Hey , it's Erica with the yoga TX here in Austin , Texas .
Today , we're gonna focus on neck and shoulders .
So if you like this video , add us to your playlist so you can come back and keep on working on your yoga practice .
So , so many of us carry stress in our neck and shoulders .
A lot of us are hunched over computers all day or we're doing long commutes in the car and that causes us to slump our shoulders forward , which causes tightness in the muscles and in the neck .
So we're going to go through some movements to try and work out those kinks .
So we're going to begin by tucking the chin into the chest on an exhalation .
I'm gonna roll your right ear towards your right shoulder and your left ear towards your left shoulder .
Just taking it nice and slow , noticing how your neck is feeling .
And if this feels ok , you can start to make a full rotation with your head just being very mindful as you bring your head backwards , slower is always better with this movement .
And then if that feels OK , you can take your head in the opposite direction if there's any particular spots of tightness , you can just stop right there , breathe into it and we'll bring our chin back towards center and on an inhalation , lifting your chin out of your chest .
And we're gonna take the right hand , bring it over the top of your head , place it to your left ear , on the inhalation length in your spine and on the exhale , bring your right ear towards your right shoulder .
So you're gonna relax that left shoulder down , use the weight of your hand into your head to facilitate the depth of the stretch .
So the more you press into your ear and your head , the deeper the stretch will become now come back to your breath , those deep inhalations through the nose and exhalations out through the nose .
See if you can send your breath to the left side of your neck , then on an inhalation will come back towards center and doing the other side , bringing the left hand to your right ear inhale as you lengthen your spine , exhale , bringing your left ear to your left shoulder , just relax that right shoulder down .
Breathe into the right side of your neck , trying to see how much space you can create between your shoulder and your ear and then we'll inhale as we come back towards center .
This time , we're gonna get the arms involved .
So on an inhalation , lift the arms up above our head , on the exhale , bend the elbow , squeeze the shoulder blades together to open up your chest and then inhale , as you lift the arms back up , then we'll exhale and sweep the arms back down to the side .
We'll do it again .
Inhale and lift the arms , reach up and out of the waist .
Exhale , bend your elbows , squeeze your shoulder blades together to open up your chest .
Inhale , lifting the arms back up , exhale , circle down to the side .
Let's do one more together .
Nice .
Now , we're gonna continue to open up the chest .
We really wanna stretch these pectoral muscles .
That's what's gonna take the tension off of our back .
So we're gonna interlace your fingers behind your back and then squeeze the heels of your palms together .
Take a deep breath in as you really squeeze your shoulder blades together to open up your chest and then you're gonna simply forward , fold by hinging out the waist .
So you just want to feel a nice stretch in the front of your chest and really feel a nice stretch in the top of your shoulder blades .
Come back to your breath here , inhale , coming back towards center .
And you can repeat that one as many times as you like .
Lastly , we're going to add some arm movements that are going to lengthen our side body , which will allow us to take deeper breaths of air , but also get into working the shoulders as well .
So we'll start by placing the right palm down by our side on an inhalation .
We'll lift the left arm up as we crescent over to the right .
Hell as you lower the arm down and he'll lift the right arm up , cross and over to the left and hell as you bring it down .
So you can gaze up at your fingertips if it feels ok on your neck , turning to the left ax .
Hell down , inhale , gaze at the fingertips .
Exhale down .
If it's too much stress on your neck , you can always just look forward as you crescent over , then we'll do the last side one more time and then coming back towards center .
So these are just really simple exercises you can do at home or maybe even in your office and taking a little break .
So come back to our videos here , add us to your playlist so you can access these videos at any time .
Must stay .