Use Your Lunch Break To Build Strength And Loosen Up From Hours Of Sitting 

After sitting at your desk for hours working, the best remedy to unravel knotted up muscles is to move around. Take that a step further and try bodyweight workout “flows”, where you put your body through a series of unfamiliar movements that challenge, stretch and build your muscles at the same time.

Perhaps you’ve heard of yoga flows, in which you transition from one yoga pose to another in a smooth, logical sequence. A bodyweight workout flow is kind of like that, except you incorporate classic bodyweight movements like squats, push-ups, planks, and any variations of those just to get your body moving.

The above video by Primal Flow Training is a simple flow that will take you 15 minutes or less to complete. All of the moves challenge your upper body strength and core stability. Grab a timer or use the one on your phone and get started:

• Set 1: Starting from standing, you do a hand walk-out and back to squat, then to a standing position. Do for 20 seconds, then rest for 40.
• Set 2: Add a prone bend (which is basically like holding a static diagonal push-up) to the end of your hand walk-out. Do this for 40 seconds, then rest for 1:20.
• Set 3: Add a small press to that prone bend, so it’s like a jagged push-up. Do this for a minute, and rest for two.
• Set 4: After pushing up, point one arm toward the ceiling and twist. This stretches your upper back and also trains stability in the shoulder of the arm that’s on the floor. Perform for one minute and 40 seconds, and rest for three minutes or so.
• Set 5: Finally, add a kick to the side. You’ll have to watch the video at 2:26 mark to see what this looks like. Do all this for one minute and 40 seconds.

When you fashion all of that together, the whole thing should “flow” seamlessly. Here’s a more advanced example:

The important thing is to just move. I often do this on days I don’t have a more structured workout. Sometimes I like to pretend I’m breakdancing or that I’m Beyoncé’s backup dancer, but really I’m just flopping about with the grace of a whale and putting my body through funky movements for 15 minutes.