Monday, January 5, 2015

Office Exercises/Seated Stretches

My job consists of computer work five days a week, eight hours a day (plus an hour for lunch that I may or may not work during). I'm lucky in that I can get up and walk around a bit, and go outside once an hour for my (horrible, I know, I know!) habit of smoking (during which I am usually doing some sort of movement).

Since starting ballet, I've been playing around with various exercises and stretches I can do while at work, while sitting. I've looked around the internet for office exercises/seated exercises, and really haven't found as many as I thought I would. Many of the ones I've found... well, I'm in a large shared office with three other people and the occasional customer, and I'd look ridiculous doing most of what I've found. (How would I explain sitting down, standing up, sitting down, etc. over and over again?? Or holding my arms straight out and doing arm circles, while everyone else is working?) I've been doing some of those I've found, and otherwise been working on creating my own. So I thought I'd start a list here of some of the seated/office exercises I do, and you may want to try as well.

  • Doming. Of course this is one. This is my most used one, actually, and THE reason why my arches and pointed feet are improving so quickly! (Seriously, I do it all day long.)
  • Calf raises. (I just discovered this one- a different way, which inspired this post.) I've tried the normal seated calf raises, where the feet are in parallel and the lower legs get lifted into releve, but that didn't seem to do much for me. I just set my right ankle on my left knee and then did a calf raise, and the extra weight really helped me feel the exercise. Then switch sides. 
  • Seated stretch #1. Same position as calf raises: right ankle on left knee. Lean forward. When you're ready, switch sides. I'm not going to attempt the anatomy here, but I do feel it in a number of places- be careful that you don't overdo this one, or do it too quickly!
  • Ankle rolls. Pretty self-explanatory. Raise right foot, rotate clockwise. Rotate counterclockwise. Switch. 
  • Pointed feet. Raise right leg slightly. Take foot from flat through demi to full pointe, going slowly. Reverse. Switch.
  • Butt clenches. (A little controversy on whether or not this one does anything, and it can be noticeable, so do at your own risk.) Using the muscle only, squeeze one side of the glutes. Hold for three counts, then switch.
To be continued...

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