You may have worked from home, created an online business, get your Uber license, had children or sat for extended periods for other reasons (Netflix, anyone?). You may have noticed that you have been sitting more in the last few years. This means that you are moving less and stressing more.
Your health is likely compromised if you have a home office or an equivalent.
Hip Flexors
Sitting for long periods of time is the most likely culprit when it comes to tight hips. Extended sitting sessions, regardless of your posture, will reduce your hip flexors.
Multiple muscles are involved in the ‘hip flexors, which help the pelvis balance over the legs. The iliopsoas, which is both the psoas minor and the iliacus combined, the rectus femoris (one the quadriceps), and the Sartorius are the main ones.
You can balance your legs, pelvis, and back by taking simple actions. This will help relieve and release hip flexors.
Psoas-specific
The psoas’s sensations are subtle. This hip flexor, which most people have never heard of except a yoga teacher who mentioned it to them, is located in the lower lumbar area. It extends through the pelvis and the femur and can engage in habitual holding patterns.
When you walk, the psoas moves the hip joint forward and lifts your upper leg towards your body.
The psoas is deeply linked to emotions and responds well to calm attention, patience, perseverance, and quiet attention. Here are some yoga poses that can help you nurture this:
Shoulders
The shoulders play a major role in nearly every yoga pose and life. Our mobility and flexibility, as well as our lack thereof, are constantly affected by us. This is especially true when many of us are constantly hunched over computers, phones and steering wheels. For long periods, our shoulders are often in protraction.
While strength is important, flexibility and mobility are equally important. These yoga poses will stretch the tiny fibres between your joints.
Back
The spine can move forward and backward (flexion or extension), sideways (lateral flexion), or twist. Sitting for long periods, particularly if you are slouching over a computer monitor, encourages flexion but misses all the other movements.
Side bending, back bending, and twisting, in addition to the forward motion of sitting, can improve posture and reduce back discomfort. This is because the muscles that stabilize the spine are strengthened and flexible. These yoga poses accomplish exactly that.
Eyes
Are your eyes dry or scratchy? Is your vision blurry? The eyes are being strained by screen time – no matter if you’re at home working or watching Netflix, most of our Oculus uterque suffer. Tired eyes can cause headaches, difficulty concentrating and physical ailments like tight shoulders and back problems.
Eye strain can be treated with rest, yoga and care. These eye strengthening exercises can help you to strengthen your eyes:
- Move. Look up and down, left, right, diagonally, and a few times in each direction.
- Close/Blink. Keep your eyes moist by lowering your lids regularly.
- Warm. Using your hands, rub your palms together and then gently place your warm hand over your closed eyes.
- Look at the object. Do not blink.