With the millennials and Gen Zers hunched back over a screen most of the time, neck and spine problems have become inevitable. Taking steps such as setting up a better ergonomic workstation and maintaining good posture will have a great effect on your health. However, working up your muscles is also important because stiffness is a chief reason for neck and shoulder pain, and yoga is a wonderful way to relax and rejuvenate your muscle tissues.
What causes neck and shoulder pain?
Often, an injury to the soft neck tissues triggers neck and shoulder pain. The injury can be due to:
- Inflammation
- Whiplash (rapid moving of neck back and forth)
- Physical stress on the region
- Mental stress can also cause muscle stiffness
- Pinching of nerves
- Physical injury
- Frozen shoulder
When can you try yoga for neck and shoulder pain?
Of course, when your pain is severe, you must visit a doctor immediately. The treatment can be medications or physiotherapy. However, when the pain is much bearable but restricting your routine activities, you should try yoga.
Especially when the pain is due to bad posture or too much sitting, all you need is some exercise to release your muscle stiffness. Or, when the pain is due to physical or mental stress, all you need is some muscle relaxation and mental relaxation.
Yoga will be quite effective in such cases.
What yoga poses to do for neck and shoulder pain?
Here are the poses that can relieve neck and shoulder pain.
- Child’s pose
- Cat-Cow pose
- Warrior II pose
- Triangle pose
- Puppy pose
- Sphinx pose
- Seated twist
- Cow face pose
- Leg up the wall pose
- Corpse pose
Yoga is inherently therapeutic, and these poses, in particular, have a lot of emphasis on the neck and shoulder region and the entire spine. Hence the poses can help you release tension in the neck and shoulder area, thereby relieving pain.
Beginners can also do
Not every one of us knows how to do yoga. You might really be new to the therapeutic exercise and may think if you can do the mentioned poses. Of course, you can.
The poses mentioned above are generally easy for most people. Hence, even beginners can do them. However, you can opt for the poses that are most doable.
Also, you can choose modifications and try the other poses you still wish to do. For example, if you cannot reach back and clasp your hands in the cow face pose, you can use a strap.
For amateurs, a strap is one of the useful yoga accessories that make impossible poses possible! Besides, using props makes your practice less strenuous, especially when you are beginning to learn a pose. Suppose you are practising puppy pose. Instead of aiming to place your chest on the floor, you can place a blanket or cushion and bring the ground up to enjoy a comfortable, not-so-deep stretch. After all, you are trying for pain relief here and not aiming to have a rigorous and intense yoga session!
Some do’s to remember
Remember to gently get in and out of the poses, avoiding any jerky movements. When staying in a pose, breathe deeply and enjoy the stretch. And in case of any pain, slowly come out of the pose. Be mindful of how your body responds to each of these poses.
Whichever poses you are comfortable with, you can practice them one after another as a sequence. Stay in each of the poses for a couple of breaths or longer. Especially the leg up the wall pose is a restorative yoga pose, and you can stay for 5 minutes or even up to 20 minutes if you feel so. And finally, end in Shavasana(corpse pose).
Would you like to watch the poses in a video? Watch the video below.
DID YOU KNOW? Tension and tightness in your neck and shoulder is a symptom of stress and anxiety.
Tweet
Since yoga is therapeutic for stress and anxiety, practising these poses will help relieve your neck and shoulder pain. So, go ahead and start practising and behold the wonders yoga can do for you!
Images: canva.com
