Office Workouts: 12 Exercises You Can Do at Your Desk
Twelve desk exercises that need no gym clothes, plus a ten-minute routine and a realistic way to fit movement into a working day.
You do not need a change of clothes, a gym membership or an hour of free time to move during a working day. You need about ten minutes, a chair and the willingness to look slightly odd at your desk for the first week.
This is a practical set of desk exercises for people who spend most of the day sitting — in an office in Accra, working from home, or driving. None of it requires equipment.
Why the sitting itself matters
Sitting for long stretches keeps the hips and spine in one position and lets large muscle groups go unused for hours. That is not the same as saying sitting damages your back — the evidence is more nuanced than the headlines — but prolonged uninterrupted sitting is consistently associated with stiffness, low-grade discomfort and reduced circulation in the legs.
The practical takeaway is not “stand all day”. It is that breaking up sitting every 30 to 60 minutes matters more than the total number of hours.
Twelve exercises you can do at a desk
1. Sit-to-stand
Stand up from your chair without using your hands, then sit back down under control. Ten repetitions. This is a full lower-body movement disguised as getting up.
2. Desk push-up
Hands on the edge of a stable desk, feet back, body in a straight line. Lower your chest toward the desk and press away. Ten to fifteen repetitions. Use a desk that cannot slide or tip.
3. Calf raise
Stand behind your chair, rise onto the balls of your feet, pause, lower slowly. Twenty repetitions. Good for circulation in the lower legs.
4. Seated knee lift
Sit tall, lift one knee toward your chest, hold for two seconds, lower. Ten per side. Keep your back against the chair rather than leaning back.
5. Wall sit
Back against a wall, thighs parallel to the floor, hold for 20 to 40 seconds. This is the one that will make you reconsider the idea that office exercise is easy.
6. Shoulder blade squeeze
Sit tall, pull your shoulder blades together and down, hold for five seconds, release. Ten repetitions. This counteracts the forward position most people hold over a keyboard.
7. Seated torso rotation
Arms crossed over your chest, rotate slowly to one side, then the other. Ten per side, no bouncing.
8. Standing hip hinge
Stand, push your hips back as if closing a drawer, keep your back flat, return. Twelve repetitions. Teaches the movement most people lose after years of sitting.
9. Neck rotation
Slowly turn your head left, hold briefly, then right. Five per side, within a comfortable range. Never force it or roll the head in a full circle.
10. Glute squeeze
Squeeze both glutes for five seconds, release. Ten repetitions. Invisible, so it works in a meeting.
11. Stair climb
Two or three flights, once or twice a day, instead of the lift. This is the highest-effort option on the list and the one with the clearest benefit.
12. Walking meeting or call
Take phone calls standing or walking. A twenty-minute call becomes twenty minutes of movement with no scheduling cost.
A ten-minute routine
Run this once in the morning and once in the afternoon, or once if that is all the day allows.
- Sit-to-stand — 10 reps
- Desk push-up — 10 reps
- Calf raise — 20 reps
- Seated knee lift — 10 per side
- Shoulder blade squeeze — 10 reps
- Standing hip hinge — 12 reps
- Wall sit — 30 seconds
Move between exercises without resting. The whole thing takes about eight minutes at a normal pace.
How to make it stick
- Attach it to something that already happens. After a meeting ends, before you open your inbox after lunch, or when the kettle boils.
- Do not announce it. A ten-minute routine in a shared office is noticeable; three exercises every hour is not.
- Start with three exercises, not twelve. Consistency beats volume, and twelve exercises done twice is worth less than three done every day.
- Keep a resistance band in your drawer. It costs little and turns a stretch break into actual strength work.
- Log it. A tick on a calendar is enough. Most people overestimate how often they move.
When to stop and see someone
Exercise should not produce sharp pain, numbness, tingling or dizziness. Stop if it does.
Pain that travels down an arm or a leg, weakness in a hand or foot, or pain that wakes you at night is a reason to see a clinician rather than to work through it. Desk exercises are for stiffness and inactivity, not for diagnosing or treating an injury.
If you want to train properly
Desk exercises maintain movement. They will not build much strength, because there is no way to add load to a chair.
If you want to progress, the cheapest route is a bench and a pair of dumbbells at home — our adjustable weight bench is GH₵3,300. For a fuller setup, a multi-station home gym is GH₵8,599. Neither is necessary to start, and neither replaces the daily movement.
Frequently asked questions
How often should I take a break from sitting?
Every 30 to 60 minutes is a reasonable target. Two minutes of standing and moving is enough to break the pattern.
Can office exercises help me lose weight?
They help marginally. Ten minutes of desk exercise burns little on its own; the value is in breaking up sitting, maintaining mobility and building the habit.
What if my office has no space?
Sit-to-stand, seated knee lifts, glute squeezes and shoulder squeezes all fit in a chair. Stairs and walking calls need no space at all.
Do I need a standing desk?
Not necessarily. Standing still all day is not much better than sitting still all day. Frequent changes of position matter more than the desk itself.
Is it embarrassing to exercise at work?
The first week, yes. After that nobody notices, because everyone is looking at their own screen.
This page is general information about movement during the working day, not medical advice. If you have an existing back, neck or joint problem, get advice from a qualified clinician before starting.