Neck & Shoulder Tension Release Yoga Class - Five Parks Yoga

hi this short class is a sequence of postures designed to assist you in opening up or releasing tension from the neck upper back and shoulders so you can either use this practice in conjunction with another practice or you can just use it on your own if you're you're holding a tightness tension or really just want to target this specific area of your body if you have props you can use them um a block to assist you in a comfortable seated position um a strap if you don't have a blocker strap things at home like a towel a belt or books can always be used in place of traditional yoga props so we're going to start in a shoulder opener called Child's Pose and then I'm going to lead you into a oppose to get you deeper into your shoulders if you have blocks or two books grab them now so go ahead and start in child's pose bring your hips to your heels and your arms long we're going to take an active child's pose here so you want your arms reaching long and straight and then your forehead resting heavy on your mat this is too much again you can rest your forehead on a block and if this already feels like tension or tightness in your shoulders you can rest your elbows down on your mat but again just stay active in it so you feel the stretch in your shoulders we're going to take three deep breaths here if your arms are long and extended rest your elbows down on the floor and then you're going to take the palms of your hands connect them together and bring your that your thumbs you're connected thumbs to the back of your head so feel the stretch in your triceps and this is going to increase the stretch in your shoulders too you can stay here or as you begin to feel on the shoulders open you want to take it an even deeper if you have two blocks or two books and place them I don't have a second one here but I can show you place them right below where your elbows just were on your mat and now you're going to take your elbows to your blocks bring the palms of your hands together rest your forehead down so your elbows are going to be at a higher height and you're going to feel even an increased stretch here and take a couple more breaths can you remove the blocks out from underneath you if you have them extend your right arm long on your mat and you're going to slide your left arm underneath your right so you're going to come on to the outer edge of your left shoulder and rest your ear on your mat you should have no tension in your neck you just want your head resting heavy your palm is going to face up you know take your left arm long on your mat and slide your right arm underneath your left come onto your right shoulder in your right ear spend your right arm long so stretch back one more time and then come up to a tabletop position we're going to open the front of the shoulder now so we were just opening the back we're going to open the front and your end will get into your chest as well so you can bring your right arm up look up toward the ceiling this might just feel like a big stretch here opening up through the front and then if you want to take a deeper you can take your right hand reach around for your left hip and then start to roll maybe take a grip of your shirt your pants your hip start to roll your shoulder open if you want a stretch in your neck and you have a healthy neck so a healthy neck no I don't want you to have any issues going on in your neck you can gently release your left ear towards your left shoulder so only if this feels good it feels like a big stretch in my body but if you feel any like like discomfort just back off and keep your head upright extend and release back to tabletop position so switch sides here lift your left arm up again this might feel like a huge stretch just holding right here if you want to increase the stretch you'll take your right hand to your right or sorry your left hand to your right hip take hold of your shirt your pants your hip roll your shoulder open and then same thing on this side very slowly release your right ear toward your shoulder at any point that starts to feel weird or uncomfortable or you get yourself in a little bit of a knot please back off extend your arm long if you're bound and then come back to a tabletop position so I'm just going to have you press up to down dog just for a moment of transition so from this position you can release your heels down and lift your hips up and then right away we're going to walk our hands to the back of our mat bend your legs a lot and then drape your torso over your thighs so your legs might be bent even more that's great we're focusing on the neck and the upper back here okay so I don't want you to feel a lot of tension in your hamstrings now from here if you have a good solid foundation take your hands and interlace them at the back of your neck or at the base of your skull back of your neck not on your neck though base of your skull and then let the weight of your arms just gently draw your head down toward the floor oh that feels really good and like it's doing a lot to increase space between each vertebra you can gently rock your head side to side that is a fabulous fabulous stretch upper back and neck okay now release your hands down towards your mat roll your way up to a stand we're not going to do a lot of standing stuff here but just for a couple poses to open the front front shoulders front body all the way up to a stand they reach your arms up overhead take your hands behind your back interlace your fingers I'm going to press your fists down toward the floor and press the palms of your hands together if you have really tight shoulders you can take a towel strap whatever and hold on to your strap with your palms facing forward okay so we're going to come into a chest expansion bend your legs again come forward if you're holding on to your strap you can take it as wide as needed okay or your hands are clasped they're coming up and over the back of your head so either way however you're holding on I want you to feel stretch in the front your shoulders the Front's of your earth at your chest rather okay no matter what you're holding on to we're going to take a bend to the right knee straighten the left leg and look to the left start to draw your hands to the right and come back towards Center bring your left shoulder to your left knee bend your left knee start to straighten your right leg and then look to the right back to Center release your hands down to your mat and then just lengthen one time flat back come into monkey pose lengthen your spine nice long neck and then come back to a forward fold I'm coming back down on to your knees come into either you can set your hips to your heels or come into a comfortable cross-legged position just take a couple stretches for your neck so bring your left hand down toward the floor bring your right hand on top of your head and then draw your right ear to your right shoulder and stretch your left arm long back to centre and then switch sides bring your left hand the top of your head after your toward left shoulder back to center now just take a couple of gentle half neck rolls so rock your head side to side bring your hands behind you just going to open the chest open the throat so you can just press your chest up maybe lift your hips up if that feels good and release down okay now the focus of this class is not necessarily on the hips so you I'm going to give you the option for full cow face pose you just want to forget about the hips today I want you to just be comfortable in your seat so cross-legged you can sit again your hips on your heels if you want you can sit on a block if you want to take Cal face pose or cow face legs with your cow face pose you'll bring your left knee towards Center you're going to stack your right knee on top sitting bones on the floor this is a very deep hip stretch so again it's optional it's not really the focus of today's class but if you like this pose go for it okay so whatever position your legs are in we're going to take either if you have a strap you can take your strap in your hands I'm going to guide you with this strap and then if you know where you're going and want to take the vine to go for it so if you have a strap you're just going to take it into your right hand going to lift your elbow up and then you're going to take the strap make sure the long part is dangling down behind you and you can reach your left hand for the strap okay maybe this is where you're at today the focus of course is that you're sitting up so if you're rounding forward find a seat where you can see keep your your spine long okay so you can start walking your hands up and down your strap as you hold the pose you're not using the strap you can bind your hands you don't have a strap you can't bind your hands take your left hand on your right elbow press your fingertips down if you're in full cowface or if you have the full bind and you can keep your spine long you can hinge forward if you want they're all just options for you everybody's body is different you might be dealing with something going on on one side or the other so your sides might even be different from each other just be okay with where ever you're at today because what you're doing is taking time to increase your flexibility to release tension and to find new room and movement in your body so you're doing it and that's all that matters okay we're going to release take it on the other side now so if you want to take the cow face legs I'll talk you into it otherwise if you're in a cross-legged position switch the cross of your legs so maybe your right foot was in front maybe your left leg goes in front now otherwise your left leg is going to left knee is going to go on top of your right okay strap and take your strap into your left hand let your long end dangle down and then reach your right hand around for the long end okay eight this might look a lot different than what I'm doing okay so most important is that you're sitting up maybe you take your right hand on your left elbow sit up maybe you clasp your hands behind your back don't take the clasp if it looks like this it defeats the whole purpose of the pose if you're upright you can hold your spine long you're welcome to hinge forward just experiment with the pose don't sacrifice the integrity of your posture to get deeper into the pose we're just going to hold it for a few more moments here release your arms let's take another chest opener so similar to our child's pose at the beginning of our class we're going to take heart-melting pose so getting a little more into the chest bring your knees directly underneath your hips your hands are going to be wider than shoulder distance this part this time bring your body back toward the back of your mat walk your hands forward and per the name of the posture start melting your heart toward the floor so you can rest your head down so in my body the backs of my shoulder is very very tight tops of my shoulders so I really have to utilize my breath to hold this pose for some people this just feels relaxing and glorious and for me it feels intense so what do I do I ramped up my breath try and just relax as much as possible into it one more breath you lock yourself back up okay now we're going to take fish pose if you're kind of getting backs and friends backs and friends so fish pose is going to in the Front's of your shoulders big throat opener as well so you're going to bring your forearms down to your mat walk your legs forward and then start to release your head back down towards your mat maybe your the top of your head can rest onto the floor this feels like too much tension or you just don't like it you have your block maybe two blocks maybe you have a pillow you can use or a bolster you can take supported fish if you prefer this posture so for supported fish you just place your block underneath your upper back you rest your head down on your mat and let your shoulders fall down this is more of a restorative variation of the pose either way just let the Front's of your shoulders in your chest open you can stay if you're in supported fish you can stay in supported fish if you're not come down onto your back and you're all ready for shavasana we'll take a short shavasana just to wrap up our practice and just let your arms rest alongside your body just feel the sensations and your shoulders your chest your heart space your upper back soften your breath soften your face please stay in your shavasana for at least a few more minutes and those that was just a number of postures presented to you to open up your shoulders neck throat chest you can practice those and hold them for longer amount of time to increase on your flexibility and the more often you hold them the longer you hold them the more of a difference you're going to see in your body so thanks for checking out this class I hope you enjoyed it today as you go forward may you have peace in your thoughts your words and your heart from my heart to yours namaste

Channel: Five Parks Yoga w/ Erin Sampson

Views: 1,455,553

Keywords: Yoga, Colorado, Costa Rica, Tamarindo, vinyasa, yoga class, vinyasa flow, free yoga, Erin Sampson, Erin yoga teacher, Tropical Yoga, Yoga Classes, yoga for necks, yoga for your back, yoga for shoulders, deep stretch yoga, yoga for tension, yoga to release, shoulder opening, yoga for anxiety, shoulder yoga, yoga to release back tension, yoga to release anxiety, shoulder opening stretches, yoga for shoulders and upper back

Id: oSqYCZymVNU

Length: 22min 11sec (1331 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 02 2016