17 Desk Stretches That Will Keep You – And Your Learners – Alive (reposted)
My job – as an author and small business owner – requires that I sit for long hours in front of a computer doing the behind-the-scenes stuff that forms the foundation of my work. I hurt – I mean REALLY hurt – at the end of a computer workday.
Covid just exacerbated the screen-bound, sedentary workday that many of us were already living. John Medina (author of Brain Rules, 2000, 2014) la
mented that “We are sitting ourselves to death.” That is true even more so in 2022.
If you are like me, you probably are already paying the price in pain whenever you do a full day or week of constant screen time: Zoom meetings, virtual class instruction, emails, forms, reading, social media scrolling, texting, and on and on.
The short slide presentation below will help ease your work-induced pain. After you view the slides, begin by taking “baby steps,” like setting a computer or cell phone reminder to stop and stretch every 10-20 minutes. Combine a couple of the stretches too. Or take a 5-minute stretch break every half-hour, if possible, and walk around your office, your home, or outside, if you can.
If you are a virtual class trainer or teacher, encourage your learners to do a stretch or two with you. Introduce these pain-relieving desk stretches by inserting one into your live-streaming class every 10-20 minutes. Your learners will get a quick boost of physical energy and mental dopamine (the brain’s pleasure chemical) with each fun and silly-named stretch. You’ll get those immediate health benefits (energy and dopamine) too!
(For full-screen viewing, click on the small outlined box in the bottom right of the slide screen.)
For more silly virtual class stretches, click the link below to download the free infographic:
4 Topic-Related Body-Breaks to Energize and Engage Learners
Click HERE for the blog post that accompanies the free infographic.
