Been Sitting Too Long? Try These 2 Moves

Elevated Pigeon

• While sitting in a chair, keeping one foot flat on the floor, bend your other leg and place your ankle on top of your bent knee so that your legs form a “4” shape.
• Place your hands on your bent leg, lean forward slightly, and rotate toward your left side, then toward your right side.
• Continue alternating between the two positions, rotating left and right, for two minutes or as long as possible.
• Repeat on the opposite side.
  

Kneeling Isometric

• Kneel on the floor with your right leg at a 90-degree angle and your left knee on the floor behind you. Maintain an upright torso and place your hands on your right knee.
• Squeeze the right side of your butt and move your right knee forward as far as you can — it won’t go far with your butt squeezed — and hold the position.
• Keep your butt engaged as you breathe — five slow inhales, five slow exhales — for one minute. Make sure you keep the working side of your butt engaged for the entire minute.
• Repeat on the opposite side.

Sitting for long periods might be common, but it can undermine your health. Learn more at “The Vital Role Standing — Versus Sitting — Plays in Your Health,” from which this piece was excerpted.