If you spend most of your day at a desk, you already know the feeling. That dull ache in your lower back by mid-afternoon. The neck stiffness that creeps in after a long video call. The tight hips that make standing up feel like a major event.
Office workers across Brisbane’s Southside suburbs – from Sunnybank and Moorooka to Carindale and Wishart – are dealing with the same postural strain every single day. Sitting for hours on end puts enormous pressure on your spine, shortens your hip flexors, tightens your chest and weakens the muscles that are supposed to hold you upright.
The good news? A few targeted physio exercises done consistently can make a significant difference. Here are the exercises our physiotherapy team at BodyViva recommends most for office workers – and why they work.
Why Do Office Workers Get So Sore?
Before we get into the exercises, it helps to understand what’s actually happening to your body when you sit for long periods.
When you sit, your hip flexors are in a shortened position for hours at a time. Your glutes switch off. Your thoracic spine (the middle part of your back) rounds forward. Your head creeps ahead of your shoulders – a posture sometimes called ‘tech neck’ – which adds significant load to the muscles and joints of your neck and upper back.
Over time, this leads to muscle imbalances. Some muscles become tight and overactive. Others become weak and underactive. Pain, stiffness and reduced mobility are often the result.
The exercises below are designed to address these imbalances directly.
The Best Physio Exercises for Office Workers
1. Chin Tucks
Targets: Neck posture, deep cervical flexors
Chin tucks are one of the most effective exercises for correcting ‘tech neck’ and relieving upper neck pain from desk work.
Sit tall in your chair. Gently draw your chin straight back, as though you’re trying to make a double chin. Hold for 3-5 seconds, then release. Repeat 10 times.
You should feel a gentle stretch at the base of your skull and a mild activation at the front of your neck. This exercise retrains the deep neck muscles that are often underactive in people who work at a screen all day.
Aim for: 3 sets of 10 repetitions, 2-3 times per day.
2. Thoracic Extension Over a Chair
Targets: Mid-back mobility, thoracic spine
This one is particularly useful if you feel stiffness through your upper and mid-back after sitting for long periods.
Sit in your chair and move towards the front edge. Place your hands behind your head and gently lean back over the top of the chair back, allowing your thoracic spine to extend. Hold for a breath or two, then return to upright. Repeat 5-8 times.
If your chair doesn’t lend itself to this, you can use a rolled-up towel placed horizontally across your mid-back while lying on the floor and achieve a similar effect.
Aim for: 5-8 repetitions each session, several times throughout the day.
3. Hip Flexor Stretch (Kneeling Lunge)
Targets: Hip flexors, lower back
After hours of sitting, your hip flexors are likely shortened and tight. This can tilt your pelvis forward and contribute directly to lower back pain.
Step one foot forward into a lunge position and lower your back knee to the floor (use a cushion if needed). Keep your torso upright and gently push your hips forward until you feel a stretch through the front of the hip on your back leg. Hold for 30-45 seconds each side.
Aim for: 2-3 holds per side, at least once during the day – ideally after a long period of sitting.
4. Glute Bridges
Targets: Glutes, lower back, core
Sitting switches your glutes off. Glute bridges switch them back on – and they also take load off your lower back by building the posterior chain strength you lose from prolonged sitting.
Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Drive through your heels to lift your hips until your body forms a straight line from shoulders to knees. Squeeze your glutes at the top, hold for 2 seconds, then lower slowly.
Aim for: 3 sets of 12-15 repetitions.
5. Band Pull-Aparts (or Wall Angels)
Targets: Upper back, shoulder retractors, postural muscles
Rounded shoulders and a forward head posture go hand in hand with desk work. Both of these exercises target the muscles between your shoulder blades that are typically overstretched and weak in office workers.
Band pull-aparts: Hold a resistance band in front of you at shoulder height with both hands. Pull the band apart, squeezing your shoulder blades together. Slowly return to the start. Repeat 15 times.
Wall angels: Stand with your back flat against a wall. Raise your arms to shoulder height with elbows bent at 90 degrees. Slowly slide your arms up the wall and back down, keeping everything in contact with the wall throughout. Repeat 10 times.
Aim for: 2-3 sets of either exercise, daily.
6. Seated Thoracic Rotation
Targets: Thoracic spine, rotational mobility
Loss of rotation through the mid-back is extremely common in desk workers and often contributes to neck and shoulder pain.
Sit sideways on your chair, facing to the right. Place your feet flat on the floor. Hold the back of the chair with both hands and gently rotate your upper body to the right, using the chair back as a gentle guide. Hold for a breath, then rotate back. Do 8-10 repetitions on each side.
Aim for: 2 sets each side, once or twice a day.
7. Calf Raises
Targets: Calves, circulation, lower limb
This one often surprises people, but calf raises are genuinely useful for office workers – particularly those who notice lower limb heaviness or swelling by the end of the day.
Prolonged sitting slows circulation through the legs. Calf raises activate the muscle pump that helps push blood back up toward the heart.
Stand behind your chair for support. Rise up onto the balls of your feet, hold briefly at the top, then lower slowly. This is also something you can do while standing at the printer or waiting for the kettle to boil.
Aim for: 3 sets of 15-20 repetitions throughout the day.
How Often Should You Do These Exercises?
Consistency matters more than volume. Doing a few of these exercises every day will produce far better results than doing all of them once a week.
A practical approach is to set a reminder every hour to get up, move around briefly and do 1-2 exercises from the list. Over the course of a workday, that adds up quickly. It also helps to break the pattern of sustained sitting, which research consistently shows to be as important as the exercises themselves.
When Exercise Alone Isn’t Enough
These exercises are a great starting point, but they’re not a replacement for professional assessment and treatment if you’re already dealing with pain.
If you’re experiencing persistent neck pain, lower back pain, shoulder discomfort or headaches from desk work, it’s worth getting properly assessed. What feels like ‘just a desk posture problem’ is sometimes a specific joint, disc or nerve issue that responds much better to targeted physio treatment than general exercises.
At BodyViva, we work with office workers from right across Brisbane’s Southside – including Sunnybank, Underwood, Runcorn, Carindale, Moorooka, Wishart and surrounding suburbs. We’ll identify exactly what’s driving your pain and build a plan around your work life, not around a generic protocol.
Get Your Desk Pain Sorted at BodyViva
You don’t have to put up with the aches and stiffness that come with office work. The right exercises, combined with hands-on physiotherapy when needed, can make a real difference to how you feel – both at your desk and away from it.
Book an assessment with our team at BodyViva in Underwood today. We’ll get to the bottom of what’s going on and give you a clear plan to move better and feel stronger. Contact us here or book online through our website.
