So many of us sit at our desk at home or at the office for hours on end during the day.

We all know that we need to take a stretch break and know how beneficial it can be, but what exactly should we be doing? 

Here at Creative Recruiters, we have actually put into our calendar that we all stop at 3:30 pm and do a stretch routine together.  We did follow Houman to start off with, but now we do our own thing and stretch with what works best for us individually - or what our body needs most on that particular day.  The great thing is that we all stop and stretch every single afternoon now.

Here are some exercises (I promise it will only take less than 3 minutes) to get you started:-

• Get up out of your chair and stand up

• Move your head to the left and to the right 6 times

• Roll your shoulders forward 3 times and backwards 3 times 

• Rotate your wrists one-way x 3 and the other way x 3

• Breathe in with your hands over your head and do a side stretch to the left and breathe out.  Breathe in and come back up to centre, breathe out over to the right side

• Rotate your hips to the left in 3 big circles and then to the right in 3 big circles (imagine you are hula hooping)

• Lift the left knee up and circle you ankle 3 times to the left and 3 times to the right - repeat with the right knee up and the right ankle

• Lean forward to touch your toes, but do not strain yourself, just feel the release in your lower back, hold for 30 seconds and continue to breathe, slowing come back up to standing.

This is just a taste to get you going.  Again, the most important thing is to take a break and move your joints.  And do set yourself a reminder, you will be amazed when the reminder comes up that is it actually that time of the day.

I have to admit that doing it with a group doesn’t make me feel so silly.  Most importantly just have a bit of fun and move.