Keeping healthy at your desk

My husband’s just been diagnosed with Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) and has come home from the outpatient’s department with a well-designed, simply-written care and information pack.

Flicking through the Patient Information Booklet, I found the following DVT-prevention exercises, similar to the ones recommended for airline passengers. I thought they might be useful for all of us desk-workers. I’ve added some exercises for neck and shoulders, and a couple suggested by Vito himself (the irony of Vito getting DVT is that he’s a former sports coach and physically active!). These exercises can all be done sitting at your desk.

Ankles

Paddle your feet up and down and circle them round and round.

Starting with feet flat on floor, raise your ankles (so pointing your feet, as if you’re standing on tiptoes). Lower your ankles and raise your toes (flexing your feet).

Knees

Brace your knees back so that you can feel the muscle tighten on the front of the thigh. Hold for a count of three and then gently relax. Your knee caps should move slightly.

Bottom

Clench you buttock muscles together and hold for a count of 3 before relaxing.

Neck and shoulders

Sit up straight as you work. Shoulders back and down, chin down (not thrusting forward), back of neck long, imaginary string pulling up from crown of head.

Circle head slowly, first in one direction then the other, starting with small circles and gradually increasing. You might hear some crackling going on in your neck – don’t worry. Unless your head falls off, in which case call a doctor immediately.

Sitting up straight, turn your head to look first over your right shoulder, then your left.

Lower head first to one side, back to upright, then to other side (as though trying to rest your ear on your shoulder). Don’t raise your shoulder.

Circle your shoulders first in one direction then the other (shrugging them up towards your ears at the top of the circle and squeezing your shoulder-blades down and towards each other as you lower).

Arms

Keeping your upper arms close to your sides, raise your forearms so that your hands are level with your shoulders.

The DVT leaflet advises repeating the above exercises 10 times each and every hour. If that’s too much, select some from each category and alternate them between one session and the next. Some of these exercises are illustrated in this feature from Italy’s la Repubblica newspaper

Breathing

Place your hands on the side of your rib cage. Take a deep breath and feel your ribs being pushed out to the side as you expand your lungs. Do this 3 or 4 times every hour. This will help ensure you get a good exchange of air in the bottom pockets of your lungs. (It sounds similar to the Pilates breath, where, as you breathe out by pushing ribs down and in, you also pull in the core muscles (abdomen and waist) and pull up the pelvic floor).

General

Get up from your desk every now and again and stretch or walk about.

We all know we should do these exercises – how many of us do?

Postscript 1: If you’d like more information on health and fitness, you can contact Vito directly: vito at informafitness co uk

Postscript 2: Our family’s having a National Health Service week of it, as my mother is also having health problems. She’s just out of hospital but may have to be re-admitted. I’d like to say here that I think our Health Service is truly wonderful – certainly here in Glasgow. We’ve had such wonderful help and care from all the staff concerned. We are very, very lucky. I love the NHS.

By Marian Dougan