Working at a desk can play havoc with your posture. Spending long hours sitting can lead to shortened hip flexors, weaker glutes and rounded shoulders, particularly if you regularly slouch in your chair or hunch over a laptop screen or desk. Over time, these changes may contribute to aches, pains and other musculoskeletal issues.

But rather than simply stretching to try and alleviate these issues, coach Kyle Waugh argues that people who are desk-bound should actually focus more of their efforts on strength exercises that force your muscles and joints to work through a full range of motion.

Waugh suggests that adding in a few accessory movements after bigger lifts can help improve mobility and reduce muscle tightness in people who spend a large portion of their day sitting.

‘That’s what makes cable and lengthened biased movements so useful,’ he says. ‘They let you load muscles in a lengthened position, open up areas that get stiff from sitting, and still get a solid training effect at the same time.

‘These are some of my favourite accessory moves for clients who sit a lot and want to feel better without wasting their gym session. They challenge your hips, shoulders, upper back, neck, and more while still building strength.’

Thoracic Lat Row-Around

‘Let the cable pull and stretch your shoulder with slight thoracic rotation,’ Waugh recommends. In order to achieve that rotation, sit down at a cable machine and reach across your body – you should feel a deep stretch in your lats.

Lateral Cable Kickstand Hinge

Standing perpendicular to a cable stack, reach across your body with a straight arm to hold onto a handle. Keeping your arm straight throughout the movement, and with a slight bend in your knee, stand tall. It works your hips, glutes and core, forcing you to resist both rotational and lateral forces.

‘Hinge with your hip, foot and knee in alignment, then push out laterally,’ Waugh says.

Half-Kneeling Cable Rotation

A movement that is similar to the cable woodchopper, but starting from a lower position, the half-kneeling cable rotation encourages twisting, but in an extremely controlled manner. Your core will take the brunt of force here.

‘Fully rotate your upper body so that your shoulders square up about perpendicular to your hip,’ Waugh adds.

Half Turkish Get-Up

Replicating the first phase of the Turkish get-up exercise, Waugh stops once his head and back are off the floor. This helps emphasise his core strength and shoulder stability. He suggests sitting up to face towards the opposite side to get the most out of the exercise.

‘Reach your elbow forward as you press, while keeping your shoulder away from your ear,’ he explains.

It’s an exercise that builds a strong chest and shoulders without requiring lots of mobility. Plus, pressing from the opposite side to your kneeling leg also makes this a contralateral movement, forcing your core to fire up and stabilise your torso to keep it upright, which helps improve your posture and balance.

Foam Roller Marching

In a glute bridge position, with your feet resting on a foam roller, raise your bum off the floor. Maintain a neutral pelvis while raising both feet off the roller one at a time. This builds stronger hamstrings and glutes that can become underused by too much sitting.

Alternating Lat Pulldown

Sit in the middle of a cable stack and hold two separate D-handles on different pulleys to perform this movement. Move each arm one at a time, leaving the opposite one in the stretched position.

‘You get a big stretch on the eccentric side as you pull the elbow to your back pocket with the opposite,’ Waugh adds.

Waiter and Suitcase Carry

Keep one arm in the air directly above you holding weight, while the other is at your side. Walk tall and keep your core engaged. Make sure you alternate which hand is performing the waiter carry and which is doing the suitcase carry – your core will be working overtime trying to stabilise you.

Alternating Arnold Press

The Arnold press has a greater range of motion than standard overhead presses, increases tricep recruitment, and also targets all three heads of the shoulder.

Start by standing with dumbbells held in front of you with your elbows tight to your waist and your palms facing your shoulders. The non-working arm remains in this position as you press the other arm overhead. Try not to let your elbows flare out as you push the dumbbell overhead while rotating your wrist until your palm faces away from you.

Crossover Step-Up

Stand parallel to a bench, reaching across with your outside leg to perform the step-up. Hold onto a structure if you need help with stability. It’s a movement that targets your glutes and hips to help alleviate those hours of sitting; the reaching across emphasises the stretch on your glute.

‘Control your pelvis to minimise hiking and keep as much work in the hips as possible,’ Waugh says.

Split Squat ISO with Pelvis Rotation

‘Squat down to a 90-degree angle with your weight on your front foot. Rotate your pelvis while keeping the knee over the foot,’ Waugh recommends.

This is an exercise that helps to build single-leg stability by placing the muscles under more tension without any additional stress. The core also has to work hard during the pelvis rotation.

Wall Reference Split Romanian Deadlift

A technical movement that sees you push a foam roller into the wall using the inside of your working leg. So, for example, if your right leg is closer to the wall, your left leg will be in contact with the foam roller and also performing a split stance Romanian deadlift at the same time. It’s an exercise that focuses on both hip stability and posterior chain strength at the same time.

‘Stay heavy through the front foot, and reach the weight to the shoelaces,’ Waugh explains.

Deficit Pause Push-Up

Placing your hands on an elevated surface means there’s more distance for your chest to travel, thus emphasising the stretch on the muscle. Pausing briefly at the bottom of the rep demands shoulder stability, too, helping to undo hours of hunching over a laptop and rounded delts.

If there’s one thing Kori Sampson knows, it’s how to optimise your body composition for performance. To tap into his knowledge as an elite athlete and coach, we asked him to create a 4-week plan to help you move faster, recover quicker and keep pushing when the fatigue sets in – all while improving your muscle-to-fat ratio.

Ready to build muscle, burn fat and come out the other side looking, feeling and performing better? Click here to get 14 days of free access to the plan via the Men’s Health app.