Do you sit for most of the day? Here's a daily stretching routine that'll "un-lock" and "un-stiffen" your body.

If you sit most of the day, and your body looks and feels locked up and stiff, then you’ve got 2 choices:

1. Leave it and let it get worse OR
2. Fix it in just 3 minutes a day with a daily stretching routine that consists of just 3 simple exercises

Since you’re here, I’m guessing you want to look and feel better, so, let’s get right into it …

This Study Reveals How You Can Reverse The Effects Of Sitting

… starting with a pretty crazy study that looked into how you can reverse the effects of sitting.

Researchers had participants sit for 4 ½ hours a day, to see how it affected their muscle stiffness. (Exciting, I know, but bear with me.)

Sure enough, everyone’s back got tighter and tighter as the time dragged on. But they found something interesting.

See, the participants were actually split into 3 different groups:

1. Control group: These participants literally just sat and did nothing — yep, just to prove that sitting for hours does, in fact, suck.
2. Test group 1 (NMES, low-current)
3. Test group 2 (NMES, high-amplitude current)

To expand on that, with the test groups, the researchers used an NMES (or a neuromuscular electrical stimulator) to send 17 electrical currents into their back muscles at regular intervals.

One group received a low-level current, which felt like a tingling sensation throughout their back,
whereas the other group received a high-amplitude current that actually caused their back muscles to contract — or, to tighten and shorten, just like how they do during exercise.

So, what did they find?

Well, at first, nothing surprising.

See, when you sit for a long time, your joints are often stuck in one position and your body essentially “turns off” the muscles you’re not using.

So, what happens is, you not only lose your ability to move these joints over time but after sitting for a while your body will create the feeling of stiffness in these “unused” muscles in an attempt to get you to move and actually use them!

This happens even if you try to sit with “perfect posture”.

And this is exactly what researchers found in the control group and those given a low-level current: They just became increasingly bored and their backs got increasingly stiff.

It's worth pointing out that this was after just 4 ½ hours of sitting as well, so imagine what happens to your back if you’re slouched over a desk for 8 hours a day, for 40+ years ...

But anyway, here’s the surprising part.

For the high-amplitude group, those whose muscles actually contracted from the current, the stiffness in their backs almost completely reversed.

What Does This Mean?

So, what does this mean for you and I?

Well, for a start, if you haven’t already picked up your own neuromuscular electrical stimulator machine — code: Jeremy for 15% off — what the hell are you waiting for?!

Kidding.

No, the real takeaway is actually a lot simpler.

You don’t need to run electrical currents through your back while you’re at your desk… though… I guess that could work. 🤔

But, if you want an even better solution — one that will not only:

• Relieve muscle tension in your back, but also in your shoulders and hips;
• Improve your posture, so you naturally stand up taller and straighter;
• And increase your range of motion, so you can have more effective sessions at the gym;

Then you simply need to start moving the joints and contracting the muscles you don’t use when you’re sitting all day. Which naturally comes in the form of a daily stretching routine.

That said, I know how hard it can be to stick to a daily stretching routine consistently.

So, that’s why, rather than give you an extensive list of movements, my team and I have worked together to create a daily stretching routine that only consists of 3 exercises. These focus on the most problematic of areas.

These 3 exercises can solve 90% of the posture and stiffness issues that occur from prolonged sitting, and the best part is: you can complete the full daily stretching routine in under 3 minutes.

At first, I recommend you start by introducing the daily stretching routine into your day just a few times each week but work towards doing it once or twice a day to break up your sitting.

And if you’re somebody who hits the gym? Do the daily stretching routine right before you start lifting!

This way, you can easily introduce it into your current lifestyle, without having to “make time for something new”.

But if you’re not already going to the gym, or if you’ve yet to find a routine that you really enjoy and works for your body type, you can always check out our programs here:

Click the button below to take my analysis quiz to discover the best program for you:

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We know that mobility problems are a really big problem these days, so we’ve designed each program not just to help you build muscle and get lean, but also to address the underlying issues that contribute to poor posture and mobility in the first place.

The Perfect 3-Minute Daily Stretching Routine

And with that, let’s get onto the actual daily stretching routine.

#1: The Wall Clock

The first exercise in our daily stretching routine is great for improving rounded, locked up shoulders.

Not only will it loosen your delts and chest, it’ll also strengthen the weakened muscles in your upper back and shoulders for long term posture improvements.

It’s called the wall clock.

To perform it:

Stand sideways with your fingertips touching the wall and your thumb pointing down.

Engage your core and, without arching your back, slowly draw your palm in a big semi-circle forward and up the wall. (Let your shoulder blade move forward and then up as you do so.)

You might feel a stretch in your chest on the way up and some of your shoulder and upper back muscles working.

Then, complete the circle by moving your arm back and down the wall, letting your shoulder blade move back and down as your arm travels behind you.

Reverse the circle to get back to the starting position and spend about 30 seconds on each side.

The nice thing is, you can decide exactly how much of a stretch is right for you, based on how close you stand to the wall.

The closer you get, the harder it will be.

But harder isn’t necessarily better here. Especially if you’re experiencing any sort of pain or discomfort.

Aim for a stretch that feels like a 4, maybe 5, out of 10. You don’t want to overdo it.

#2: Cat Cow

Now, our daily stretching routine will focus on the back and neck.

When you’ve been sitting for a while, and you finally get up, what’s the first stretch you do?

Chances are, it’s this one.

Your body is basically telling you to wake up and use all those muscles in your back that’ve been on standby.

But if you want a better way to contract them — to completely “reverse” the sitting position and to go through their full range of motion — you’ll wanna do this exercise.

Start on your hands and knees, with your hands directly under the outer edges of your shoulders.

Then, spin your elbows towards your thighs to engage your lats.

Inhale, as you gently lift your tailbone towards the ceiling and reach your chest forward, through your biceps, to stretch your abs.

Squeeze your shoulder blades together as you lift your chin and head up. (When done properly, you should actually feel the muscles in your mid-back activating.)

This is the first half of the exercise.

Then, you’ll wanna go in the other direction:

Exhale, and imagine there was a rope, pulling your mid-back up towards the ceiling, and rounding your spine. As you do this, push the floor away to open up your shoulder blades.

Then, use your neck muscles tuck your chin by looking towards your knees. (You should feel a deep stretch in your back muscles as well as your neck.)

Do this for about 30 seconds, then for the next 30 seconds we’ll move your spine in a way you probably don’t do all day.

Come back to a neutral position and turn and look towards your left foot to stretch the muscles on the right side of your lower back and rib cage, then return to center.

After, same on the other side: turn and look at your right foot.

(Pro tip: a good way to manage tempo is to match it with your breath. Inhale to return to neutral, and exhale as you look towards your foot.)

#3: The Shin Box

Finally, the perfect 3-minute daily stretching routine wouldn’t be complete without an exercise to target the hips.

When you’re sitting all day, your hips are literally just locked into one position. But they’re designed to move in all sorts of directions.

So, we need an exercise in our daily stretching routine that moves them into as many different positions as possible, while strengthening the muscles that weaken from sitting too much.

Exercise 3 of our daily stretching routine does exactly that.

We’ll start at a Level 1 version and then build up to Level 3, which is the most effective variation.

Level 1

Sit on the floor and bend one leg in front of your body at around a 90° angle and then do the same with the back one.

Then, sit up and tall and try to position your shoulders square to the front of your shin (use your hands for support if needed).

Keep your spine tall and exhale as you reach your chest forward, hingeing over your front leg until you feel a deep stretch on the outside of your front leg’s hip or glute area.

Try not to round your spine. Instead, focus on bending at the hip.

Inhale, as you come back to the starting position and exhale, as you get into your next rep.

For Level 1, do 30 seconds on each side, trying to get deeper into the stretch with each rep.

Level 2

Moving on to level 2 of the shin box in your daily stretching routine helps focus on activating some of your weak hip muscles, which is the key to relieving stiffness. Here's how to do it.

Maintain that same 90 degree leg position, but this time, as you lean forward, push your front shin down into the ground and lift your hips up to get your torso upright.

You should feel some of your glute muscles working and you should feel the hip flexors and groin muscles of your back leg stretching once you get to the top.

Then, reverse this by lowering as slowly as you can, while leaning forward.

Again, aim to do 30 seconds on each side.

Once you’re comfortable with Level 2, you can advance to Level 3.

Level 3

In this case, you’ll repeat what we did in Level 2 for your daily stretching routine but, instead of sticking to just one side at a time, for a deeper stretch in your groin and hip flexors, “windshield wiper” your knees directly over to the other side on the way down, and repeat this motion back and forth.

To help you stay upright, reach your arms out in front of you and engage your core during the transition. And again you can use your hands for support here if you need it.

TL;DR

• Prolonged sitting “locks” your joints in a fixed position and causes your body to “turn off” the muscles you’re not using, resulting in a feeling of “stiffness”.
• Thankfully, research shows you can “reverse” the stiffness by simply moving the joints and contracting the muscles you don’t use.
• The daily stretching routine focuses on the most problematic areas. It consists of only 3 exercises and will only take 3 minutes to complete.
• The exercises are the wall clock (shoulders), cat cow (back and neck), and shin box (hips).

What Next?

Now, these exercises are all great, but if you want to truly fix your posture and mobility issues for good, there’s one 1 thing you must add to doing the daily stretching routine. It’s an extremely underrated exercise for preventing aches and pains and, surprisingly, for burning fat as well.

Check out this article to find out what it is and how to use it.

Don't Forget To Grab Your Free PDF Of The Daily Stretching Routine

Finally, if you want a free PDF of this daily stretching routine, to remind you how they’re done, with step-by-step pictures, here it is:

Click the button below to download your free PDF copy of the daily stretching routine:

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Print the daily stretching routine out, stick it on your wall, whatever — just make sure you take action!

Thanks for sticking to the end and I’ll see ya next time.

By the way, here’s the article summed up into a YouTube video: