10 min Upper Body Yoga Stretch - Beginner Yoga for Neck, Shoulders & Back

Hey , everyone .

Welcome to my channel .

My name is Cassandra and today I'm going to take you through a quick 10 minute sequence to release any kind of tension in the upper body .

So a great stretch for your neck , shoulders , chest and upper back .

You don't need any props .

We're gonna start right away by sitting up .

If possible , I'll ask that you sit up on your heels , so just letting your hips sit back onto the heels and then you're going to interlace your fingers and take a big breath in and as you exhale , you're gonna hollow out the belly , reach your knuckles out in front of you as you round and contract to really push the knuckles forward round as much as you can and then inhale , flip the palms , lift your hands up towards the sky and take a little back bend as you reach your heart up towards the sky .

So we're gonna move in and out of those two poses big breath in here and on the exhale , reach the knuckles forward round and contract , drop your chin to your chest and he'll flip the palms , lift them up , lift the chest exhale round and push the knuckles forward .

Last one here , inhale , flip and lift up and really spine is neutral .

Let's take a little side bend .

I'll turn to face you right arm up , inhale and exhale .

Side body stretch .

Lift all the way back up to center and switch sides .

So right fingertips down , left arm goes all the way up and over and try to crawl the left fingertips as far as you can come all the way back to center .

Let's find tabletop poses on hands and knees .

So make sure your hips stay directly over the top of your knees .

We're coming into puppy pose , walk your hands out in front of you , keep the arms super straight as you melt the chest and your forehead down towards the floor .

So with the arms really straight , your elbows will probably be lifted off of the floor , which is fine .

Just draw your shoulders down and away from your ears and think of almost pushing your shoulders down towards the floor and really push into your hands .

If you can hear naval hugs in stretch the arms really long , breathe into your upper back .

And let's come forward into Sphinx pose .

So you can bend your elbows and come forward to your belly , pointing your toes back behind you lift up through your heart .

So you're trying to push down a little bit into your pubic bone so that the tailbone reaches towards your heels and pull your heart forward , dragging your shoulders back behind you .

Lifting up , nice and tall .

Exhale lower all the way down , widen your hands .

So they're off the mat and more towards the top of the mat and come up onto your fingertips as you inhale , push the fingertips into the floor and lift the upper body and exhale wave all the way back down with control .

Two more like this .

Inhale , lifting on it and exhale , releasing back down .

Last one in hell .

Lift and exhale release , slide your palms down .

Let's find our first downward facing dog .

So push back , tuck your toes under and lift your hips up and back .

And because this is for the upper body , mainly , you can bend your knees a lot and try to straighten your arms as you push your chest towards your thighs .

Staying really long in this down dog .

Let's extend our right leg up to the sky .

Big breath in here and then step it through for a low lunge right foot in between the palms , back , knee to the floor .

Inhale arms rise , bring your hands together to touch , maybe look up and then exhale cactus shape with your arms as you bend your elbows and you try to squeeze your shoulder blades behind you roll all the way back down downward facing dog , right , footsteps back next to the left left leg rises , inhale low lunge on the other side , left foot forward , right knee down and Hale palms come together to touch as you look up , maybe little back , bend , exhale , bend the elbows , try to open up the chest a little more circle the arms down downward , facing dog , left foot steps back to meet the right .

And from this down dog , you can step your feet forward to the top of the mat , ragged all forward , fold .

So bend your knees as much as you'd like , you can hold onto the elbows and maybe sway a little side to side , letting your head dangle , maybe shake the head .

Yes and no .

Releasing any tension through your shoulders , your jaw , your neck fingertips come back down to the floor , bend your knees even more as you roll all the way up to stand inch by inch and we'll step the feet out wide , turn your heels in toes out .

So you want the feet pointed at about a 45 degree angle or so .

And as you bend into your knees , let your hands rest over your thighs and you can use your hands to kind of push the knees open a little bit wider .

Here , we're gonna drop our right shoulder down , left shoulder back .

It's a nice little twist and switch sides , left shoulder down her right shoulder back , coming back to center straight in your legs and you're gonna turn your toes in .

So you want both feet to be parallel to the shorter edges of your mat , you're gonna clasp and interlace your fingers behind you .

I'm just gonna turn because I want you to see what I'm doing here of locking the elbows .

I want you to bend your elbows and bring your thumbs to press into your tailbone and then squeeze your shoulder blades behind you as if you were trying to get your elbows to touch just from doing this .

You should feel a pretty big pull into the shoulders and into the biceps as you inhale , lift and lengthen and then exhale , tilt forward and keep a little bit of that bend in the elbows as you stretch your knuckles up and over and think of lifting your shoulders away from the floor , relax your jaw , relax your neck and let's bring the fingertips back down to the floor .

Inhale halfway , lift flat back , hands on your hips , push your feet into the mat to come all the way up .

And we'll just step to the top of the mat , taking a little flow .

Inhale arms , rise , exhale , fold down .

You can bend your knees here if you'd like halfway lift flat back , exhale downward facing dog , step the feet back , push your chest towards your thighs .

And from this downward dog , let's bring our knees back down to the mat and set your hips once more onto your heel .

So exactly like where we were at the beginning of class and focusing on the neck a little bit more , you're gonna interlace , same thing like what we've been doing behind you .

But now bring your knuckles as much towards your right hip as you can roll your left shoulder back and start to look over your right shoulder .

So stretching through the left side of your neck , you might need to lean your head back slightly and switching sides .

Look forward , bring your hands over towards your left hip , push your right shoulder down and look over your left shoulder , maybe leaning your head back , coming all the way back forward , bend your elbows out in front of you .

You're gonna swing your right arm under your left binding once or binding twice .

If none of those really work , you can simply hold onto your shoulder blades behind you .

But think of pushing your shoulders down , lifting your elbows up and moving your hands away from your face .

And once you have this , you might just tuck your chin towards your chest and rest your forehead towards your biceps and really push your forms together to stretch into the upper back and inhale .

Lift open up a little bit more , expand the arms , exhale second side , left arm under the right binding once or twice , shoulders down , elbows , up hands , moving away from you and you can tuck your chin towards your chest and release open up the arms nice and wide , puff the heart forward .

And now just bring your fingertips behind you still kneeling and think of lifting up your chest towards the sky , bending the elbows and squeezing them in towards one another and let's release , take a comfortable seat , let your hands rest on your thighs or on your knees .

Close your eyes .

Just feel the effects of this short practice on your jaw , your neck , your shoulders , your chest , your upper back , slow steady breaths .

Palms can come together at the front of your heart .

We close this practice with a cleansing breath in through the nose and out the mouth bowing forward and I must stay .

Thank you so very much and please do subscribe .

I look forward to practicing again with you soon .

Must stay .