The urge to shake it out always comes while you’re sitting in class, drumming at a keyboard in a lab or waiting impatiently in line for your pumpkin latte. Sometimes it feels like that’s all you can do without springing from your desk to squat it out or engage in a round of jumping jacks.

But that can change. Why not tone and tighten with an arsenal of secret moves to discreetly loosen you up and strengthen your muscles? No longer will you have to tap your fingers to “Rubberband Man” or drum your feet and wonder if your neighbor can tell it’s the tune to a Taylor Swift song.

While seated in class or at work, you can get a great workout in for your gluts. Squeeze your gluteus muscles while seated and hold for a few seconds before releasing. To work your lower abdominals and your leg muscles simultaneously — and provided you’ve got a table and enough leg room to avoid pounding the guy sitting across from you — do some seated straight-leg lifts. Keep your belly button tight into your tummy and extend a leg up slowly and very straight. Hold for a few seconds, and slowly lower them back down.

You can even go the other way and do a leg flexion, where you keep your legs at 90-degree angles. Keep one foot flat on the floor and draw the other foot back, like you’re trying to touch your butt with your heel.

But staying seated doesn’t just mean doing a leg workout. Why not target your triceps with an arm press? Keep your forearms on the desk, bent at a 90-degree angle. Again, keep those abs tight. Press your forearms into the top of the desk and fight the resistance — like you’re trying to straighten your elbows — before relaxing; try it again with your palms out to work the biceps.

If you’re trying to break through those long lines at Dunkin’ Donuts or Starbucks, fiddle around a bit to burn off some steam — or concentrate on some specific muscles to stretch out. A great thing you can do while standing in line is calf raises. To do these properly, make sure to go slow. Rise up onto your tiptoes, feel a good stretch in your calves and then slowly lower back down onto your heels.

For a good arm workout, do a few bicep curls with a water bottle you’re willing to pay for, or try some lateral shoulder raises, if you’ve got some room. If you’re inclined to do some balance work, practice getting that core work in by standing on one leg while you’re waiting.

But don’t forget that after every workout, it’s important to stretch. Wrist rotations — slowly reversing your palm to face down and back up again — help keep that writing hand fresh for upcoming essays. Point your toes out and up to work the balls of your feet and stretch out those plantar muscles; or, instead of wrist rotations, try some ankle ones. Those little guys work hard all day long, too.

You don’t need a gym to strengthen and stretch. As long as you’ve got the ability to move, you can get the job done, whether you’re seated or standing, in the rain or in Schine.

Jillian is a magazine, newspaper, and online journalism graduate student. Her column appears every Wednesday in Pulp. One time she was doing a leg stretch in the grocery store and knocked over a display of canned pumpkin, so try to do a better job than she did. Email her at jathaw@syr.edu and follow her on Twitter @jathaw.

Published on October 22, 2013 at 11:42 pm