Yoga for a desk-bound neck, shoulders and hips
Ten poses aimed at the three places a chair shortens: the front of the hips, the front of the chest, and the muscles that hold the head forward.
20MINUTES ON THE MAT · 10 POSES
The whole practice, posted the way a timetable is posted: 10 poses across 20 minutes, each one holding for as long as the ruler below says it holds. At 2.5 MET that is about 61 kcal for a 70 kg adult, at once or twice through.
स्रोत·YogaPath sequence data — stay times as taught·one breath ≈ 5 s · ruler spans the published 20 min·पुनरावलोकन जुलै 2026
Eight hours in a chair puts the hip flexors in a shortened position, rounds the upper back, and asks the neck extensors to hold the head in front of the shoulders all day. None of that is an injury and none of it needs treating — it is simply a position held too long, and the answer is to spend some time in the opposite ones.
The sequence, in order
Every pose name links to its full page — steps, muscles worked, common mistakes and who should skip it.
-
1
Easy Pose सुखासन
1 minute
Sit tall and take ten slow breaths, letting the shoulders drop.
-
2
Thread the Needle Pose Parivṛtta Bālāsana
1 minute each side
Thread one arm under the other and rest the shoulder down.
-
3
Melting Heart Pose Anāhatāsana
1–2 minutes
Hands forward, chest melting towards the floor, hips over the knees.
-
4
Cat Pose Mārjaryāsana
10 rounds
Move the spine through flexion and extension with the breath.
-
5
Low Lunge अंजनेयासन
1 minute each side
Low lunge with the back knee padded — this is the hip flexor pose.
-
6
गरुडासन गरुडासन
प्रत्येक बाजूला 45 सेकंद
Eagle arms, standing or seated, to open between the shoulder blades.
-
7
गोमुखासन Gomukhāsana
प्रत्येक बाजूला 45 सेकंद
Cow-face arms with a strap if the hands do not meet.
-
8
Raised Arms Pose हस्त उत्तानासन
3 breaths, 3 times
Stand and reach overhead with a small upper-back arch.
-
9
उभ्याने पाठीच्या कण्याचे वळण Kaṭicakrāsana
1 minute each side
Rotate the spine with the hips facing forward.
-
10
सेतुबंधासन Setu Bandha Sarvāṅgāsana
45 seconds, twice
Lift the hips and let the chest open towards the chin.
Before you start this sequence
- Read the cautions on the individual pose pages. Between them, the poses here rule themselves out for pregnancy, high blood pressure, glaucoma, and neck, knee, shoulder and wrist injuries — the details differ pose by pose.
- A sequence is an order, not a prescription. Leave out anything that hurts and the rest still works.
- If you are pregnant, recently post-surgical, or managing a health condition, get your doctor's view before starting, and learn from a qualified teacher in person.
General information only — not medical advice. Some asanas are unsuitable during pregnancy, injury or specific conditions. Learn from a qualified teacher and stop if anything hurts.
Notes on practising it
The most useful version of this sequence is the short one done daily rather than the long one done fortnightly. Four poses at lunchtime beats twenty on Sunday.
How the ruler above was set out
- Each pose gets the stay time it is taught with — a count of breaths, or an inhale and an exhale where the movement is the transition.
- Breaths become clock time at one stated convention: one breath ≈ 5 seconds at an even practice pace. Nothing else on the ruler is assumed.
- The stays are laid across the published 20 minutes in proportion, so the seconds spent moving between poses sit inside the poses rather than vanishing.
- The energy figure uses the nearest published style code in the 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities — 2.5 MET here — through the standard ACSM relationship for a 70 kg adult.
kcal = MET × 3.5 × kg ÷ 200 × minutes
= 2.5 × 3.5 × 70 ÷ 200 × 20
= 61 kcal for the whole practice
स्रोत·2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities·2.5 MET · 70 kg reference adult·पुनरावलोकन जुलै 2026
The wider activity dataset, covering everything that is not yoga, is at BurnLab.
Asked before class
How long does the Desk worker — neck, shoulders and hips sequence take?
About 20 minutes for 10 poses at the stay times listed. Suggested volume: once or twice through. At 2.5 MET — the nearest published code in the 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities — that is roughly 61 kcal for a 70 kg adult.
Do I have to do the poses in this order?
The order is the point. Sequences are arranged so that each pose prepares the next one and answers the one before it — a backbend followed by a forward bend, a long hold followed by something that unloads it. Reordering them is fine once you know why they sit where they do.
Is the Desk worker — neck, shoulders and hips sequence suitable for beginners?
Yes. Every pose in it is a beginner-level shape with an accessible version, though you should still read each pose's own cautions — a beginner pose can still be wrong for a specific pregnancy, knee or neck.
What do I need for it?
A mat, and for several poses a block and a strap — a folded blanket and a belt do the same job. Nothing here needs a studio.
Other hours on the timetable
Asana names are traditional. Every step, benefit and caution on this page is written for YogaPath rather than reproduced from any book, studio or other library — see how this site is written आणि what it is written from. General information only — not medical advice. Some asanas are unsuitable during pregnancy, injury or specific conditions. Learn from a qualified teacher and stop if anything hurts.
स्रोत·Published asana references·asana names, alignment and cautions as taught·पुनरावलोकन जुलै 2026
The people behind these sites
Follow the build
This site and nine others like it are built and photographed by two people: Amit Sharma — behind the build; Geeta Patel — the poses, demonstrated. New work goes up on Instagram and Facebook before it reaches a page here.
Amit Sharma
@amitsharmaofficial
Instagram
Geeta Patel
@geetapatelnz
Instagram
Geeta Patel
GeetaPatelYoga
Facebook
Following changes nothing here — every page stays open, with no account and no wall.
