The 10 Best Desk Exercises You Can Do at Work

In today’s fast-paced work environment, spending long hours at a desk has become the norm, often at the expense of our physical well-being. However, staying active during work hours doesn’t require a trip to the gym. Incorporating simple desk exercises into your daily routine can help combat the negative effects of prolonged sitting, boost your energy levels, and improve overall health.

Let’s explore the best exercises you can do right at your desk to keep your body moving and your mind sharp, all without leaving your workspace.

Why Desk Jockeys Sometimes Struggle to Exercise

Although lack of motivation is a big deterrent to exercise, finding the time to incorporate it into a busy schedule is even greater. When you are already stretching minutes to their limit between work and family, it is important that exercise can be done without adding stress to an overloaded routine.

What many haven’t discovered is that desk exercises can be added in small increments throughout the workday. Some of the best exercises you can do at your desk are simple but extremely effective. The next time you have a break between projects, try a few of these ideas to tone muscles, burn calories, and reduce stress.

Upper Body Exercises

1. Choose the heaviest book on your desk. Using both hands, press straight up. Lower to head and repeat until arms tire.
2. Place arms by your side. Reach backward as you squeeze your shoulders together. Make small circles, both forward and backward while counting to ten. Relax and repeat three times.
3. Sitting on your desk chair, bend forward from the waist. Put hands together in a fist. Swing straightened arms to the left and right like a pendulum. Count to ten, relax, and repeat.
4. Do neck rolls and shoulder shrugs to loosen the upper back muscles.
5. Keep bands or light dumbbells at your desk and bust out curls, shoulder raises, and even rows if you have the time and space.

Lower Body Exercises

1. Turn the desk chair to the side. Lift both legs straight out with toes pointed and feet together. Briskly move your feet up and down in a seesaw motion (flutters) for one minute.
2. Placing the feet flat on the floor and keeping the toes on the floor at all times, alternately lift heels in a running motion. Continue the movement for thirty seconds. Relax and repeat.
3. Using the seat of the chair to balance, do chair lunges by placing one foot on the floor with the knee at a ninety-degree angle and moving the other foot backward beside the chair, reaching for the back chair leg. Repeat with the other leg on the other side of the chair. Aim for five lunges on each side.
4. Place a book or magazine between your knees and squeeze them together as tightly as possible. Hold to a count of ten, relax, and repeat ten times.
5. Stand and hold one leg out to the side for ten seconds without holding on to the desk. Alternating legs, repeat ten times.

Final Thoughts

These suggestions for desk exercises are just the starting point of what a creative person can do to find time for fitness. The best exercises you can do at your desk will fit your particular work environment and are just waiting to be discovered. Using these ideas as a starting point, you can develop an office fitness plan that you can do in one thirty-minute segment or six five-minute periods. Exercise will then be adding to your day, not taking from it.

August 2024 Update: Other Resources

6 Exercises You Can Do at Your Desk (clevelandclinic.org)

hq_deskfit_booklet_6.10.2020.pdf (nasa.gov)

Office Exercises: 30 Exercises to Do at Your Desk (healthline.com)

Read more: 8 Tips on Staying Active at Work

Tags: desk exercises, exercise, fitness, work

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