Move it or lose it

On the face of it Kerrie-Ann’s book is about getting people in sedentary occupations to move more. In reality it’s about getting all of us to keep our bodies moving.

Many, if not most, of the exercises can be done, or adapted, to keep us moving whatever we’re doing and wherever we are. Whether we’re working at a desk, watching TV, travelling, or have mobility issues the exercises in Kerrie-Ann’s book give us simple ways to build more movement into our lives and be more flexible and healthier as a result.

This is thoughtfully presented and well-laid out advice on how to keep from rusting in place at your desk. After two years of working at home or just moving less at work (or so it seems), this is truly helpful and timely.

Since the Pandemic hit 2 years ago more people have ended up working at home. We are now moving less and less and have gained weight because of this. I wanted to read this book to get more ideas for exercises in front of my computer and desk. The book had more talk than exercises so I was a little disappointed.


Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read Move More At Your Desk: Reduce back pain and increase your energy at work by Kerrie-Anne Bradley.

A paper copy of this would be more advantageous than a Kindle copy, for accessible reading. It’s a good book though, covering the why, the anatomy and ways we can move despite being ‘tied’ to a desk.

A quick and easy read that is meant to be a guide on reducing back pain and increase energy while you're working. And to be fair these exercises do work. But doing them in a regular office is likely to get you some odd looks...if you're actually able to get the type of chair needed to do the sitting exercises. Ir not ger sacked for standing on a chair and hanging your leg off! However what I have found is doing some of these BEFORE I start work has been beneficial. I have limited mobility and was able to do many of these exercises reasonably easily. And I definitely felt the benefits. But as an exercise book for doing at your desk it just didn't work.

This is a short easy read (with pictures for reference) of how to move more when we sit all day. Kerrie-Anne has a way of engaging the reader and letting us know that even the smallest movements are important towards overall health and just wiggling your toes is good for your body and your soul. I have no doubt she is a delightful instructor in person.

This book is very readable and feels like you're having a conversation. I appreciated the pictures demonstrating the various poses. Though it was a bit hard to read on kindle, I felt that this book will certainly help me move more at my desk and I would consider purchasing a hard copy.

Highly recommend!

I thought this book was a good resource for various exercises, stretches and moves to use throughout the day while siting behind a desk working on a computer for long hours. I have been researching all kinds of exercises and movement techniques for years, to use as part of movement therapy with clients and for myself. Move More at Your Desk offered number of different stretching exercises I was happy to add to my collection. I didn't find pictures/illustrations at all helpful, to understand how every exercise worked, I had to read carefully several times and perform each move. I will be implementing several of exercises learned through this book daily to relive tension and ache in my hands and shoulders.

Overall I enjoyed reading this book. All info is very valuable, just usually in such type of books I expect less text and more clear visualization, guide step by step. Visualuzation was not very clear and too much text.

So glad I found this helpful guide to using simple movements at work or home to keep agile, stronger and more energized. I found this invaluable as I sit at my desk writing review after review. Out Mar 8.

Thanks to the author, Watkins Publishing, and NetGalley for the ARC. Opinions are mine.

#movemoreatyourdesk #watkinspublishing #netgalley

"Move more at your desk" is a title that caught my attention immediately. So many of us struggle with having to spend hours on end sitting down while working and can definitely feel the negative effects it has on our bodies. Hence why I book like this sounded very promising.

The introduction was very interesting. I really enjoyed how it explain multiple times that any kind of movement is good. We do live in a society where only the extremes seem appealing, so it was great to see someone advocating for a change that seems manageable.
However, I do feel like the rest of the book didn't give me much information. And this is very personal. As someone who does yoga and that has struggled with scoliosis all my life, I already did those exercises shown in the book. Sometimes I do some of those movements without even noticing. So, for me, it didn't have the brand new information I craved. But that doesn't mean it will be the same for everyone. I still find this a book that can help a lot of people. Hence why I will recommend it to friends who might benefit from reading it.

In Move More at Your Desk, Kerrie-Anne Bradley sets out a series of exercises and wellbeing tips to improve the health and flexibility of those sat at a desk for the majority of their day.

Some of the exercises in this book, by the author’s own admission, will guarantee you some strange looks from your colleagues, but this is also aimed at the growing army of us who work from home. If you are back in the office post-Covid, fear not, there are plenty of more discreet exercises here for you - or you could get your colleagues involved in your new regime.

As someone prone to back and shoulder pain, I tried out some of the exercises in this book over the course of a few weeks. These moves are simple and can indeed be slotted into your day while you’re on the phone, while you’re waiting for a program to load - or simply when you need a moment’s break from the screen. The effect is most impressive - no back or shoulder pain for me now.

For those of us who are chained to a computer for a living, I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

Thank you to NetGalley and Watkins Publishing for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3 out of 5 stars~

I received a copy via NetGalley for review~

I was excited for this one, specifically because we've just returned back to the office after a short stint of working entirely remote. When you work at a desk and end up being tied to it most of your day, it's important to find new ways to move where you are.

This book gives many different stretches and movements that can be done [for the most part] conveniently from your desk or office. Although, not everyone has the benefit of an office they solely have to themselves or the time between meetings to do these stretches - especially if a lot of meetings require team collaboration. I don't think many people would feel comfortable doing the majority of these stretches in front of their team and/or boss.

That being said, this was a solid little guide full of helpful stretches and the science behind why we need to stretch. It also went over muscle anatomy and different persons and their personal testimonials - including job titles, hours sedentary vs moving etc.

While I did like it, better pictures with step-by-step guides would have been preferred. There were not pictures for each and every stretch or instruction, and they were hard to see in the Kindle copy. I would have liked a better way to navigate to each body part and their relevant stretches as a "quick guide" to actually use on the fly.

This is a very frustrating book. I was extremely excited to get this, having especially been looking forward to guidance on stretching at my desk every hour so I wasn't sedentary too long. What I got was one of the poorest executions I've seen in a long time: information all over the place, pictures that do not help at all, not enough visual representations of the exercises, and a LOT of superfluous information that just clutters the book.

The book is organized by sections of your body. That means you have to scroll through pages of text you really only need to read once in order to get to the actual exercises. In order to create a routine, you will have to be scrolling back and forth endlessly and annoyingly unless you memorize everything in advance. There is a small section near the end with some suggested routines - but the accompanying photograph or two hardly help you remember what you are supposed to do for each of those sections. Instead, yep, you have to scroll back up and find the section across the ENTIRE book for each exercise to figure it out.

Adding to the issue is that the photographs are extremely unhelpful. For one, the author uses a stool - which makes her exercises easy to do but for most of us, we have office chairs with backs and cannot easily do the same exercises. As well, there are very wordy detailed steps for exercises and often only 1 or 2 photographs of a smiling sitting person. Not very useful when it comes to actually doing the exercises and realizing you have to sit and read through to figure out what to do with them. Cluttering this up, there is an illustration of a person sitting on a chair that appears everywhere and for no apparent purpose other than to 'pretty it up.'

Interspersed in each section of feet, back, neck, etc. are testimonials that are about as useless as you can imagine. We really don't need to know that moving more at the desk is useful and it is ridiculous to have to scroll through them to get to each exercise. At that point, it felt more like this is a marketing pamphlet for her online services (which are referenced OFTEN).

The book needs to be redone. A whole section at the back should be of either many small photographs or illustrations (preferably) of the steps of each exercise routine. There is way too much text and unnecessary info that should be cut. Testimonials can be excised and all the information about health, physiology, and hleath can be done all in the beginning and isolate the exercise descriptions in the middle (all together), for easy access. Then the last section can be the routines, with more photographs and better descriptions.

I found the book unusable as it is presented - just too much filler and useless info everywhere and having to endlessly scroll back and forth just to create a routine (unless I memorize each routine). As well, it was frustrating having the author using equipment none of us also use such as a stool. So be prepared to buy a stool and spend extra space/time having to store and then swap out your backed desk chair with wheels each routine. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

An informative book that reminds all of us stuck at a desk for up to eight hours a day at work to move more. As well as giving us ways to do that. Without moving to far away.

Since the pandemic started, many people (myself included) have been working from home, in circumstances that aren't like an office. This book has helped me think about how I sit at my desk, and how helpful moving more will be.

Thanks to Kerrie-Anne Bradley, NetGalley, and Watkins Publishing for this copy.

I enjoyed this book! It was simple and concise, it did not try to impress the reader with fancy words. Though, it took me a second to realize the author was from the UK then the jargon made sense. But, with that said, it felt like I was reading a blog, which is not a bad thing, but it just felt more like a blog than a book. I hope the pictures will be in color, as the black and white was uninspiring. I feel that the author gets the point across, and does a good job inspiring one to try her method. I will be looking into getting this book to help my couch potato self move more. I have terrible posture, and I hope this can help me start fixing it.

This had some good ideas for how to incorporate movement and stretching into my workday. I wasn't an interested in the sections on the muscle groups etc - I really just wanted some exercises and tips on how to work them into my day.

I do feel much more likely to have a stretch break after reading and to utilise the small waiting times in my day eg in line for coffee, waiting for the kettle to boil at home or the shower to warm up to get moving.

The diagrams and exercise descriptions were clear and I will keep this handy to refer to at my desk.

My thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Good coffee table book, with instruction on the body and bones to go along with the exercises. Good diagrams to show how to complete them.

Pros: As someone who works a desk job, I was interested to read this book in hopes that it would help me close the rings on my Apple watch while sitting at my desk. I never realized I sit like a croissant, but now that this book has made me aware, I’m being intentional about better ways to sit at my desk.

I appreciated that the book’s message is that movement is good for our bodies and that it promotes that idea without commenting on size and weight. This book is very practical and timely as many of us are working from home and/or are spending more time sitting at home. The author’s Pilates background influences the practices in this book in an accessible way that encourages everyone to find ways to move their bodies throughout the workday.

Cons: This book assumes a certain amount of physical ability from readers. Although the practices in this book are accessible to many readers, it is not accessible to all readers, and I would have loved to see more types of ability represented in this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Watkins Publishing for the opportunity to read this book.