Do you need desk yoga in your life?
Maybe the starting point would be to answer the following questions.
- Are you finding you are often in front of our PC from dawn to dusk on zoom, Teams or Google Hangouts?
- Did you ever think you’d miss the daily commute – if nothing else for the walk and a little of exercise?
If you’ve answered ‘Yes’ to either of the above, then you may want to consider desk yoga…
What’s this desk yoga all about?
With so many types of yoga classes when or where will it stop? It would be fair to say that over the last few years, more and more us would have been familiar with yoga at work, hot yoga to more recently online yoga classes. But now, what is desk yoga and why are people now doing it?
Unsurprisingly, desk yoga seems to have grown in popularity since most of us have been working from home. With local yoga studios unable to offer face to face classes, and with limited space at home, it may just be that desk yoga helps you continue some kind of regular yoga practice.
(Note – Desk Yoga pictures aren’t likely to get you many new followers on Social Media – however hard you try, it’s just not that sexy).
Perhaps the very reason desk yoga has become ‘a thing’ is for the very reason we are working from the privacy of our own homes – though housemates, partners and kids may appear every so often. I’d like to think, who ever you are living with, they will understand your nuances or querks and just let you get on with it. Somehow, I can’t quite imagine people working in an open plan office going through regular yoga stretches at their desks. There have been many unintended consequences of our recent lockdowns – I think the ‘popularity’ (I mean awareness) of desk yoga is one of them.
11 FAQ’s about Desk Yoga
…that you may have never thought about or even considered before
- What is desk yoga?
- Well, simply put, it’s a selection of yoga poses you can do at your desk – which for most of us will be in the spare room or on the kitchen table.
- How do I ‘do it’?
- You can do the yoga stretches either sitting down or standing up – do what feels comfortable for you – maybe focus on an area of the body that feels stiff or tight – maybe the lower back is stiff or painful from sitting all day, or open up the chest and shoulders.
- Is there a set yoga sequence?
- No – not really, the key thing is to help keep the body moving, rather than remaining static throughout the day. In that respect it’s a bit like a vinyasa flow or yin yoga class – each yoga sequnce can be different, focusing on different parts of the body.
- What’s the point?
- As with any yoga class, the idea is to combine the movement of the body in coordination with your breath. If you have time, hold each pose for a few breaths; as you exhale you may find you can do deeper into each pose. Whilst you are doing the poses, try to switch off from your daily responsibilities, move and breath.
- Is there a desk yoga qualification?
- I have haven’t seen any yoga teacher training courses for desk yoga yet – so I assume that yoga teachers are freestyling at the moment.
- Who can do desk yoga?
- Anyone can do desk yoga – you just need to find some time and a small amount of space to stretch
- How much time do I need?
- All you need to do is find the time to stretch and move from anything between a few minutes to half an hour. We’ve given yoga classes to companies to encourage colleagues to keep active and have created our own shorter yoga videos for you to follow.
- When should I do it?
- A little and often – perhaps between meetings or when you are getting a drink from the kitchen. If your on a call – one tip would be to turn your camera off…
- What equipment do I need?
- Assuming you have a desk and a chair – no equipment necessary! Use what’s around you – you certainly don’t need a yoga mat, yoga strap or yoga block. Just use what you have
- The important question – what should I wear?
- No need to change into your yoga clothes (and matching colours and brands obviously)
- Who should do desk yoga?
- Anyone working at a desk can (or should) do it – whether you are child home schooling or someone completely new to yoga – so it’s open to everyone, young or old, men and women…
Give it a try…
Why not try out a few of our free desk yoga classes – here; each are a few minutes long so you can fit into your busy day.
Even as a yoga teacher, although love being able to work from home, providing online yoga classes to people around the UK, and the world, I certainly do miss face to face classes but in the meantime, let’s do what we can when we can, trying to make the most out of the situation, wherever we find ourselves.
