Has this ever happened to you? You wake up one morning and you can’t move because your low back or neck is stiff and in pain and you think to yourself, “But I didn’t even do anything yesterday. I just sat all day.”

Well, the truth is you did do something. You SAT all day!  This caused the muscles in your hips, back, and neck to get tight just because you weren’t moving. Sitting is one of the leading causes of muscle tension and posture distortion. When you are sitting your muscle are not going through their full range of motion and so it is like you working your hip flexors and neck muscles out all day long doing isometric contractions. These are muscle contractions that are used to stabilize joints so you can hold positions and loads without injury. So, when you are doing these all day every day because you work at a desk or are not being active you are indeed doing something to cause that stiff neck or back the next day.

There are some simple stretches that you can do every day to decrease your stiffness and help with your posture.

Here are 6 easy stretches to help improve your posture and stop you from waking up stiff and feeling older than you did the day before.