Off the Mat and at the Desk: an eCollegeFinder post

Last week, I was asked to contribute a short sequence for eCollegeFinder.org, to help students who sit at their desks all day. Today, my sequence, along with about ten other yogis (including Sir Paul McCartney!) is posted on the site. Okay... isn't it a little odd to get two Beatles-related posts one after the other? I didn't know the article was going to come out today; it's just, as my pops says, a co-ink-ee-dink.

Off the Mat and at the Desk

Here's my sequence for poor, hunched over e-learners. To check out all of the other thoughts bloggers and ex-Beatles came up with, check out this article.

"The real issue for people who sit at the computer for hours every day, and believe me I count myself in there, is that it's basically one long forward bend. Actually, most everything we do during the course of a normal day is a forward bend. Tying our shoes, washing the dishes, folding the laundry... all these things require a forward bend at the stomach or hips (usually the stomach). The best thing you can do to help your body, and restart your brain, is to do a small, gentle back-bend."

1. Scoot all the way forward in your seat (a hard seat is better).
   
2. Take both hands, fingers facing forward behind your sitting bones.
   
3. Pushing your stomach as far forward as you can, inhale and try and drop your head back to rest on the top of the chair. You might not to able to reach, but the idea is to open your chest as much as possible.
   
4. Hold for 5-10 breaths. As you come back to a normal seated position, exhale. If this hurts your neck, you can drop your chin towards you chest, and just focus on pushing the chest forward and up.