Stretching Exercises

The benefits from stretching and exercise are many:

• Increased circulation
• Increased alertness and concentration
• Improves your posture
• Improved comfort by eliminating muscle and joint pain
• Improves your chances of preventing Repetitive Strain Injuries

There are 20 orthopedically designed stretching exercise carefully selected and built into ErgoEnterprise. They are designed to be followed in real time and last from 35 seconds to one minute.  These stretching exercises may help relieve many of the common symptoms you may have from using the computer without well-timed taking breaks. 

Simply click on the ErgoEnterprise ErgoMeter () in your Windows Taskbar in the System Tray whenever you wish to follow a stretch:

Then choose the "Run an Exercise..." menu item and follow a suggested stretching exercise, or select a different stretching exercise from the full available set.

ErgoEnterprise Skins provide organizations choices on how it's screens appear to users when installed.  This enables clients to determine the 'look and feel' which they consider to fit best in their organization. 

Today, ErgoEnterprise is delivered with using either the ErgoEnterprise Formal Edition skin or the ErgoEnterprise Standard Edition skin. 

ErgoEnterprise Formal Skin Example
Flying Fingers Stretching Exercise:

ErgoEnterprise Standard Skin Example
Flying Fingers Stretching Exercise:

The training coaches delivered within either skin of ErgoEnterprise can be either animated characters or actual videos of real people performing stretching exercises.

Note: Always stretch gently using controlled movements. If you experience discomfort or pain, discontinue stretching and consult a healthcare professional. If under care, check with your healthcare professional prior to doing any of these stretches.

Below, you will find the background for each carefully selected stretching exercise included in ErgoEnterprise:

Eye Exercises

Scanning the Horizon: The closer the eye has to focus on objects, the greater the load on the eye muscles. When the eye is allowed to wander over distant objects the muscle are relaxed. This change in viewing distance will help to relieve or eliminate eye fatigue.

Eye Blackout: Sitting for long periods staring at a computer screen, you tend not to blink as often as usual. When the eye is focused at a set distance for long periods of time the muscles of the eye become fatigued. The eye blackouts will serve two purposes: to lubricate the eye and help relieve dry, scratchy eyes and to change focus distance from short to long which helps reduce muscle fatigue.

Neck Stretching Exercises

Double Chin: Computer operators are often seen with their chins protruding forward as they strain to view the monitor. This posture is detrimental to the neck, particularly the discs and vertebrae. The double chin exercise will reposition the neck and help to remind computer operators of where the neutral position of their neck should be.

Neck Side Tilt: This exercise will stretch out and relax your upper shoulder and neck muscles. When you are stressed, these muscles are some of the first to tighten up. By stretching these sensitive muscles out, it will allow you to breathe easier, move your head easier, and allow for more blood to get to and from your head and to maintain better posture.

Did I Drop Something In My Lap?  As soon as you do this exercise you will feel the immediate effects--a great stretch in your neck and upper back. This is a common area for tension caused by stress and tight muscles. It is most likely during your computer work that you are holding your head high as you view the monitor and perhaps looking down somewhat to view a document.

Shoulder Stretching Exercises

Shoulder Fan: The muscles of the upper back work hard to keep your trunk in an upright position, but too often we see computers operators sitting with a hunched back. This exercise helps to stretch the chest which begin to shorten up if the hunched posture is maintained, and activates the muscles across the upper back which become slack with lack of activity. The discs in the upper back also benefit from a more natural and safe positioning.

Shoulder Circles: This exercise will help to stretch your chest muscles and strengthen your upper back muscles. When you sit at the computer your upper back will begin to hunch forward because of the natural pull of gravity. By rotating the shoulders backwards you will be working against that natural pull and by doing so will help to prevent poor sitting posture.

Reaching Forward: This exercise is good for stretching the musculature of the upper back, shoulders and elbows as well as lubricating the joints. When you sit at the computer for hours on end these body parts are moved very little and over time this lack of movement can be damaging to your musculoskeletal system.

Arm Across Chest: This is a great exercise to do after being hunched over a computer for a period of time. It will stretch out the back of your shoulder, the back of your upper arm and your upper back. By loosening up these muscles you will be able to maintain better posture while working on the computer. Loose muscles will allow you to sit with your shoulders back and allow the backrest of your chair to support your trunk the way it was designed to.

Back Stretching Exercises

Turn To The Left And Right: The upper body gets a good stretch in this exercise. This exercise will ensure the muscle at the side of the neck and trunk are stretched as you turn slowly to each side.

Hip Stretch: Sitting in a chair for long periods can cause the muscles in hips and buttocks to become tight which can result in discomfort. This exercise will help to stretch out these muscles which tend to be very inactive throughout the day and helps to improve flexibility in the hips.

Backwards Lean: When you are seated at your computer workstation the lower curve of your back changes from being curved inwards to outwards. This change in the back's curvature causes the gel-like substance in the disc of your back to be squeezed towards the front section of the disc rather than being evenly distributed within the entire disc. By performing a gently backwards lean you will reverse the curvature of your lower back and help redistribute the gel-like substance in the disc back to its normal distribution.

Forward Back Stretch: The seated posture is one of the most stressful for the back. Not only is the disc pressure higher when seated than when standing or lying down, the back is often not well supported by the chair's back rest. This exercise will help to stretch the lower and upper back as well as the neck. Just be sure when you are doing it that you slowly return to the upright posture or else you may feel a little light headed.

Arm Stretching Exercises

Arm Massage: Many of the muscles in the hand originate in the forearm. With heavy keying these muscles often fatigue and with this, waste products will accumulate. By massaging the forearms you will help to eliminate the waste products that have accumulated. The circular action of the massage increase the temperature of the surrounding areas and improves blood flow to and from the hand.

Wrist Nod: When your fingers are performing the keying motion the muscles on the back of the forearm contract repeatedly as they lift the fingers off one key and position them over the next. If you look at the back of your hand while you are keying you will see the tendons of the individual fingers moving as the fingers move up and down. This exercise is intended to stretch the muscles on the back of the forearm to help relieve the accumulated stress of repeated contractions.

Flying Fingers: Although you may think you have been working your fingers enough during the keying task, if you look closely you will notice that you actually only move them through a short range of their full motion. This exercise changes the angle of the elbow by dropping the hands down to the side and works the finger muscles through a different range of motion. This exercise also promotes good blood flow to the hands.

Finger Stretch and Clench: This exercise is designed to move your muscles in a different way than when you are keying. By performing this exercise you will increase the blood flow to your hands and fingers. Since blood brings nutrients and oxygen to muscles it will allow the fingers to move much easier and make it easier for your body to carry away the waste products.

Leg Stretching Exercises

The Fencer: It's time you change your posture from sitting to standing. That alone is of benefit to your legs and back. This exercise will also stretch the hip muscles in the front of your pelvis and the calf muscles of your opposite leg. Prolonged sitting leads to a shortening of hip muscles. Since these muscles are attached to the pelvis any shortening of them will cause a realignment of the pelvis which can contribute to back problems.

Knee Hug: Tight hamstring muscles (the muscle at the back of the thigh) are often a contributing factor to back pain. Because these muscles attach to the pelvis, when they are too tight they pull on the pelvis and angle it such that the curve in the lower back is exaggerated. This exercise will help to stretch out the hamstring muscles that tend to shorten through prolonged sitting.

Calf Stretch: Circulation in the lower limbs is not very good when the muscles are not active. The veins that return stale blood from the lower limbs back to the heart benefit from the massaging action of the muscles when they are active. Prolonged sitting can lead to poor blood circulation. This exercise will help to move state blood out of the lower limbs and will help to keep the calf muscles flexible.

The patented technology within ErgoEnterprise is supported by substantial research which has shown that if you can remember to take well-timed brief micro-breaks, lasting a matter of seconds, strategically placed during the day,  you can reduce your risks of developing a repetitive strain injury.  In addition, like an athlete who paces themselves in a race, you will fatigue at a slower rate and maintain a higher degree of accuracy at the computer!

See Micro-breaking