How to Improve Posture with Desk Pilates
Hey, are you sitting at your desk all day? Me too, and our bodies definitely feel it. It’s important not only to move our bodies for different reasons, but also for posture and health. So let’s do some Pilates exercises at our desk, because we’re all very busy, and these can get you started.
Welcome to Online Pilates Classes, the most supportive Pilates community worldwide. Enjoy new weekly classes from our incredible teachers. Download the OPC app today.
I really feel you if you sit at a desk, because you might be surprised, as a Pilates instructor, how much I’m at a desk. But believe it or not, I’m at my desk a lot. And even when I’m not at my desk and I’m teaching, I am looking down at something. It may as well be a screen, even though it’s a person. And so getting easy movements into our bodies is super important, because as we know a body in motion stays in motion. We also know that sitting for long periods of time is terrible for our digestive system and our health, right? But let’s be real. You can’t just move all the time, and starting an exercise program or fitting exercise in on busy day is not always easy. So, what are the best Pilates exercises for office workers? So here are some easy Pilates at desk moves you can do seated or standing to help you get some movement in and a little Pilates into your body.
Pilates Exercises Perfect for the Desk
Let’s start with some seated moves you can do in the chair that you’re already sitting in. All right, so I have a few for you today. We have a spine twist, a roll down, we also have a side bend. We also have a couple stretches. The quad stretch is my favorite, figure four stretch and a swan prep.
So let’s dive into it. The spine twist is very much like doing saw or spine twist on the Mat and it’s a great way to start your desk arm workout. And you can do this by getting really good twists into your body, but without moving your hips. So you want to make sure that one, your chair is locked in place, and two, that when you’re moving your upper body, you’re not moving your lower body. Next, we want to look at our spine stretch forward, or our seated roll down. This is a way to round the spine. So the spine makes five shapes. We talked about that in other videos, and we’re going to round the spine. Important that you don’t slouch to round. You’re already doing that your desk. We got to sit tall and then bend forward, all right. Then we have a side bend. So this is like doing a side sit up. So try not to just do this, okay, try to actually lift tall and bend to each side. You can do this with your arms down, or your arms behind your head. The stretches, the quad stretch is my absolute favorite. You could do this in meetings. No one would know what you’re doing. It’s so so good. And you can add a little extra slide to it to deepen the stretch. You’ll want to make sure that you’re lifting your hip points up, so you’re not going into your lower back.
The Figure four, we don’t have video for that for you, but it’s just sitting there, crossing that ankle over. Make sure you flex that foot, and then you can round over. It’s like a pigeon, but in your chair. Why wouldn’t you want to do that? And lastly, the swan prep. And by the way, there’s no order for these. You can do them whatever order you need or your body is craving. But the swan prep, that’s that extension, right? Really helping opening up the chest and pulling your head back. Important to interlace those hands and place them behind your head so that you can actually turn on the muscles around your neck and your upper thoracic. So when you do the extension, it’s not sticking your lower back forward, but instead sitting tall and opening up that thoracic. It’s going to help improve your posture in huge ways, and truly get that heart opener we need after sitting at our desks.
Dynamic Standing and Chair-Supported Pilates Moves
Now, let’s talk about some more dynamic moves you can do seated or standing. First up, we have the standing leg slides, side leg slides. I love these. These come from an inspiration from the Cadillac, and they are amazing. You could do it with the chair or without the chair. There are four moves that you’re going to do. You’re gonna slide one leg out and you’re gonna slide that leg across. You’re gonna slide the leg back. You’re gonna pick the leg up and reach it back. So you’re gonna get hamstring, outer hip, inner thigh, and you have to work your center to keep yourself from leaning. It is amazing. And your standing leg is going to be on fire in a good way. You can use a chair for balance if you need it. We also have the soleus push ups. These have been these came from a really cool science experiment. They make me think of footwork running or footwork tendon stretch on the Reformer. Ideally done sitting, but you can do them standing. You can do them with your heels together or your feet apart, and you’re literally just lifting your heels and lowering them right. And the idea is to just do them as much as you can, as long as you can. Seated is quite amazing. Lifting that back nice and tall. I told you earlier, there’s five spine shapes. And in the other exercises, we got four of them. A tall back is our fifth one. And these sides and soleus push ups give us that tall back work we’re looking for.
And lastly, some tricep dips, a simple but powerful Pilates at desk move. You can do these off the side of your chair. You can often also do this off the side of a desk, right? You can do with bent knees. It’s any kind of tricep dip. You know these, you’ve felt these. Make sure that you’re pulling your shoulders back with it and the back is nice and tall, but a really great way to work the back side of your body, work some arm strength, and work that upper back strength to have a nice tall back for your posture.
Wall-Based Pilates Exercises for Strength & Posture
So first we have some I’s Y’s. Then we have our roll ups, and then we have some wall squat so let’s talk about eyes wise. They kind of came from the eyes wise T’s from a trainer. They’re really great for improve posture at desk. Okay, you can find these in our wall exercise class. I’ll talk to you about that in a second. But really important to get the shoulders, the ribs, the hips, everything back. Honestly, if you have an office door that locks in place, you can do it there, hide from everyone a little bit and really help open this all up without pinching your shoulder blades together, because that does not give you the great posture. The wall roll down. This is so amazing. Sometimes it’s going to feel like a stretch, sometimes it’s going to feel like a strength, but it’s actually going to make your core work to roll your upper body off the wall and back on the wall without coming off in big chunks. So really great for that spinal mobility we’re looking for. Your inner thighs and outer hips have to work for you to do this well.
And finally, a wall squat. I know you’re like, oh, a wall squat, but seriously, slide down that wall. Walk those feet out. Set a timer, you know, if your boss is always late. So zooming two minutes. Don’t do a wall squat for two minutes, but you can certainly take some of that time to do 30 seconds a couple of times, right? So great for leg strength, which is what we need to have, stamina endurance, not just for the work we’re going to do, but the life we want to live. And if you want to do these exercises with me, these three, plus so many more are in our wall exercise class, our wall workout. It’s true wall Pilates. None of the stuff that’s boring or not real or just trying to get you to click on their stuff, an actual wall pilates workout that you can do anywhere you have space on the wall.
How to Fit These Into Your Work Day
Now that you know you can do something and you’re excited about it, when should you do it? Well, honestly, you really have to actually look at your work schedule, where are the meetings that typically start a little bit late, or you are always kind of waiting for someone? That could be a great place to add this in one movement at a time, right? Maybe you actually know you have a call that’s every Monday, and it’s video off. Maybe you pair these with that, because you can still participate in the in the meeting, but you also no one can see what you’re doing, and you give yourself a good movement practice during that time, I’m going to out one person on our team. Every time Meredith does calls with people, I watch her do lunges. So you can pair something you might not like doing at your job with something you want to be doing at your job, and then it makes you more motivated to do the thing you don’t like, because it means you do the thing you want to do, or maybe you actually do this before your lunch break starts and then go off to lunch. The important thing about habits is to start small. So if you already have a hard time making movement a priority, pick one of these a day. That’s all. Pick one, try different parts of your day and celebrate what you did do. Okay? That is the best way to do it. And if you are struggling with motivation, you’re feeling stuck, you’re like, I want this in my life, and I don’t believe I can do it. We have a video for you. It’s called How to work out when you don’t have motivation.
Helpful Pilates Tips
And just a few helpful reminders, if your chair is on wheels, lock it in place. Also, you may want to do camera off. If you are doing these in zoom meetings, you know you never know what people can see. And maybe locking that office door is an option as well. Make sure you’re breathing in and out through your nose. It’s not just only better for your health, but it actually allows you to work more core muscles and do only a few reps of each of these. It’s really easy to get caught up. The only one that you can do tons of is the soleus push ups. Okay, so I want you to just take your time doing a few reps. Listen to your body if one exercise feels better than another exercise right now, ditch that one for now you’re doing great. Any amount of movement is better than no movement at all. And if this is inspiring you to get moving, try this quick Pilates routine for office days to help you reset and re-energize. It’s perfect for improving posture and providing back pain relief at work — especially if you sit for long hours. Learn how to improve posture with desk Pilates and start feeling stronger throughout your day. We actually have some tips for including Pilates into your daily routine. And if you are like a lot of people today who have office jobs suffering from any kind of back pain or aches, we have great moves for you to do these do require a little more floor space. We have eight exercises you can do at home or maybe in a break room to help support your lower back.
Share These Quick Desk Pilates Moves
Thank you so much for watching. I really get so much out of knowing that these videos are so helpful for you. If you wouldn’t mind letting me know what your favorite exercises were, or the ones that you tried out and how they’re going and do me a favor. Also, send this to a friend who sits too much. It’s always easier to stay moving when everyone’s doing Pilates at desk together. If you have any questions or want to do Pilates at home, check us out at onlinepilatesclasses.com. And if you’re ready to take your practice to the next level, don’t forget to join OPC Membership — you’ll get access to exclusive classes, full programs, and an amazing supportive community. Check us out at OPC YouTube.
