Before I became a yoga teacher, I sat at a desk for eight hours a day, five days a week, and commuted an hour each way. I thought I was taking care of myself by practicing yoga after work, but all that sitting still created tremendous pain in my lower back. I tried taking breaks and standing up every hour or so, but it was only when I added desk yoga poses to my everyday routine that I began to experience relief.

The effects of sitting for hours at a time can incur devastating and different impacts on each of us. The following desk yoga stretches provide relief to the various muscle groups that may otherwise become tight and irritated, including the neck, shoulders, hips, and lower back.

5 Yoga Poses You Can Do at Your Desk

You can practice these desk yoga poses all at once or sneak one or two in between meetings and deadlines.

1. Palms Interlaced Overhead

Why it helps: stretches your chest and shoulders

How to do it:

• Sit tall in your desk chair.
• Interlace your fingers in front of your chest and press your palms away from you.
• Keep them interlaced as you reach your arms overhead. (You鈥檒l probably feel some resistance in your shoulders and neck. Try bending your elbows, moving your arms back a little more, and then straightening your arms again.)
• Gaze straight ahead or look toward the ceiling. Stay here for 5-10 breaths.
• Switch the interlacing of your fingers and repeat.

2. Seated Twist

Why it helps: stretches the muscles along the spine

How to do it:

• Sit tall in your desk chair.
• Lift your arms and hold out straight in front of you, keeping them in line with your shoulders.
• Twist to your right.
• Place your left hand on your outer right knee or thigh and rest your right arm either on the chair arm or chair back.
• Press through your heels, breathe in, and sit tall.
• Breathe out and twist your abdomen, chest, and, lastly, your head more toward the right. Stay here for 5-10 breaths.
• Switch sides.

3. Side Bend

Why it helps: stretches the side body from your hips to your armpits

How to do it:

• Sit tall in your desk chair.
• Take your feet slightly wider than your hips and angle your feet outward.
• Place your right forearm on your right thigh, lean to your right, and extend your left arm over your head alongside your left ear.
• Breathe in and lengthen from your left hip to your fingertips as you open the side body.
• Breathe out and begin to turn your chest toward the ceiling. Stay here for 5-10 breaths.
• Switch sides.

4. Ankle Over Knee

Why it helps: stretches your lower back and glutes

How to do it:

• Sit tall in your desk chair.
• Place your right ankle over your left knee in a figure-4 shape.
• Flex your right foot and press through your left heel as you lean your body toward the floor. (Your chest will be over your legs.) Let your neck relax.
• Stay here for 5-10 breaths.
• Switch sides.

5. Forward Fold

Why it helps: stretches the entire back side of the body

How to do it:

• Sit tall in your desk chair. Ensure your legs are wide enough to allow your body to fit comfortably between them.
• Breathe in and lift your chest, breathe out, and lean your chest forward between your legs.
• Bring your hands to the floor, if they reach, and let your neck relax.
• Stay here for 10-20 breaths.

is a yoga instructor and director at . He leads in-person and online teacher trainings worldwide, with a primary focus on yoga sequencing and the business of yoga.

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鈥淵ou have to learn the rules before you can break them.鈥� 鈥擬iles Davis

I first heard those words from one of the most innovative and influential jazz musicians of all time during the . In the interview, chef Daniel Humm explained how understanding that quote shaped his approach to creating Eleven Madison Park, his world-renowned, plant-based restaurant in New York City.

That type of thinking may seem counterintuitive to creativity. But numerous other groundbreaking creatives also cite a respect for basic techniques as the reason they were later able to challenge the rules in a creative and intelligent manner. For example, in the documentary, Trent Reznor of the band Nine Inch Nails lauded his childhood study of classical music as the foundation from which he was able to create his unique style and sound.

So what does this have to do with yoga?

You can also apply the concept of needing to understand basic techniques prior to finding innovation when you teach yoga鈥攅specially as a new yoga teacher creating a vinyasa yoga sequence.

How Understanding the Classics Supports Creativity in Yoga

After training vinyasa yoga teachers for 15 years, I can confidently say that one of the most common mistakes that rookie teachers make is forcing creativity into yoga sequences before they fully understand the fundamentals of vinyasa.

The term 鈥渧inyasa鈥� is believed to have originated with Sri Krishnamacharya, who used it to refer to his style of teaching. The word is based on the Sanskrit term 鈥�vi,鈥� which means 鈥渋n a special way,鈥� and 鈥渘测补蝉补,鈥� which means 鈥渢o place.鈥� His son, T.K.V. Desikachar, further explained the term in his book :

鈥淚t means step-by-step, a progression that has a beginning, middle, and end鈥he asana is performed with concentration on the flow of the movement and smoothness of inhalation, exhalation, and retention, and toward a prescribed completion. Each step is a preparation for the next. And so it is with a sequence of asanas [physical poses]. Each posture is part of a flow of exercise; a beginning, a building toward a posture that is the height of the program, and then the progression toward an ending.鈥�

As the , vinyasa became a more frequently used term to describe the diverse intersection of yoga systems in the West. The style of practice followed a basic premise of vinyasa in that its sole focus was simply linking movement with breath in a fast-paced rhythmic 鈥渇low.鈥� Today, that remains the most recognizable thread among the varying approaches found across vinyasa yoga classes.

It鈥檚 a style of yoga that emphasizes creativity in terms of linking one pose to the next. This contributed to the cross-pollination of different systems and lineages of yoga, which captured the interest of a vast number of people. Along the way, though, we lost some fundamental principles outlined in the original version of vinyasa.

How to Stay Consistent and Consistent In Your Yoga Teaching

There is a reason why the practice of yoga has lasted more than 5,000 years. The essential teachings still work鈥攁nd they work exceptionally well. As yoga teachers, our role is to understand how to apply the principles of yoga to our contemporary lifestyle without losing the integrity of the practice.

That鈥檚 not to say you can鈥檛 incorporate creativity into your vinyasa yoga sequences. But as a teacher, your objective is to focus on your students and their needs, including helping them transition with ease and knowing how to cue accessible variations for each pose you teach. Forcing creativity for the sake of being different is your ego speaking and tends to look and feel like a yoga class gone bad.

Any time you struggle to be more creative in your sequencing, remind yourself that the following tenets always apply:

Keep it simple
You don鈥檛 need to reinvent anything
Teach what you know

Having a solid foundation in the principles of yoga will eventually unlock spontaneous creativity within that framework. But not without time, dedication, and practice.

6 Principles for Teaching Vinyasa Yoga Sequences

Creating a sequence requires awareness of so many things. Although when you need a reminder of the foundational principles of vinyasa yoga, come back to the following:

1. Have a clear beginning, middle, and end of your class that leads toward a particular pose or action.
2. Start with simple poses and transitions before cueing students into more complex poses and transitions.
3. Start with open and spacious poses to prepare for closed and compact poses. Open poses are those in which your body faces the long side of the mat, including Triangle Pose, Warrior 2, and Extended Side Angle. These typically feel better in the body before practicing more closed poses like Warrior 1, Pyramid Pose, and Revolved Triangle, in which the hips face the short side of the mat.
4. Stick to classic transitions, such as Triangle to Half Moon or Warrior 1 to Warrior 3. They work.
5. Focus your cues on the arms and legs. If you get students to put their arms and legs in the right position, it typically gets them 90 percent into the pose.
6. If you鈥檙e still feeling frustrated with your sequence, know that it does not need to be overly creative or complicated to be interesting and, most importantly, of benefit to students. You can still draw on creativity in the cues you use, how you instruct the breath, and what you draw your students鈥� attention to in a pose.

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