8 Stretching Exercises Programmers Should Do To keep healthy

The biggest mistake a programmer can make is sitting in the same position for too long without moving around. This puts a huge amount of pressure on your spine and can lead to serious health problems in the future, such as back pain or Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS). CTS is an extremely painful condition that affects your hands and wrists. When you spend long hours typing at your computer, it results from having too much stress on your nerves when performing small movements over and over again. 

One consequence of this is muscle fatigue caused by a lack of blood flow in certain areas of your body.

This is why it is important to take regular breaks and do simple exercises during the day. This prevents muscle fatigue and avoids future health issues such as CTS.

In order to prevent these problems, I have compiled a list of simple exercises that will keep you in shape while coding:

Shoulder rolls

Sitting hunched over your keyboard can lead to many issues like: – Tightness in your shoulders – Stress on muscles and nerves (Carpal Tunnel Syndrome) If you want to fix this problem, you need to stretch out your body by doing shoulder rolls : – Raise both of your arms in front of you, then raise them above your head until they’re fully extended. – While holding this position, start to rotate your shoulders in a clockwise direction. – Now start rotating them in a counterclockwise direction, just like you were unscrewing the top off of a bottle. Pausing for one second at the bottom and top of each rotation is recommended. Repeat 5 times

Neck Stretches

Sitting hunched over your keyboard can cause problems with your neck as well: – Get up from your chair, stand straight and place both hands on the back of your head so that they are touching behind it (make sure they remain there). Make sure not to lean forward or backward while performing these stretches, but rather keep looking forward so that you don’t put more stress on one nerve than the other. Keeping your shoulders down is also important to avoid future issues with CTS. – Now start tilting your head forward without dropping your hands from behind it. Do this about 10 times, each time stopping when you feel the stretch in your neck muscles – Next, tilt your head backward. You can do this by putting one hand on top of the back of your head so that you are pushing slightly downwards with it while you’re doing this exercise Repeat 5 times

Finger rolls

Sitting hunched over for hours causes pain and stress on the nerves in our fingers: To release these feelings, we need to perform finger rolls . This will help loosen them up and relax tired muscles. – Once again raise your arms to a 90 degree angle in front of you and above your head – Start rotating both of your hands so that they go from pointing forward to being fully extended. The motion should start small but gradually become bigger as it goes along. As with the shoulder rolls, pause for one second at the bottom and top points of each rotation. Repeat 5 times

Wrist rolls

Working on a computer causes pain and stress on our wrists as well: In order to fix this problem, we need to perform wrist rolls . This will loosen up tired muscles  – Once again raise your arms in an upwards position, point them straight outwards from you. While keeping them there, start rotating both of your wrists in a clockwise direction. Then, perform the same rotation in a counterclockwise direction for 5 rotations each way. – Next, hold your arms straight out to the sides of you with your palms facing down and rotate both of your wrists so that they begin by pointing towards you and finish by pointing up Repeat 5 times

Hand Stretches

To avoid future issues with CTS, we need to stretch our hands every day: A simple way to do this is by stretching them out one at a time. – Raise either arm up in front of you at shoulder height (make sure it is fully extended). Now use your other hand to grip tightly around your fingers on that raised hand while pulling upwards slowly but firmly several times on it. – After stretching your fingers, you should stretch the back of your hand: To do this, raise that arm that’s in front of you and pull hard on it 2-3 times.

Arm Stretches

Sitting hunched over for hours causes our arms to become tense and tight: To fix this problem we need to perform arm stretches.- Reach up with one arm and bend it so that it’s pointing straight overhead. With the other hand, grip under your upper arm so that its fingers are pointing outwards from your body (on top of the tricep muscle). Pull upwards while maintaining this grip until a stretch is felt in your upper arm. Hold for seconds then switch arms and repeat. – After stretching the triceps muscle, you can move on to simple shoulder stretches: To perform this exercise, simply place your hands behind your back and pull both shoulders backwards while keeping your elbows locked. Repeat 5 times

Back Stretch

Sitting hunched over for hours keeps our backs in a bad position: This is because it makes the disks in our spinal column sink into each other. In order to fix this problem we need to do a back stretch . You should aim to be able to touch the top of your head with your palms when doing this exercise. – Bend forward from the waist until you’re touching either your toes or ankles (whichever is easier). Once again make sure that you are holding your knees and keep your back straight! Repeat 5 times

Knee hugs

After sitting hunched over for hours, we experience pain in our neck and shoulders: To fix this problem we need to stretch out these areas. Bring both of your hands behind you (fingers pointing outward). Now try pulling backwards with your fingers while at the same time pulling your elbows together until you feel a deep stretch in the back of your arms. Hold for seconds then switch arms and repeat . – Next, bend one leg so that it’s flat on the ground. Sit up fully with both feet on the ground before reaching around with one hand to touch your toes with it if possible. Keep bending forward with this arm until a good stretch is felt in your back. Hold for seconds then switch sides and repeat .

Leg Stretches

After sitting hunched over for hours, our legs become tired as well: In order to fix this problem we need to do leg stretches .Start by bending forward at the waist with one foot on top of the other behind you. Then use both hands to grab around your toes/ankles while pulling yourself down slowly but firmly several times. – After stretching out your feet, it’s time to stretch out your calves: To do this exercise, hold one knee between both of your hands straight up in front of you (use a ledge if possible). Now pull upwards until you feel a strong pull in that calf muscle. Repeat 5 times and switch sides.

Walking around

Finally, if your work involves a lot of computer time, it’s very important to get up and walk around every 15 minutes . This will help you lower any risk of developing RSI-related problems in the future.

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