Hi, I just recently found out that sitting for looong periods of time is really bad for the body.
Could someone please recommend some asanas that will benefit me since I sit down for 9-11 hours at work.
Would sitting crossed leg in a chair help?
Getting up out of the chair and moving during the day would be a good idea.
Making sure that you are sitting correctly, an upright posture, with feet flat on the floor with knees at 90’, shoulders back and down, etc…to avoid becoming hunched and developing unhealthy posture.
Sitting cross legged will not make much difference except to stretch into the hips…still possible to sit badly and have bad posture with crossed legs…try getting up and moving around…changing position.
You may also need some yoga asanas or stretches for the hamstrings and quads…both become tight from sitting, some stretches or asanas to release any tension from neck and shoulders may also be useful and some inverted asanas such as simply lying down flat with legs up against the wall to drain any water retention from the legs.
If your movement is very limited during the work day then doing an strong yoga asana session before work with a properly qualified teacher will help, perhaps vinyasa flow or Ashtanga or a good strong Iyengar session with plenty of standing asanas…could even do another session after work as well.
In addition to above:
Use your chair to incorporate some asana during the day. You can twist in the chair, do sitting pigeon (crossing ankle over thigh and coming forward and depending on flexibility this could be a mild inversion), interlace arms behind back of chair for a good chest opener. Eagle arms is another good one. Also tadasana from chair where you sit at the edge of the chair with feet hips width apart. Interlace fingers behind back and fold forward lifting arms and sitting bones. Stretch out your side waist by doing some lateral side bends.
Also, you need to stretch the psoas as it is contracted while you are sitting. You can, in the chair, sit toward the back (hold onto the chair) with one knee bent and foot on floor and then bring the opposite leg back as in warrior I. Lift from the chest and allow spine to come into a mild extension. This will also strengthen the glutes which become weak from spreading on the chair and stretch the hamstrings.
While at your desk, sit at the edge of the chair not all the way back. This helps to keep the natural curve in the spine and the hips tilting a bit forward.
And remember to breathe!
A daily, general asana practice will help. The focus would be on reversing the passive forward bend of sitting in a chair for long hours. Generally, backbends and hip openers would be helpful. Nothing will be more helpful than changing the initial behavior.
The best thing you can do to prevent problems is make sure you have good posture, your vision is okay, your lighting is good, you have the ergonomics set up right, etc. I know this because I have developed a neck thing from sitting long hours at a desk, I am losing curvature in my neck and working to fix it, which is mostly changing the above. Therapy does nothing if you keep up the bad behavior.
I also keep therabands and at one point had a stability ball and used them everyonce and a while to stretch during the day. Backbends in the middle of the day on the ball were like heaven but you can get the same effect with a chair with no arms. Breaking up the day with physical movement helps me focus on good posture.
I like where you are going intuitively with the crossed leg direction.
This effort should address and awaken the psoas which is likely being chronically stressed in the seated position.
Here I am assuming a chair seat.
I would immediately validated this intuition though to many it may sound counter intuitive. The crossing of the legs may awaken the psoas and I’ve a hunch that you will be overwhelmed with exercises for this region and of course heart opening back bends. So I’ll go elsewhere. I’ll go to taking the hunch further.
Eagle Pose Garuda-asana
Eagle pose is the one pose that targets (opens) all 14 major(largest) joints of the skeletal system according to Bikram, but to the point Eagle directly addressees therapeutic applications towards the relief of common over seated ailments like sciatica and low backache.
The double helix wrap of the Eagle pose, will allow some imagery of a vine climbing up out of weight of the earth into the light and lightness of the air.
It is a pose that awakens the psoas when the thighs press together, it’s what first came to mind.
Upper back and Shoulders: Eagle pose’s crossing arms over each other will broaden the wide breadth of the back stretching out the back and shoulders.
The wrap of the hands can address small muscles in the shoulders that may need a break from the chronic hunch.
Neck: In between wraps as you change sides I suggest coming to the standing strength of Mountain then bringing both hands to heart prayer position, rotate the fingers away from each other and then let the web of the thumbs meet in a T and wrap the thumbs as you bring palms towards you and the fingers to the heavens. This may look a bit like an eagle even. Having fun yet? Let this eagle fly up and overhead and sweep behind the head to the nape, draw the thumbs back up to press into the divot here, bony ridge base, facilitating towards a sub occipital release. Pressure or knead gently here into the head and let the head press gently back in return. The hands may like to interlace and make a nice contact with the head lift into this space.
Well there is a very brief, taste of where I’d go first. If you want more let us know what exactly it is you would like to address and we’ll unleash a bit more.
Both 