Office Yoga — Hannah Hooper Yoga

Whether you spend your working hours mostly stationary in an office cubicle, running from meeting to meeting in a busy attorney's office, or mixing spurts of sitting, walking and standing in an unpredictable Emergency Room, the following three mini office yoga sequences serve as a reset button for the major tension areas of the body, promote deeper, more conscious breathing and, most importantly, use a small space and narrow window of time to create an opportunity for you to take care of yourself.

When I chose the rather humble title 'Office Yoga' for this blog, I was envisioning a typical 21st century workspace. Likely cramped and cluttered with the detritus of repeated "repurposing" or the abandoned refuse of projects eagerly started but now stuck in some sort of eternal holding pattern, where the only props you have are simply the desk and chair you likely spend a majority of your day at or around. And if you don't work at a desk, and if you're not fortunate to work for an employee who has provided on-site fitness facilities, and if your responsibilities and goals don't afford you time for recreational or fitness activities during your workday, and if your coworkers would gawk at you like a some sort of madman for laying down a mat in the middle of your workspace and suddenly springing up into a handstand, I humbly offer your three equally humble bite sized yoga sequences divided, I hope, into cohorts that make sense to your body. And whether done in sequence, mixed-and-matched, performed in isolation, or modified to better fit your needs, limitations, or liking, I hope they help provide you with a break from the tasks and demands of even your most strenuous workday.

Each sequence can be completed in less than 12 minutes; hold each pose for at least 5 breaths on each side. And, as almost all of the postures are practiced on your chair, you will have to dig deep for an excuse not to incorporate them into your day! :)

SEQUENCE 1: NECK, SHOULDERS & UPPER BACK

Sit tall on your chair, one hand to your belly and the other on your chest. Follow your breath as you breathe deeply into your bottom hand and observe the breath draw into the top hand

Cat and Cow - hands to thighs or grip the knees as you move through the two poses

From the last cat pose interlace the fingers and stretch the arms forward, stretching deeper in the mid and upper back

Flip the interlaced hands outwards, stretch the arms up into Upward Bound Fingers Pose - move into side bends

Eagle arms with neck tilt

Cow face arms

Puppy pose with elbows on your desk, glutes on the chair

SEQUENCE 2: LOWER BACK, CORE & TWISTS

Sitting with feet hip-width apart, fold forward over the legs, resting the fingertips down on the floor

Turn to the right, so that the right thigh is parallel and against the back of the chair. Turn your torso to the right as your exhale, taking both hands to the back of the chair-back, helping you stay stable in the twist. Repeat on the other side

Come back to sitting with feet hip-width apart, lower the left fingertips down to the floor between the feet, and stretch the right arm up and experience a deep twist through the torso

Half Salutations seated or standing

SEQUENCE 3: HIPS, LEGS & FEET

Standing quad stretch

Runners's stretch or half hanumanasana with the front foot on the chair

If you have the space around the chair or place of practice, Warrior 2 - Reverse Warrior - Triangle

Seated single pigeon - place ankle on opposite thigh, tilt the torso forward to deepen the stretch in outer hip

Interlace fingers around the back of one thigh to lift it slightly, and come into ankle extention, flexion and rotatation. Squeeze and open the toes.

Seated child's pose - rest forearms and elbow on desk, rest forehead on stacked hands

Meditation (or stay in seated child's pose)

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