If you spend your working day at a desk, your body quietly adapts to it. Shoulders creep forward, the chin drifts towards the screen, and the hips gradually forget they were designed to move in any direction other than "sat". None of this happens overnight. It accumulates, one long afternoon at a time, until standing up straight feels like a small act of effort.

The good news is that you do not need a gym membership, a yoga mat or a spare hour. What follows is a short, gentle sequence for the neck, shoulders, upper back and hips. It takes about six minutes, can be done in ordinary clothes, and exists simply to remind your body that it is not a piece of office furniture.

Start With a Little Kindness

Before you stretch anything, sit for thirty seconds and notice. Feet flat, sitting bones evenly weighted, hands resting in your lap. Breathe in through the nose and let the out-breath be longer than the in-breath. A tense body does not stretch well, and slow breathing is the quickest way to persuade your nervous system that it is safe to soften.

• Never push into pain. Aim for a gentle stretch, around two or three out of ten. Sharp or burning sensations mean stop.
• Hold, don't bounce. Twenty to thirty seconds is plenty for each position.
• Breathe out as you settle in. Tension tends to release on the exhale, not the inhale.
• Stop if you feel tingling or numbness travelling down an arm, and mention it to your GP or a physiotherapist if it keeps happening.

The Neck: Unlocking the Top of the Spine

Begin with chin tucks. Sit tall, imagine the crown of your head is being drawn upwards, then glide your chin gently backwards, as though making a very small double chin. You should feel a mild stretch at the base of the skull. Hold for five seconds, release, and repeat five times. This is deceptively effective for the head-forward posture that screens encourage.

Next, a side bend. Let your right ear drift towards your right shoulder while the left shoulder stays heavy and low. Do not lift the shoulder to meet the ear; let gravity work. Hold for twenty to thirty seconds, then swap sides.

Finish with a slow turn: look over your right shoulder for five seconds, return to centre, then look left. Keep it unhurried. One thing to skip is the full neck circle, as rolling the head backwards under its own weight is unkind to the small joints at the top of the spine.

The Shoulders: Where Most of the Tension Lives

Roll your shoulders slowly backwards eight times, then forwards eight times. Big, lazy circles, coordinated with the breath. Then squeeze: draw your shoulder blades back and down as though tucking them into your back pockets, hold for five seconds, release, and repeat ten times.

For the upper shoulders, sit on your right hand to anchor that side down, then tilt your head gently to the left. Hold for twenty to thirty seconds and change sides.

A doorway is all you need to open the chest. Rest your forearms on the frame with elbows roughly at shoulder height, step one foot through, and lean forward until you feel a stretch across the front of the chest. Thirty seconds is enough. Ease off if it feels pinchy at the front of the shoulder.

The Upper Back and Ribs

With hands resting on your knees, arch and round your spine slowly, like a seated cat-cow. Inhale as you lift the chest and look slightly up; exhale as you round the back and tuck the chin. Eight slow rounds will do more than you expect.

Then take a seated twist. Sit tall, place your left hand on your right knee, and rotate gently to the right, keeping the spine long rather than collapsing. Hold for twenty to thirty seconds, then repeat on the other side. Twist from the ribs, not from the lower back alone.

The Hips: Undoing the Chair

Sitting shortens the hip flexors and stiffens the hips themselves, and that is usually where low-back ache begins. The seated figure-four is the simplest antidote: cross your right ankle over your left knee, keep the right foot flexed, sit tall, and lean forward from the hips until you feel a stretch in the right hip. Thirty seconds, then swap.

For the hip flexors, come to a half-kneeling position, with the right knee down on a cushion and the left foot forward. Tuck your tailbone slightly under and shift forward a centimetre or two until you feel a stretch at the front of the right hip. Keep it modest, and hold for thirty seconds on each side.

Finally, stand and fold. Feet hip-width apart, knees generously bent, let your upper body hang forward for thirty seconds with your head heavy and jaw soft. Roll up slowly, one vertebra at a time.

Making It Part of the Day

• Little and often beats long and rare. Three minutes mid-morning and three mid-afternoon will serve you better than an hour on Sunday.
• Attach it to something you already do. Stretch while the kettle boils or at the end of a call.
• Stand up every hour. Even two minutes of walking resets more than you would think.
• Raise your screen to eye level so your neck is not doing the work of your eyes.

Gentle living is not about doing less for its own sake. It is about noticing what your body has been quietly putting up with, and responding before it has to shout. A few slow minutes, most days, is usually all it takes.