For everyone who is working at home: How many hours do you spend in your chair a day?

Especially with working from home ways are getting shorter. The fridge sometimes is just an arm-length away. No need to get up walking to the subway or walk from the car park to your office/home. How much time do you spend on a little stretch and exercise?

So it is even more important that we take conscious breaks. Here are six benefits of stretching your body once in a while when seating all day gets your muscles tight and the feeling of tiredness in your body and yawning overcomes you.

**Improving your flexibility, range of motion and preventing injuries
**Regular stretching improves the flexibility of your muscles which is important to keep your range of motion. Tight muscles can block your mobility. When your muscle structure is tightened, the range of motion around your joints is limited and movement like standing up and taking a walk after long hours of sitting or a stuck position can feel uneasy, uncomfortable and even lead to injury.
By sitting all day for example your hamstring muscle shortens, blood flow is less, the muscle is less nourished. By stretching your muscles you allow lengthening the muscle structure and the muscle can rejuvenate to its original muscle length. Great stretches for legs are seated or standing forward bends.

**Avoiding back pain, poor posture and getting that feeling of stress to relieve
**The benefits of stretching your back include also a reduction of tension in the muscles around your spine. A great stretch during the day is to pull your knee towards your chest (standing or while sitting on a chair), engage your abdominal muscles lengthening your back muscles.
Standing up rolling your shoulders backwards five, six times is also a great exercise during a workday at the desk especially if you tend to have rounded shoulders which plays its part in bad posture.
Finally, when you perform a stretch your body releases endorphins which will leave you with this aww-effect.

Stretching and strengthening your body muscles in particular your core muscles such as the back muscles but also abdominals can help you to improve your posture and overall well-being join me in my Thursday class here.