Builds a 10-15 minute daily floor-based mobility routine for desk workers, targeting the four zones sitting predictably stiffens - hips, thoracic spine, shoulders/neck, and ankles - with exact holds, reps, and a sequenced routine card. Use when someone says "I'm stiff from sitting all day", "my hips are tight", "fix my desk posture", or "build me a daily stretching routine". General movement guidance, not medical advice. Do NOT use for injury-prevention work attached to a training program - use injury-prehab instead; for a lifting program use strength-training-plan; for HIIT or conditioning use fitness-program.
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name: Mobility Routine
description: Builds a 10-15 minute daily floor-based mobility routine for desk workers, targeting the four zones sitting predictably stiffens - hips, thoracic spine, shoulders/neck, and ankles - with exact holds, reps, and a sequenced routine card. Use when someone says "I'm stiff from sitting all day", "my hips are tight", "fix my desk posture", or "build me a daily stretching routine". General movement guidance, not medical advice. Do NOT use for injury-prevention work attached to a training program - use injury-prehab instead; for a lifting program use strength-training-plan; for HIIT or conditioning use fitness-program.
---
# Mobility Routine
Desk workers do not get randomly stiff - 6-10 seated hours produce one predictable pattern: hip flexors shorten, glutes underactivate, the thoracic spine rounds and stiffens, the head juts forward, shoulders roll inward, and ankle dorsiflexion quietly degrades. A routine that ignores this pattern (generic toe-touches, aggressive neck stretching) wastes the ten minutes it takes. This skill builds a 10-15 minute daily sequence aimed exactly at those zones, balancing lengthening with loaded end-range reinforcement so the new range actually sticks.
## Operating procedure
### Step 1: Gather inputs
Collect: hours seated per day; where stiffness is felt most (hips, mid-back, neck/shoulders, ankles - bias 40% of routine time toward the worst zone); minutes genuinely available daily (default 12-15; floor at 8); preferred slot (morning or post-work - both work; pick whichever survives the user's real schedule); equipment (a foam roller helps the thoracic work but a rolled towel substitutes); and any current pain. Sharp, radiating, or numbness-type pain excludes that zone and routes to Escalation. If the user cannot localize their stiffness, treat the hip complex as the priority - it is the highest-return zone for sitters.
### Step 2: Program the hip complex
The 90/90 is the highest-return single mobility exercise for desk workers: both legs at 90 degrees, one in front and one to the side; hold the forward-shin position 60-90 seconds per side, gently rotating the torso toward the front leg. Follow with the couch stretch - rear foot elevated, lunge position, deliberate posterior pelvic tilt - 60 seconds per side. Between them these cover the hip flexors and both internal and external hip rotation. The posterior tilt is the technique detail that decides whether the couch stretch reaches the hip flexor or just cranks the lower back; cue it explicitly.
### Step 3: Program the thoracic spine
Sitting stiffens the T-spine in flexion; the routine restores rotation and extension. Rotation: open-book - side-lying, knees stacked, top arm rotates open toward the ceiling, 2-3 second holds, 8-10 per side; thread-the-needle from quadruped as a complement. Extension: foam roller (or rolled towel) horizontal under the T-spine, extend over it 60-90 seconds across 2-3 vertebral levels. Extension over the roller is where most of the posture payoff lives.
### Step 4: Program shoulders and neck