3 Simple Seated Stretches You Can Do at Your Desk

The three simple seated stretches demonstrated in this video — pelvic tilts, heel-toe raises, and seated twists — can be done right in your office chair. These seated stretches will improve your circulation and range of motion, leaving you feeling more energized and awake.

While nothing can make sitting all day good for you, spending a few minutes a few times a day following along with this video can make a big difference in how you feel at the end of the day.

How to Do Pelvic Tilts

1. If you have heels on, remove your shoes.
2. Adjust the height of your chair so that your knees and hips are at ninety-degree angles.
3. Sit up nice and straight.
4. Make sure your ankle joints are directly below your knees.
5. Place your hands, palms up, in your lap.
6. Relax your shoulders and upper body.
7. Slowly tilt your pelvis forward, then backward 10-20 times.
8. With each movement forward and backward, explore how far you can go without straining.
9. Focus on using the muscles of the hips as much as possible by isolating the movement to your hips as much as you can.

How to Do Heel-Toe Raises

1. Reset to your starting position for pelvic tilts, steps one through six above.
2. Slowly raise your heels, then lower them.
3. Smoothly transition to raising your toes.
4. Repeat for 3 sets of 20 heel-toe cycles.
5. If your toes begin to point outward, gently correct so your feet are parallel throughout the exercise.

How to Do a Seated Twist

1. Reset to your seated, upright position as above, steps one through six.
2. Continuing to sit up nice and straight, gently twist to your right.
3. Place your left hand on the outside of your right knee to assist your twist.
4. You may want to place a water bottle or similar object between your knees to stabilize their positions while you perform the seated twist.
5. Gently turn your head and shoulders to the right to accentuate the twist while maintaining an erect spine.
6. Hold this position for one minute.
7. Slowly come back to center and reset to prepare for twisting to the left. Take a moment to relax.
8. Repeat steps two through six for your left side.