Nine hours of sitting leaves your hips short, your back tight and your energy flat. This undoes it — tonight, in the clothes you're already wearing.
Why the evening: stretch a body that's been folded in a chair all day and you sleep better, wake up looser, and stop stacking today's stiffness on top of yesterday's. Do the moves in order — they flow top to bottom.
Kneel in front of the sofa. Put one knee down close to it, with that shin and foot resting up on the seat cushion behind you. Other foot planted out front. Tuck your hips under, squeeze the back glute, chest tall.
You should feel: a strong stretch down the front of the back-leg hip and thigh — the exact tissue nine hours of sitting shortens.
On all fours, hands under shoulders, knees under hips. Breathe out and round your whole spine up to the ceiling; breathe in and let it dip while your chest lifts. Move slowly, segment by segment.
You should feel: your whole back waking up and moving again after a day locked in one shape.
Lie on your side, knees bent and stacked, arms straight out in front, hands together. Keeping your knees glued down, open your top arm across your body to the floor behind you — follow your hand with your eyes — then close.
You should feel: a rotation and opening through your upper back and chest. This is the antidote to the hunched screen position.
Stand tall, feet hip-width, knees soft. Push your hips back and hinge forward with a long, flat back — hands sliding down your shins. Go only as far as the back stays long, hold, breathe, come up slow.
You should feel: the backs of your legs lengthening — not a rounded slump toward your toes.
Feet a bit wider than hips, toes slightly out. Sink into the deepest squat you can keep your heels down in — hold the sofa or a doorframe if you need to. Knees pushed gently out, chest tall. Just sit in it and breathe.
You should feel: hips, ankles and lower back all opening at once. The position a chair has been denying you all day.
Ease into every position — you're after a stretch, never pain. If something hurts beyond a normal stretch, skip it and get it looked at.
Attach it to something that already happens every evening — while the kettle boils, or the first five minutes of whatever you're watching. Same trigger, same routine. Two weeks of that and it runs itself.
This is how we coach — five minutes that fit your actual evening, not a plan that needs a new life to run it. When you want the full picture — mobility, strength and energy built around your body and your week — that's what we do.
DM us @athletic.ym and tell us how many hours a day you're sat at the minute. We'll tell you what we'd change first.
BOOK THE FREE 15-MIN ASSESSMENTFifteen minutes about your week. You leave with the one change worth making — no pitch.
Keep going: The Desk-to-Movement Card →— Maksym & Yahel
YM·ATHLETIC