The after-work workout if you sit around all day

It isn’t easy to muster up the motivation to work out after a long day at the office.

Yet, if your job requires you to sit on your bum for the majority of the day, you’re in need of mindful postwork movement the most. Excessive sitting for long periods affects your posture, tightens your hip flexors, weakens your glutes, and is linked to a handful of health conditions. To reverse the negative impact of sitting all day, Noam Tamir, founder of TS Fitness in New York City shared the after-work workout you need to be doing.

“These exercises are designed to strengthen the core, work the posterior muscles of the body, engage the legs, and help with proper pelvic and spinal alignment,” says Tamir. “Together, these moves help to offset the imbalances associated with long periods of sitting.” The best part is that all you need is a mat.

Dead bug (20 reps, alternating)

Lie on your back with your arms raised perpendicular from your body reaching for the ceiling and your legs up into tabletop position bent 90 degrees and stacked over your hips. Slowly extend your right leg out straight while also dropping your left arm overhead, keeping both just a few inches from the ground, and then bring back to their original position. Plank (30 seconds) “Here you’re working the full body, especially the core muscles,” explains Tamir. “It’s important to focus on having good pelvic alignment and not rounding the back.

Single-leg bridges (12 reps each leg)

Lie on your back, and bend your knees with your feet flat on the floor about a foot away from your butt. With your arms resting at your sides, lift your right leg in the air toward the ceiling, foot flexed, lifting your glutes, hips, and back off the ground. Keep shoulder blades on the floor. Slowly lower back down, keeping your right leg in the air, and then repeat in a slow, controlled motion until it’s time to switch legs.

“Single-leg bridges are great to help engage the gluteus maximus (the largest glute muscle) plus the core and hamstrings,” says Tamir.

GETTY A plank is a great overall core exercise.