up- or downstream to find the cause, so loosening up the quad is definitely a massive benefit there,” he explains. “The saddle stretch is wonderful because it really hits both the quads and the hip flexors.”
Couch stretch
How to do it
- Kneel in front of a wall or another sturdy vertical surface.
- Place your right knee on the floor where the wall meets the ground, then extend your right shin vertically upwards along the wall. If this feels too intense, move your knee further away from the wall.
- Step your left foot forward so it’s in a lunge position, with your left shin vertical, your left thigh parallel with the ground and your left knee forming a right angle.
- Lift your chest as high as you are comfortably able.
- Hold this position for two minutes, then switch sides and repeat.
Benefits
As Mooney mentions above, the root cause of pain often isn’t in the area it’s felt in, but a nearby muscle or joint that isn’t functioning as it should. Case in point: tight hips can translate to lower back pain, courtesy of compensation. The couch stretch can combat this.
“I love the couch stretch. Loosening up the quads, hip flexors and piriformis [a muscle running from the lower spine to the top of the thighs] – will really help you loosen up the hips, and [ease] the nagging lower back pain that many people have.”
What are the benefits of stretching?
“Stretching allows your body to move as it should,” says Mooney. “It can help you reach a point where your muscles are not only allowing your joints to move well, but you also have the ability to elongate your muscles safely and properly. This lowers your risk of injury, allowing you to move efficiently and without pain.”
“By stretching, you’re maybe not taking away all of the negatives of sitting at a desk for eight hours every day, but you are taking a proactive approach to allowing your body to get back to its natural, proper position.”
He also highlights the importance of developing both flexibility and mobility; the ability of the soft tissues in your body to stretch, and your usable range of motion around a joint, respectively. Developing both sufficient range of motion around each joint and strength throughout these positions is crucial if we want to build a fit, functional and robust body. Hip flexor exercises like deadbugs, banded knee tucks and weighted knee raises can be a good way to work on the latter.
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