Stretch your body in between work

Sitting and working for prolonged hour causes fatigue, pain in back, thighs and buttock muscles. Ergonomically not advised to work continuously without break. Thus the demand of quick relaxation in between arises.

Easy stretching Yogic poses can be performed by anyone and at any age and in between your work. All you need is just 10 minutes break after 2-3 hours of work.

Stretching helps to relax and provide a shape to the body. If done correctly it can help to lose weight. If you stretch regularly, you are less prone to injuries, aches and pains. This is because stretching relaxes muscle, makes muscle flexible this helps it to overcome aches and pains.

Sitting work involves muscles of back, hip and legs, Asana’s  providing  major relaxation to these muscles are Paschimottanasan for legs; Bhadrasan for hips; Marjarasan for back; one should also practice eye movement for health of eyes.

To start with:

§  Loose clothes

§  Yoga mat

§  10 minutes break &

§  You’ll need a good space at your work center to spread the yoga mat.

 

1.       Paschimottanasan

§  How to do - Sit on floor keeping your legs straight and palms on your thighs, keeping your heels together on the floor. Inhale, taking your hands upwards. Now bent forward and try to catch your foot with the help of your hands, without bending your knees, keep bending forward as much as you can while trying to touch your knees with your nose.

§  Initially, hold in this position for 5 – 10 seconds, later increase the time of hold for 20 seconds. Then slowly come to starting position.

§  Contraindications – people suffering from back injury, sciatica, slip disc etc. should practice this under guidance.

§  Benefits – makes your thighs and back flexible, relieves pains and aches of legs, knees and back.

2.       Bhadrasan

§  How to do – sit on the floor putting the soles of your feet together, hold your toes and slowly move your knees up and down a few times to loosen the inner thigh; then hold your feet with both hands and press your knees towards the floor and hold the position for 20 seconds while breathing normally, then slowly come back to normal.

§  Initially practice for few seconds then reach to 20 seconds.

§  Contraindications – those who suffer from severe back pain

§  Benefits – increases blood flow to hips and thighs therefore making it flexible.

 

3.       Marjarasan A

§  How to do – sit in Vajrasan first, place palms on thighs; slowly stretch the palms ahead while bending forward. Come to the position where your both knees, legs, soles and both hands are on floor. Keep distance in between both hands and legs. Slowly create hunch of your back at the same time take your neck up. Hold this position for 5-10 seconds.

Marjarasan B

§  How to do – After attaining the Marjarasan A pose, bring your both hands and knees together, remove the distance in between. Now raise your back up while your neck down. Neck and back position is just opposite in Marjarasan B pose from Marjarasan A. hold it for 5-10 seconds.

§  Contraindication – people suffering from slip disc should practice it with caution.

§  Benefits – soothes the back, provides relaxation to mind and body.

 

4.       Eye movements

§  How to do – follow 20.20.20 rule for eyes. After spending 20 minutes in front of screen, look 20 meters far and blink your eyes for 20 minutes. With this rule you can keep your eye sight healthy.

§  Close your eyes and open it for 5-10 times, rotate from left to right, rotate from right to left, complete rotation from left, upside, right side and down side, practice clock wise and then counter clock wise. All movements can be done for 5-10 times.

§  Contraindications – remove specs before movements, blepharitis.

§  Benefits – increases eye sight, protects the vision loss, increases the clear vision, removes dry eye caused due to more screen time.

§  Eye movements are requirement of children today. Due to pandemic, studies are switched to online which is new normal, requires continuous starring on computers. This change adds to already existing screen time of children, as children of new age prefer mobile, TV, computes games more than outdoor games.

§  Monitor children while doing the eye movements.