Five exercises that undo a day at the laptop
You don't need a gym to undo eight hours at a laptop. You need about ten minutes, a patch of floor, and to actually do them. These five target the exact places a day at a villa dining table hurts: the neck, the hips, the lower back and the glutes that forgot they had a job.
Open up the front of your body
Sitting folds you forward all day, so start by going the other way. Lie face down, hands under your shoulders, and press your chest up while your hips stay on the floor. Hold for a few breaths, lower, repeat five times. Then roll your shoulders back ten times and let your head drop gently to each side. It takes two minutes, and it's the one to do if you only do one.
Walk, properly, once a day
Ten to fifteen minutes outside, at a pace that makes you breathe a little. It gets blood back into your legs, gives your eyes something further away than a screen, and clears the head better than another coffee. In Bali, go early or go at sunset — midday walks are for people who haven't been here long.
Squats, because your chair switched your glutes off
Feet hip-width apart, toes forward. Sit back as if there's a chair behind you, chest up, back straight, then drive through your heels to stand. Ten to fifteen, twice a day. It's the fastest way to wake up the muscles that sitting puts to sleep, and it's the reason your lower back stops aching.
A plank for the back your chair isn't supporting
Forearms on the floor, body in a straight line from head to heels, and hold for thirty to sixty seconds. On your knees is fine if that's where you're starting. A strong core does a lot of the work that lumbar support is supposed to do, which matters when the chair you're sitting on has none.
Let the desk do the fifth one
The single most effective thing isn't an exercise, it's changing position through the day. Sit for forty-five minutes, stand for fifteen, and you've broken up the sitting without having to remember to. A height-adjustable desk does it with one button, and after a week you'll find you raise it without thinking every time the afternoon slump arrives. The guide to staying fit in Bali covers the bigger picture of sleep, food and training.
Ten minutes won't fix eight hours
These five are worth doing, and if you do them daily you'll feel it inside a week. For the full workout, Bali's gyms and recovery clubs are some of the best in Asia.
What ten minutes can't do is undo a table at the wrong height and a chair with no back for the other eight hours. The stretches treat the symptom. The desk at your height, the chair built for eight hours and the screen at eye level treat the cause.
That part is ours. A height-adjustable desk at $50 a month, an ergonomic chair at $70, or both together as The Essential at $99. Add a 32-inch 4K monitor and The Best is $345 a month, delivered and set up the same day.
