Phase 1 · Awareness and Mobility

Part of the 9 Week Yoga Program for Chronic Neck and Upper Back Tension

Ten Minutes for a Tight Neck

The short practice for the middle of a working day

Ten minutes, four of them sitting, and you can do most of it without changing clothes. This is the practice for the days between the long ones, and for the moment in the afternoon when your shoulders have crept up towards your ears again. It is not a smaller version of the real session. Its job is to interrupt the position you have been in since breakfast, often enough that the body does not settle into it.

10 min · Level 1

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When it helps

The middle of the afternoon, or any day when the longer practice is not going to happen. Ten minutes. A folded blanket under the seat is welcome, nothing else is needed.

Physical effect

Side bending, rotation, then flexion and extension of the upper back. Four directions in ten minutes, which is more than a desk asks for in a week.

Nervous system

Slowing the breath while the shoulders are supported is the fastest way to get them back down from where they have been.

Mental effect

The practice you do on the days you did not feel like it is the one that builds the habit. Short is what makes that possible.

Ten minutes

One pass through what a stiff upper back needs, and then two minutes of nothing.

Sukhasana

1 min

Easy Pose

Sit up on something, hands on the thighs, and take ten slow breaths with the shoulders dropping on each exhale.

Starting seated tells you where the shoulders actually are today, which is usually higher than you thought.

Learn more about Sukhasana

Parsva Sukhasana

45 sec per side

Seated Side Bend

Arm over the ear, lean sideways, and keep both sitting bones on the floor.

The side of the ribcage connects to the neck. Lengthening it is the least obvious and most useful thing in this ten minutes.

Learn more about Parsva Sukhasana

Parivrtta Sukhasana

45 sec per side

Revolved Easy Pose

Turn from the ribs, let the head come last.

Rotation in the order the body is supposed to use it: middle back first, neck last.

Learn more about Parivrtta Sukhasana

Marjaryasana

45 sec

Cat Pose

On all fours, rounding towards the ceiling, head hanging.

Cat takes the upper back into flexion under control, which is the opposite of the position a screen puts you in.

Learn more about Marjaryasana

Bitilasana

45 sec

Cow Pose

Chest forward and up, back of the neck long.

Cow gives the other direction without asking the head to tip back.

Learn more about Bitilasana

Anahatasana

1 min

Heart-Melting Pose

Hips over the knees, chest towards the floor, arms long.

Heart-Melting Pose is the single most useful minute here. It reaches the front of the shoulders and the mid back at the same time.

Learn more about Anahatasana

Balasana

1 min

Child's Pose

Knees wide, forehead down, arms alongside the body this time.

Child's Pose with the arms back lets the shoulders roll forward and rest, which they never do at a desk.

Learn more about Balasana

Savasana

2 min

Corpse Pose

On your back, a folded towel under the head, jaw loose.

Two minutes is enough for the shoulders to register that they are allowed to stop.

Learn more about Savasana

Phase 1 · Weeks 1 to 3

This practice is part of a program

It belongs to Awareness and Mobility, the first phase of the 9 Week Yoga Program for Chronic Neck and Upper Back Tension. The program says how often to practise it, what comes before and after, and when to move on.

See the whole program →

Integration

Two or three of the days between your core practices. If this is all you manage in a week, your neck still moved in four directions it would not otherwise have moved in. The safety notes in the practice guide apply here as much as to the long practice.

The teacher behind this sequence

Manish Rana

Founder & Author

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