Two newsletters ago we went through different sitting positions that actually help your posture and I gave you some simple ways to stretch while working at your desk. Along similar lines this newsletter has seven exercises you can do to strengthen your muscles without having to get out of your chair.

I feel people still way under estimate how much benefit you can get from tiny bits of strength training randomly integrated into your life. You do not need to block out an hour in your diary, change your clothes or put up a social media post to get stronger, you do not even need to do a full workout. You can literally just do an exercise for 30 seconds then carry on with your daily business. Keep doing this at random points yet be roughly consistent over the weeks or months and you will see some quite nice gains.

For all of these exercises I would do between 5 to 50 reps in each of the positions. Do them all after each other or randomly throughout the day. You could do one exercise per day and rotate through the week. The key is just doing something in some form. This can be combined with the stretches that make you feel good / help your posture.

Hip Internal Rotation Strenghtening – This movement is usually signifcantly weak and most will struggle with this simple movement. Sitting upright, lift your leg a little then rotate your foot outwards. You may feel a pinch in the hips which suggests you need to do some hip retraction stretches.

Hip Flexor Strengthening – The upper thighs and front of the hips are usually weak and tight for most people. Doing the following 3 versions of single leg raises can transform how your legs feel as well as helping your lower back. Be careful that you do not feel it in the lower back, if so, either reduce the force from your legs or stop doing that particular movement.

Chair Squat Variations – You can improve your strength simply by adjusting how you get in and out of the chair. The simplest way is to stop using any hands or momentum to get up. In addition to this you could add 1 or 2 squats each time you get up or sit down, alternatively you could perch above the seats for a short while using your leg muscles. Finally, you could get up or sit down using just 1 leg to develop your squatting strength.

Calf & Foot Strengthening – The final exercises develop the lower limbs. Doing calf raises with two or one leg are super easy to do and effective, if you go high on the toes they become a nice toe strength exercise. Alongside this, working on your toe grip strength involves  widening your feet as much as you can while pulling the big and little toes directly into the ground. The final exercise has you in the same position as previous but you are focusing on raising your muscle arch as high as possible.

What Does This Mean For You?
If you are like almost everyone else and spend a long period of time sitting down then look to implement some of these exercises into your sitting environment.  You can see a video of these exercises on Tik Tok.

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