Desk stretches are moves you can do in your chair, or standing right beside it, without changing clothes or getting on the floor. This page lists them as movements: what to do and how long to hold. It doesn't claim that any of them fixes or prevents a problem. If you have pain, an injury or a medical condition, stop and ask a doctor or a physical therapist.
The moves and hold times below come from the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety's fact sheet on stretching at the workstation, unless a row says practical.1 A full stretching session for flexibility, done on the floor, is the stretching routine.
Desk stretches you can do in your chair
| Area | Move | How | Hold or repeat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neck | Neck tilt and turn | Drop your head slowly to the left, ear toward your shoulder, then to the right. Then drop your chin toward your chest and turn your head all the way left, then right | Slowly, each way |
| Neck | Head glide (chin tuck) | Sit tall. Without lifting your chin, glide your head straight back, until you have a double chin | Hold for 20 counts; 5 to 10 times |
| Shoulders | Shoulder shrug | Raise the tops of your shoulders toward your ears, hold, then let them drop back down | 3 to 5 seconds; 2 or 3 times |
| Shoulders | Shoulder roll | Roll your shoulders slowly backward in a circle, then forward | 5 times back, then forward |
| Chest | Seated chest stretch | Hands behind your head, squeeze your shoulder blades together. Standing up, the doorway stretch does the same job (practical) | Practical: 10 to 20 seconds |
| Upper back | Cross-body arm | Hold one arm just above the elbow with the other hand and gently push the elbow toward the opposite shoulder (the cross-body stretch) | 5 seconds, each arm |
| Sides | Overhead reach and side bend | Interlace your fingers and lift your arms overhead, elbows straight, and press them back. Then lean slowly to the left and to the right | Practical: 10 to 20 seconds each way |
| Wrists and forearms | Wrist bend | Hold the fingers of one hand with the other hand and slowly bend the wrist down until you feel a stretch; relax; then bend it up | 3 to 5 seconds; 3 times each way |
| Wrists and forearms | Palms together | Elbows on the desk, palms together, slowly lower your wrists toward the desk until you feel a stretch, palms still touching | 5 to 7 seconds; 3 times |
| Back and hips | Seated twist | Sit with one leg crossed over the other, put your arm or elbow on the outside of the crossed leg, press gently and look the other way. Then switch | Practical: 10 to 20 seconds a side |
| Back and legs | Seated back curl | Hold one shin, lift that leg off the floor, curl forward and bring your nose toward your knee. Then the other leg | Practical: 10 to 20 seconds a side |
| Ankles | Ankle flex | Hold one foot off the floor, leg straight, and point your toes up, then down. Then the other leg | Practical: 10 times each way |
| Back, standing | Standing lean back | Stand with your knees slightly bent, hands on your lower back, and lean back slightly as your hands push forward | Practical: a few seconds, 3 times |
For a hip stretch that needs the floor, the kneeling hip-flexor stretch and the drills on the hip mobility page go further than a chair allows.
How long to hold, and how often to get up
- Hold gently, 10 to 20 seconds. The fact sheet gives that as a reasonable hold for stretches in general (the rows above give the exceptions), with normal breathing, no bouncing and no locked joints. You should feel a stretch, not pain; if you feel pain or severe discomfort, stop.1
- Get up every hour. The same fact sheet recommends a break of 5 to 10 minutes for every hour at a workstation, ideally standing and walking, and says some of the stretches can be done in that time.1
- Standing up and stretching made the biggest difference in one lab study. The study ran in two parts, with office workers and university students who do the same kind of computer work. First, in 24 healthy adults aged 20 to 25, muscle activity readings (EMG) of the trapezius and latissimus dorsi, in the shoulders and back, showed signs of fatigue after about 40 minutes of computer work. Then, in 48 others aged 19 to 24, a 5-minute break spent standing and stretching was the most effective of the breaks tested, against sitting in an armchair or walking around, for 5 or 10 minutes, and held the muscles at a recovered level for about 30 to 45 minutes.2
A five-minute desk routine
Practical: one pass of this is about five minutes. Do it once an hour, or at least once in the morning and once in the afternoon, and stand up for it when you can.
| Order | Move | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stand up, walk to refill your water and back | About 1 minute |
| 2 | Shoulder rolls, then shoulder shrugs | 5 rolls each way; 3 shrugs |
| 3 | Neck tilt and turn, then the head glide | Each way once; 5 head glides |
| 4 | Overhead reach and side bend | 10 to 20 seconds each way |
| 5 | Cross-body arm, then the wrist bend | Each arm; 3 times each way |
| 6 | Seated twist, then the seated back curl | 10 to 20 seconds a side |
The hold times in the routine are the fact sheet's where it gives one; the order and the totals are practical.
What studies of stretching at work measured
Many studies of stretching at work measure pain or discomfort, and this page makes no claim about either. These measured something else:
- Hamstring flexibility, in women at work. In a trial at a fruit and vegetable company, 58 women with an average age of about 44 were split into two groups. One group did three hamstring stretches of 20 seconds each, three times a week for 12 weeks, at work. Their scores on a toe-touch test and a straight-leg-raise test went up; the group that didn't stretch showed a non-significant drop.3
- Range of motion, in office workers. In 161 office workers without major musculoskeletal disorders, supervised static stretching on a stretching machine, 10 minutes twice a week for three months, increased range of motion in every test except hip extension. The people who started least flexible gained the most.4
Neither study tested the chair stretches in the table above. What they show is that regular stretching at work changed range of motion in those workers; whether a few desk stretches a day do the same hasn't been tested.
Desk stretches or a stretching routine?
- Desk stretches break up the hours in one position. Short, frequent, in your work clothes.
- A stretching routine is for flexibility: longer holds, more muscle groups, a few times a week.
- A mobility routine is for lifters who want range in the squat and overhead positions.
- Training is the rest of the week: a desk job with three short sessions a week is the workout plan for remote workers.
Common questions
How often should I do desk stretches?
The occupational safety fact sheet recommends a 5 to 10 minute break every hour at a workstation, standing and walking if you can.1 Practical: put the five-minute routine into that break.
What are desk stretches for the neck and shoulders?
The neck tilt and turn, the head glide, shoulder shrugs, shoulder rolls, the seated chest stretch and the cross-body arm, the first six rows of the table. This page makes no claim that they relieve neck or shoulder pain; if you have pain, an injury or a medical condition, stop and ask a doctor or a physical therapist.
What are desk stretches for the lower back?
The seated twist, the seated back curl and the standing lean back. The same goes for pain here: if you have pain, an injury or a medical condition, stop and ask a doctor or a physical therapist.
Can I do them standing?
Most of them, yes, and standing up is part of the point: the fact sheet's hourly break is ideally on your feet.1 The seated twist and the back curl need the chair.
What if a stretch hurts?
Stop. You should feel a stretch, not pain.1 If you have pain, an injury or a medical condition, stop and ask a doctor or a physical therapist.
If you'd rather have the week planned
Stretches at the desk are the small part of a desk week; fitting real training around the job is the bigger one. Coaching is the version where your workouts live in Trainerize, built around the days you actually have, and a weekly call goes over the week you just had and sets the next one. Coaching for a busy week explains how that works, and apply is where you tell me about your week.
General education only, not medical advice. If you have a medical condition, are pregnant, or take medication, check with your doctor before changing how you train or eat.
Sources
- Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS). Office Ergonomics - Stretching - At the Workstation (OSH Answers fact sheet; last revised 2014-04-03, confirmed current 2025-02-04). Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, 2014. https://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/ergonomics/office/stretching.html (accessed October 29, 2026).
- Ding Y, Cao Y, Duffy VG, Zhang X. It is Time to Have Rest: How do Break Types Affect Muscular Activity and Perceived Discomfort During Prolonged Sitting Work. Safety and Health at Work, 2020. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7303538/ (accessed October 29, 2026).
- Muyor JM, López-Miñarro PA, Casimiro AJ. Effect of stretching program in an industrial workplace on hamstring flexibility and sagittal spinal posture of adult women workers: a randomized controlled trial. Journal of Back and Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation, 2012. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22935854/ (accessed October 29, 2026).
- Fraeulin L, Holzgreve F, Haenel J, et al. A device-based stretch training for office workers resulted in increased range of motion especially at limited baseline flexibility. Work, 2021. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32925158/ (accessed October 29, 2026).