--- description: Research shows that prolonged sitting and sedentary time at work is bad for your health. Try these 10 exercises you can do at your desk title: 10 Exercises You Can Do at Your Desk image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbbc85ee51b983f5c/698864b05f570f1a38b1d789/deskercise-facebook.png?branch=production --- Sep 22, 2015 # 10 Deskercises You Can Do at Work by [Mandy Oaklander](/author/mandy-oaklander/) and [Heather Jones](/author/heather-jones/)  Bethan Mooney for TIME A spate of new research has found that prolonged sitting—[like the kind you do all day at work](http://time.com/SITTING/ "undefined")—is sabotaging your health and turning you into a 9-to-5 couch potato. One study last year found that [sitting can increase your risk for cancer](http://time.com/2884953/sitting-can-increase-your-risk-of-cancer-by-up-to-66/ "undefined") by more than 60%. What’s a desk jockey to do? Luckily, spending all day at the office doesn’t have to mean spending it sedentary. We asked Cedric X. Bryant, chief science officer at the American Council on Exercise, and John Porcari, executive director of La Crosse Exercise and Health Program at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, to tell us their favorite office-appropriate workouts. These 10 exercises you can do at your desk are subtle enough to spare you strange looks from your coworkers, yet effective enough to make a real dent in your sedentary time. Happy deskercising! **Click the interactive feature at the top of the article to see exercises you can do at your desk.**             ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/guide-to-exercise/4019563/exercise-work-desk/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/guide-to-exercise/4019563/exercise-work-desk/"},"headline":"10 Exercises You Can Do at Your Desk","datePublished":"2015-09-22T16:07:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-30T09:42:46.888Z","description":"Research shows that prolonged sitting and sedentary time at work is bad for your health. Try these 10 exercises you can do at your desk","url":"https://time.com/collections/guide-to-exercise/4019563/exercise-work-desk/","keywords":["Exercise & Fitness","fitness","Exercise","photography","yoga","workouts","Evergreen"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbbc85ee51b983f5c/698864b05f570f1a38b1d789/deskercise-facebook.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mandy Oaklander","jobTitle":"Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Heather Jones","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/heather-jones/"}],"creator":"Mandy Oaklander","articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbbc85ee51b983f5c/698864b05f570f1a38b1d789/deskercise-facebook.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/exercisefitness/","name":"Exercise & Fitness"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/guide-to-exercise/4019563/exercise-work-desk/","name":"10 Exercises You Can Do at Your Desk"}}]}] ```