Mobility for desk workers: the five-minute reset

Sitting for eight hours and then cycling home compresses the same three areas: hip flexors, thoracic spine and the front of the shoulder. Nothing dramatic happens on any single day, which is exactly why it creeps up on people.

Hips: open the front, then load it

A half-kneeling hip flexor stretch with the glute switched on beats a passive lunge every time. Thirty seconds a side, breathing out through the stretch, then finish with a set of glute bridges so the new range gets used rather than lost.

Thoracic spine: rotate and extend

Open-book rotations on your side, eight per side, slowly. Then extension over a foam roller or the edge of a chair. Most 'tight shoulders' are a stiff mid-back that has stopped contributing, so the shoulder does the work instead.

Shoulders: control, not stretch

Wall slides and banded pull-aparts train the shoulder blade to move properly. Two sets of ten of each, done slowly, will do more for a desk-bound shoulder than hanging off a doorframe.

The five-minute version

• Half-kneeling hip flexor stretch — 30 seconds each side
• Glute bridges — 10 reps
• Open-book rotations — 8 each side
• Thoracic extension over a roller or chair — 60 seconds
• Wall slides — 10 slow reps

Make it stick

Attach it to something you already do — the kettle boiling, the end of a call, before your evening shower. Routines that need willpower die in week two; routines that hang off an existing habit survive.