Yoga For Neck And Shoulder Pain

Yoga For Neck And Shoulder Relief Class :

Yoga For Neck and Shoulder Pain – Safe and Easy Stretches for Beginners

Deep breathing 5 min

Shoulder stretch with towel / counter pose 10 min with 1 min rest @: Lateral stretch 5 min@: Full shoulder, arm rotation 5 min

Shoulder socket rotation with bending elbows 3 min with 30 sec rest

Half plank pose variation 3 min with 30 sec rest

Hand clasp behind back with janu sirsasana 5 min with 1min rest

Neck half circle rotation 3 min with 30 sec rest

Ear to shoulder/neck rolls 3 min with 30 sec rest

Neck forward stretch 2 min with 30 sec rest

Massage with a tennis ball 10 min

Savasana, relaxation pose 5 min

These poses are so simple to do and can be done wherever you are at home or at the gym. To learn about our yoga classes or to join a class, visit our Timetable page.

Things To Keep In Mind While Practicing Yoga Poses For Neck And Shoulder Pain

Stabilising the neck is an essential aspect of the poses targeting the neck and back because a strong neck helps exclude the problems associated with shoulders, arms, and forearms.

One must know their threshold of bearing pain and not exceed it as it could lead to unfavourable conditions such as ligament tears or other injuries.

In situations where the pain is intolerable, it’s better not to try these poses.

Yoga Poses For Neck And Shoulders Pain

These 7 beginner-friendly yoga poses are specially chosen because they allow you to target and release muscle tension in your back, shoulders, and neck. Ease into each stretch slowly and focus on your breathing, body position, and muscle activation to get the most out of each stretch!

Exercise 1: Thread The Needle

This restorative posture stretches the muscles of the rotator cuff, traps, and rhomboids the shoulder muscles, neck muscles that can cause discomfort in your shoulders if there is excessive tightness.

Technique

Start in Childs pose with your knees wider than your shoulders, big toes touching, and hips shifted back toward your heels. Keep arms and torso long.

Slide your left arm under your right arm between the right hand and right knee, palm facing up.

Press the back of your arm into the floor, and lightly pull it back to the left to stretch the left shoulder.

Hold the posture, inhaling as you expand your chest, and exhaling as you deepen the shoulder stretch.

Repeat on the other side.

Modifications: If this stretch is difficult, try it standing, instead. Bring one arm straight across the body, wrap the opposite forearm around the triceps, and lightly pull your arm to the side to stretch the upper back and shoulder.

Exercise 2: Wide-Legged Forward Fold 2 strap behind back

Technique:

Stand with your feet 4 to 6ft apart, and slightly turn your toes inward. Engage the arches of your feet, and press into outer edges of feet.

Exercise 3: Standing Side Bend

Cow:

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What Else Can I Do For My Neck Pain

While you can yoga your way to lower cortisol levels, it wont do diddly-squat for your workstation setup. So, if your neck is hurting and you have a sneaking suspicion your home office could be to blame, its time to give your workspace a makeover.

Nobles recommendation: Position your monitor at eye level and arms-length away from you. If you have a detachable keyboard, position it so that when youre using it, your elbow is in line with your wrist.

Its also a good idea to choose a chair that lets your feet reach the floor, she says. Your whole body, after all, is connected!

Rest With Knee To Chest

Lie on the back.

Sit on a comfortable chair properly and maintain the correct posture.

Bend the arms and raise the elbow such that the hands touch your back.

With the help of the right hand, pull the left hand to feel the stretch in the shoulders and arms.

Keep the spine upright.

Maintain this pose for about 30 seconds at least.

Switch to the other side.

How To Prevent Neck And Shoulder Pain

A regular and consistent yoga practice is important for not only helping you relieve your neck and shoulder pain but also preventing it, since regular practice helps to develop muscle and strength to take pressure off your joints and maintain posture. However, there are other preventative measures off the yoga mat that you should be mindful of to help you stay pain-free.

First off, its important to improve your posture. And how do you do that? First is to be aware of it both sitting and standing. Your posture is one of the biggest deciding factors in where your body holds stress.

Being hunched puts an unnecessary strain on your lower back and neck, so focus on keeping your back straight and chest out to prevent rounding the spine. This works to limit the amount of stress on your spine, thus reducing and preventing your pain from starting.

Secondly, if you find yourself sitting for long periods of time, simply getting up and going for a short walk can significantly help with your posture and pain as well. Even a short stretching routine at your desk can greatly help with your tense muscles. However, after long periods of sitting you should not do forward fold movements, instead do backbends to counteract the sitting posture.

When looking at your phone, you should bring it closer to your natural line of sight. This helps to keep your neck in a neutral position, so that you wont strain it by looking down.

Collarbone/chest Opening: Reaching To Find Release

Interlace your fingers with your arms behind your back. Press your palms together, if you can.

Roll your shoulders up and back, and feel a stretch through your collarbones and the fronts of your shoulders.

To help target that stretch, let your clasped hands drop directly down. If you cant quite get there, and your arms are reaching back behind you, gently bend your elbows. That should help you drop your hands straight downward, or at least get closer to that.

If you have wider shoulders and shorter arms, it may be difficult to clasp your hands. Or you may find it hard to roll your shoulders back and/or straighten your arms with your hands clasped. In this case, you can hold a strap or belt between your hands so that they can be wider apart.

Hold this stretch for 5 to 10 more breaths, just breathing and noticing.

Another option to add here, if it feels right for you today, is adding a lateral element to this stretch. Take your clasp outside of your right hip. Youll need to bend your elbows a good deal. Then drop your left ear toward your right shoulder.

Breathe into this stretch for 5 to 10 breaths, then take steps 5 and 6 in the other direction. Remember that not every pose or pose variation is right for everyone. Maybe the original stretch, without the lateral variation, is plenty for you today. Staying conscious of that is something else thats part of your yoga neck and shoulder stretches!

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Ear To Shoulder/neck Rolls

Probably the most popular and well known stretch for relieving neck tension, the yoga equivalent takes it a little bit further. First, make sure youre in a comfortable seat with your hands resting on your knees. Sit upright and relax your shoulders, and push your chin against your chest to straighten your spine. Next, gently roll your head to the right or left until your ear touches your shoulder – use one hand to push your head, and the other to slowly push your opposite shoulder in the other direction.

Slowly roll your head back to the center and then repeat on the opposite side. Youll immediately start to feel the muscles in your neck being stretched, which will feel quite nice if youre stiff.

This is an extremely delicate stretch that doesn’t require a serious amount of pressure – the opposing stressors and the sensitivity of neck and shoulders muscles will make you feel it right away.

Yoga Relieves Shoulder Pain Caused By Chronic Conditions

Yoga for Neck and Shoulder Relief – Yoga With Adriene

You may experience shoulder pain due to long-term effects of chronic pain from conditions such as diabetes, cancer, and heart diseases. Regular yoga practice increases mobility which can greatly complement the standard medical care that you may be getting. The benefits of yoga can further complement physical therapy and exercise.

When To See A Doctor

If youve taken steps to relieve neck pain and its not getting better, or if your pain becomes worse or severe, see your doctor. Neck pain thats accompanied by numbness, loss of strength in the arms or hands, or a throbbing pain in the shoulder or under the arm are also signs you should see your doctor.

Your doctor can help to determine if there are any underlying reasons for the pain. They may recommend a certain treatment program that you should follow. They may also refer you to a physical therapist.

Seated Shoulder Pull Stretch

This stretch works not only on the top part of your shoulder, but areas of your neck as well, where a large muscle called the trapezius runs. You can easily deepen the stretch in your neck by gently tilting it to the side.

Stretches: Deltoids, pectorals, upper trapezius

How to do Seated Shoulder Pull Stretch:

Start in a comfortable seated position with a tall spine.

Bring your arms behind your back and grab your right wrist or hand with your left.

Drop your shoulders and lift through your chest.

Gently begin to pull your right arm towards your left until you feel a stretch.

To get a stretch in your neck as well, tilt your head to the left until you feel a stretch.

Hold for 15 seconds and repeat on the other side.

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How Yoga Can Relieve Stored Tension

Yoga for neck and shoulders can help relieve neck tension, shoulder pain, and upper back pain, while also correcting poor posture.

Practicing Yoga or hopping into a quick yoga pose right at your computer chair can help tremendously withcombating stress, reducing inflammation and compression in our spinal disks, relieving neck and shoulder discomfort, and increasing range of motion.

Good posture is something we can practice daily without having to try and fix what we may feel is a bad back or neck. When tending to tight shoulders, or neck pain, come back to the mantra less is more. By this, we mean that making minor adjustments to how we relate to our neck, back and spine can create drastic improvements.

Start by asking yourself, How do I store tension in my neck and shoulders?

Practice breathing and directing your awareness to those areas that need relief in your neck, shoulders, and other parts of the body too.

Because although we may search for yoga for the neck and shoulders, our body is really one moving object and its all connected. By practicing this on and off our mat, we can naturally begin to develop better posture and a better relationship with our body as a whole.

Yoga can feel like a philosophy class with poses sprinkled in. This is because yoga is an energetic practice as much as it is a physical one.

What Causes Neck And Shoulder Pain

Plenty of things can cause neck and shoulder pain, from medical conditions to lifestyle factors . But more often than not, the ouch is a result of the movement in your daily routine. For example, hunching over a computer or cell phone can cause poor posture and put stress on your neck, shoulders and upper back. Not working all of your muscle groups while strength training can also cause imbalances and pain.

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Private Yoga Classes For Shoulder Pain

We can help you get started with yoga in a safe and easy way and help you relieve shoulder pain with our online private yoga class or an in-person yoga private class in select cities.

Our private yoga classes will help you become familiar with yoga poses designed to help your particular discomfort, in this case, shoulder pain.

You see, we only work with top-tier yoga instructors that we vet extensively to ensure that you have a perfect yoga experience. After all, our mission is to bring approachable yoga to beginners to yoga everywhere.

We can help you integrate yoga into your life

The yoga poses in this article can help you relax and release tension throughout your shoulder area. Plus, practicing yoga has many other mental and physical benefits.

If your colleagues are up for it, consider trying our Yoga At Work classes.

Our classes help keep you feeling calm and provide a great stretch during your workday. Sharing classes with colleagues can give you that same feeling of personalized classes while keeping the prices similar to those you would pay at a yoga studio.

Are you ready to try yoga for shoulder pain? Book your class today or send us a message so that we can assist you in getting started.

Thunderbolt Pose Asymmetrical Variation

Vajrasana

Stand on your knees with your left arm overhead and the back of your right hand resting on your sacrum. On an exhale, bend forward, sweeping your left arm behind your back and turning your head right rest the left side of your face or head on your mat, as available. Your buttocks should be higher than your hips, and most of your body weight should be resting on your legs. On an inhale, sweep your right arm wide and turn your head to the center as you return to standing on your knees. Repeat on other side. Do 4 rounds total, remembering to alternate sides.

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In our high-stress, hurried worldfilled with financial pressures, information overload, terror alerts and sleeplessnessmany people feel the weight of the world on their shoulders. Add to this emotional tension the physical stress of sedentary lifestyles with long hours spent hunched over computers and, all too often, the result is a serious pain in the neck.

Whats more, the problem doesnt stop there. Chronic neck pain is linked to a host of related disorders, including headache, jaw soreness, and pain radiating into the shoulders, upper back and arms. In addition, the slumped posture that can lead to neck pain may also compress internal organs, contributing to digestive, circulatory and respiratory problems.

As a mind-body practice, yoga offers powerful tools to help relieve and prevent neck pain. Physically, yoga postures help stretch tight muscles, strengthen weak ones and teach proper alignment, which relieves strain on the neck and shoulders. Psychologically, yoga is a potent stress reliever that also encourages awarenessa process that sheds light on habitual stress patterns and emotional reactions and can help us move with diligence and compassion in the direction of health. Energetically, yoga breathing enhances vital energy and recharges the entire system.

Gentle Yoga Poses To Relieve Tight Neck And Shoulders

Yoga for neck, shoulders and upper back 15min

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The shoulders and neck are very common areas to hold tension and tightness. A lot of us unknowingly hunch up our shoulders and having jobs that require long periods of sitting can also cause poor posture.

Whether you are looking to relieve neck and shoulder pain from sitting at your desk all day, or just looking for some simple beginner poses to improve flexibility in your neck and shoulders, the following poses are a great place to start.

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Why We Get Neck And Shoulder Pain

The neck and shoulders are a main area to accumulate stress. In particular the neck muscles react very sensitively to stress. Needless to say that this is even further aggravated by spending all day hunched over the desk, mobile phone, or in the car. Many people have the tendency to react to stressful situations by tightening the muscles in the neck and shoulders, which can cause pain in these areas in the long term.

In most cases, tight shoulders are the result of tight trapezius muscles. The trapezius runs from the back of the head to the lower thoracic spine and also attaches to the shoulder blade. It supports the weight of the arm and effects retraction, rotation and depression of the scapula.

Feeling tight in the upper back is usually caused by tension in the space between the shoulder blades, i.e. the rhomboids. This is often due to slouching or dropping the shoulders forward while working at the desk or staring at our mobile phones.

This also causes tightness in the chest and front body, namely the pectoralis minor muscle. Maintaining flexibility in this muscle can prevent the shoulders from being constantly pulled forward .

You may wonder why tight chest muscles, pulling the shoulders down, cause pain in the neck and shoulders, i.e. the back area. This is because constantly pulling the shoulders overstretches the rhomboids since they mainly try to pull the shoulder blades back into proper alignment.

Yoga Poses To Open The Front Body

Opening up the front body can help to improve posture and therefore ease neck and shoulder pain. Thats why a yoga practice for the upper back should always also include front-opening exercises.

To prepare the body and the mind for the practice ahead, start in an upright seat and press the hips back a little to create a slight concave curve in the lower back and straighten the spine. Place the hands on the thighs with the palms facing upwards. Press the chest right up and pull the elbows in towards the body. Lift the chin slightly and create space and a feeling of lightness in the chest to let the breath flow slowly and steadily.

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