Phase 1 · Awareness and Mobility

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

Gentle Yoga for Neck and Shoulder Tension

Thirty-five minutes that work on the neck without pulling on it

The first thing to know about a neck that has been tight for months is that the neck is usually not where the work happens. The trials that found the clearest improvements went at it through the ribcage, the shoulder blades and the way the spine stacks underneath the head. Pulling the ear towards the shoulder feels like something, but it is not what changed the numbers. So this practice moves the upper back and the shoulder girdle first, and lets the neck follow. Nothing here asks you to hold your head in a position you would not choose.

35 min · Level 1

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When it helps

Your neck and the top of your back have been tight for months, it gets worse by the afternoon, and turning your head to check a blind spot has become a whole-body movement. Thirty-five minutes, mostly sitting and kneeling. A folded blanket under the seat makes every seated pose here easier, and a strap or a belt helps in Cow Face Pose.

Physical effect

Cow Face arms and the seated twists reach the shoulder girdle and the mid back, which is where a stiff neck usually borrows its stiffness from. Heart-Melting Pose is the most direct thoracic extension available without any load on the neck itself.

Nervous system

The shoulders are where most people hold a stressful day. Long exhales in supported positions give that holding somewhere to go, and the trials measured improvements in mood and pain-related apprehension alongside the physical outcomes.

Mental effect

Noticing that your shoulders have been up near your ears for an hour is a skill. It is also the cheapest intervention you own, and it only works if you practise noticing.

Sit and notice

Four seated poses. This is where the shoulder girdle gets its first real ask, and where you find out what today is like.

Sukhasana

3 min

Easy Pose

Sit cross legged on a folded blanket so the hips are above the knees. Let the arms hang and take twenty slow breaths.

Easy Pose on a lift puts the pelvis where the spine can stack over it. A head sits badly when the pelvis sits badly, and this is the cheapest place to fix that.

Learn more about Sukhasana

Parsva Sukhasana

1 min 30 sec per side

Seated Side Bend

One hand on the floor, the other arm over the ear, and lean without collapsing the bottom ribs.

A seated side bend lengthens the muscles running from the ribs up into the neck. They shorten from sitting long before the neck complains.

Learn more about Parsva Sukhasana

Parivrtta Sukhasana

1 min 30 sec per side

Revolved Easy Pose

Turn from the middle of the back, not from the head. Let the head arrive last and go no further than the chest does.

Rotation is where a stiff upper back shows first. Turning the ribcage and letting the head follow is exactly the order the neck has stopped using.

Learn more about Parivrtta Sukhasana

Bharadvajasana 1

1 min 30 sec per side

Bharadvaja's Twist

Legs to one side, one hand on the opposite knee, and turn gently towards the top knee.

Bharadvaja's Twist adds the shoulder to the rotation. In the Iyengar protocols this pose appears in almost every neck sequence, and this is why.

Learn more about Bharadvajasana 1

Gomukhasana

1 min 30 sec per side

Cow Face Pose

Arms only, legs however you are comfortable. Use a strap between the hands if they do not meet, and they often do not.

Cow Face arms is the most direct shoulder work in this program. One shoulder rotates out and up, the other in and down, which is the pair of movements a desk takes away.

Learn more about Gomukhasana

Move the upper back

On all fours and then chest to the floor. The mid back is the part of the chain that stopped contributing, and everything here is aimed at it.

Marjaryasana

1 min 30 sec

Cat Pose

Round the back towards the ceiling and let the head hang heavy. Move at the speed of your breath.

Cat is spinal flexion under your own control, from the tailbone all the way to the base of the skull. The last few centimetres are the ones that matter here.

Learn more about Marjaryasana

Bitilasana

1 min 30 sec

Cow Pose

Let the chest come forward and up, and keep the back of the neck long instead of throwing the head back.

Cow is the extension half. Doing it without cranking the head back is the whole lesson: the movement belongs to the ribcage, not the neck.

Learn more about Bitilasana

Balasana

2 min

Child's Pose

Knees wide, forehead down, arms stretched forward with the hands active.

Child's Pose with long arms lets the shoulders release while the head is supported. For once the neck does not have to hold anything at all.

Learn more about Balasana

Anahatasana

2 min

Heart-Melting Pose

Hips stay above the knees, chest and chin or forehead melt towards the floor. Stop where the shoulders feel a stretch and not a pinch.

Heart-Melting Pose is the strongest thoracic extension in this practice and the reason it sits here rather than at the start. It opens the front of the shoulders and the upper back at once.

Learn more about Anahatasana

Down and out

Nothing from here on asks the shoulders to work.

Ardha Bhujangasana

1 min 30 sec

Baby Cobra

On your front, forearms down, elbows under the shoulders, shoulders drawing away from the ears.

Baby Cobra is extension with the forearms carrying the load. Keeping the shoulders down instead of shrugged is the active part.

Learn more about Ardha Bhujangasana

Setu Bandha Sarvangasana

5 lifts, 5 breaths each

Bridge Pose

On your back, feet hip width, lift the hips and roll the shoulders under. Come down slowly.

Bridge opens the front of the shoulders from the other direction and is the only strengthening pose in this first phase. Small on purpose.

Learn more about Setu Bandha Sarvangasana

Apanasana

1 min 30 sec

Knees to Chest Pose

Knees in, arms around the shins, and let the shoulders be heavy.

Knees to Chest brings the spine back to neutral so the practice does not end with the body held open.

Learn more about Apanasana

Savasana

6 min

Corpse Pose

Palms up, a thin cushion or a folded towel under the head, and let the jaw be loose.

Six minutes with the head supported and the jaw released does something for a tight neck that no single stretch does. The jaw is part of this problem more often than people expect.

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

Twice a week in the first three weeks of the program, with the ten minute practice on two other days. Judge it by how the end of a working day feels rather than by how the last pose felt. Mild soreness in the shoulders and upper back is common and settles. Numbness, tingling or weakness in an arm or hand is a different thing and belongs with a doctor before you practise again.

The teacher behind this sequence

Manish Rana

Founder & Author

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