Nurture Your Neck Yoga

Take some time out to soothe, strengthen, and NURTURE your tight, stressed out neck and shoulders. This class will both stretch and engage many of the muscles around the neck and shoulders to create balance and perhaps release the stress. This class uses a physical therapy based approach, called the LYT Method.

Transcript

If your neck is tight and stressed and strained, Then this is the class for you. Hi, I'm T-Bob. I'm a yoga teacher that teaches a method of yoga created by a physical therapist called Lit Yoga. And today's class will specifically be. Nurturing your neck. That's the name of the class, Nurture your neck. So if you're anything like me, You probably spent a lot of your day rounding forward, Maybe hands on the keyboard, Hands on your device. And when you do that. Because the head is forward, Then you have to look forward too, Which scrunches up. This spot in the back of the neck it's called the suboccipital It's occiput meaning this round part of the back of the skull and sub meaning under that. So we're going to start with a massage of that area. So if you want to have a seat, Have a seat and bring your two fingers on either side, Bring them to the back of the skull and find the underside of the round part of the skull. And then right under that, Where the skull ends, Go right under there on either side of the spine and just draw some big circles under there. So this suboccipital region gets really tight and stressed out. With your forward head posture if you're doing that thing i showed a minute ago So we'll start just by trying to loosen it up. Massage is great for temporary relief. Great for increasing blood flow. But if we want permanent change. We need to get the muscles all around the neck and shoulders to be balanced. So the weak ones, We need to strengthen. And the ones that are shortened and tight, Quote unquote, We need to lengthen those or release the tension. So we'll focus on doing that. All right. Oh, That just feels good too. All right, Make your way onto your back. I'll keep referring to this suboccipital area, That back of the neck. Come on your back. Oh, I got my socks on stuff. Hang on, Sock alert. Take off your socks. Make your way onto your back, Bend your knees, And set your feet flat on the map. And then press into the feet to lift the hips into a low glute focused bridge. So instead of a big back bend bridge, Focus more on these muscles on the backs and sides of the hips, Getting them firm and pulling the tailbone to the front of the rim. Good. And then with your brain, Check in with what part of the back of the skull is on the mat. If your chin is way up to the sky, Shortening that suboccipital area, See if you can lengthen the back of the head away from the shoulders without digging the chin into the chest. Just long and relaxed there if you can get it. All right. And then from here, We'll add on a wrist stretch. Pretend you're doing a plank. Reach the palms up to the sky. Pull down on the left fingers with the right hand. That rest takes a big breath. And then switch wrists, Right palm up, Pull down on the fingers, Stretch, Breathe. So the nervous system, When it senses instability, A lot of times that's where your tension comes in. It's the nervous system saying, Hey, This is out of control. We need to pull things back or pull things in, Especially with the head. The head is so heavy. And when it's forward off its center, The back of the neck and the shoulders feel like they have to pull the head back in space. So those muscles there are stressed out because. All right, Lower the hips back down to the mat. And then we'll do some abdominals because if you want the front of the body and the front of the neck to be strong. We got to work on. So we'll start. This first set of abdominals might be kind of intense. Lower your arms by your sides. Take a big inhale. And with your exhale, Bring your chin in towards your chest as far as feels comfortable. And then try to get up off your shoulders. Chin coming in, Lengthening that suboccipital period. Inhale to lower. Do that again. Exhale, Chin towards chest. Curl up off the shoulders, Bringing chin in towards chest. Inhale. Lower. All right. That might have been intense, Especially on the front of the neck, The cervical flexors. So now let's add some support. Clasp the hands behind the head. Close the elbows in and up. Take a big inhale. Exhale, Curl up off the shoulders, Hold, And pick up your left leg. Bring your knee about over the hip. Just about. Set the foot down. Inhale lower. Do that again. Exhale. Chin towards chest. Other leg this time. Right knee. Pick up the right leg. Right knee over hip. And then see if you can lean the hip. Back into the hands without lifting the chin up. Set the foot down. Inhale, Lower. We'll do two more. Exhale, Curl up, Pick up that left leg, Lean the head back, And twist with the shoulders to the left. Woo! Come back to center. Set the foot down. Inhale. Lower. Last one. Here we go. Exhale. Curl up. Lean head back. Pick up the right leg. Small twist to the right. All right, Back to center. That's intense. Inhale, Lower, Big breath out. All right. Hug knees in towards your chest. You might rock side to side if that feels nice, Or you might circle the knees around. As you again check with brain and the body, The neck. Where is the neck? What's the chin doing? Can we lengthen that suboccipital area? Great. And then if you like to rock up to a seat and back, You might do that a few times. If that's not your jam, Then roll over to your side and press yourself up to a seat. All right, We'll come forward to quadruped, Hands and knees, Quad, Four feet, Quadruped, Hands and knees. So bring your knees right under the hips, Wrists right under your shoulders. And do just three rounds of cat-cow. So inhale, Cow. Arch the back. And exhale, Cat round the back like a spirit. Do two more on your cow. Can you pull the shoulder blades together on the back of the body? And on your cat key, Press the ground away and dome up between the shoulder blades. Last one. Inhale, Cow, Pull shoulder blades together and back. And exhale, Spread shoulder blades, Dome the eyes. Back because i guess i'm i would assume that you would be able to understand But these muscles in between the shoulders and the upper back are connected into your neck and can influence the neck. All right, From here, What are we doing? All right, Come back to your neutral quadruped. So you're not cat, You're not cow. You're right in between. Head isn't hanging. You're not looking forward, Unless you have to look at me to see what the heck I'm talking about. Tuck your toes under. Take a big inhale. And on your exhale, Hover the knees and lift the hips up and back. This will feel like a really short down dog. Keep your knees bent in a crouch as you keep lifting the hips up and back. Let's repeat that. Inhale to lower the knees. And exhale. Hike the hips up and back, But keep the knees bent. Great, Let's do one more. Inhale to lower the knees. Ooh, That's hard on the shoulders. That's great. And lift. Last one. This time we'll hold our crouched. . . Down, Doc. Take two huge big breaths. Think of lifting the pelvis, The hips up and back away from the hands. Away from the ground instead of pushing just to the ground. Alright, Lower the knees back down. That was a good one. Come up to your knees and step your left foot forward. For a 90-90 low lunge. And he clasps the hands behind the head. If you find that when you bring your hands back, Your shoulders are really pulling the head forward. Instead, Bring your hands to the forehead and get the skull back in line. So ear over shoulder. Great. And then drop your arms by your sides, Relaxed arms as we do some half neck circle. We'll do them really specifically. So bring your chin towards your chest as far as feels comfortable without letting the head hang. So no droopy head. And then follow the chin. Following the collarbone to the left. Following the line of the collarbone as you turn the head to the left. When you get to the left bring the head straight up to look straight over that left shoulder. And then we'll reverse that tilt the head to follow the collarbone back to center Bring the head to the left, Follow the collarbone, And then look straight up over the shoulder. Woo! Let's do. . . Come back to center. Follow the collarbone back to center. And we'll do one more and add a tiny bit on. So go to the left. Follow the chin following the collarbone. When you get straight left, Keep the head nice and back and neck, Nice and long as you dip that left ear towards your back pocket. And keep the head lifted. Oh, All right. Bring the head back up and turn the head straight back forward. For a modified side plank so it's a side plank with the knee down bring right hand down Sweep or step that front foot back and left arm. Go check in with this bottom shoulder. Make sure that bottom shoulder is sort of back behind you and sliding the shoulder blade into its back. All right, We'll do some head stuff here. So first start by checking out, Is your head forward? Is the chin going, Jutting to the front of the rim. And instead, Get the head back in line, Back in neck line. And then from here, Drop right ear towards right shoulder. And then bring left ear towards left shoulder. Do a few more of these side to side. Right ear towards right shoulder. Left ear towards left shoulder. As you do two more, We get to lengthen the muscles on this side of the neck and then strengthen the muscles on the other side. Or at least get them to contract because that's what they do when they pick them up. All right, Come back to a neutral head. And then bring the top hand down. What are we doing next? Oh, Down dog. All right, So come into your quadruped, Tuck the toes, Hover the knees, And lift the hips up, Up, Up, Up, Up. Same as we had before pressing the ground away. But then we'll add on some shrugs. So shrug your shoulders as if you're trying to cover up your ears. And then relax that shrug. Do a few more. Inhale, Shrug the shoulders. Cover up the ears. Exhale, Relax. Two more shrugs. Relax. From here, We'll come into plank. And lower. All the way down. If you want to lower the knees first that's great if you can hold your plank together and not look forward and not drop your head. When you get to the ground, Do a really small cobra. Shoulders pull back, Shoulder blades pull together on the back of the body. And then notice what the neck is doing. Do you automatically try to look forward or up with that head? Does the neck need to do that? Do you need to stress out your neck more? Probably not. So maybe your gaze is slightly forward and slightly down so that you can keep the back of the neck a little longer than you might normally do it in a cobra. All right. And then tuck your toes and lift the hips. Up to down dog. Alright, Lower the knees. Come up to the knees and we'll do the second side. Step up your right foot forward for the 90-90 low lunge. Bring your hands to the front or behind the head so you can get that. Stacked back over the ears. And then when you feel like you got your head in line, Drop your arms for this half. Head rolls. Controlling the head not letting it hang bring the chin towards the chest so there's a difference between hanging head and controlling the head and then to the right follow the chin follows the right collarbone look straight up over that right shoulder, And then follow the collarbone back to center. Do one more like that to the right, Follow the collarbone, And then look straight up over the right shoulder, Follow the collarbone, Back down, Center. All right, The last one we'll add on. So follow the collarbone to the right, Look straight up over your right shoulder, And then dip the right ear into the back pocket as you keep the head lifted, Not sagging, Keeping lifted up. All right, Bring the head back up and turn back forward. For modified side plank, Left hand comes down. Swipe or step that left foot back to bring right arm up. Check in with bottom shoulder. Get it back. Get that sliding down the back. And then ear to ear, Left ear towards left shoulder. And then right here towards right shoulder, Working the muscles. Do two more side to side. To strengthening and stretching. You can convince the nervous system, Hey, We're okay up here. When you convince the nervous system you have control of an area, It often will release the tension. All right, Come back to center. And then bring the top hand down. For downed on, So come into your quadruped. Tuck the toes and lift the hips up, Up, Up, Up. This time instead of the shrugs, We're going to add on a little squat. So walk the hands. Back to the feet keep bending the knees you could also grab a block if you want to bring a block along with you Bending knees, Sitting butt back in space. So knees are almost over the ankles. Butt is way back in space. And then let the torso, Your whole belly and rib cage, Just fall forward onto your thighs. Laying a blanket over the back of the. . . Over the back of the couch, Drape your torso. On your thighs and let the head go you might shake your head yes or no to really let the heavy skull traction the neck. And then take a few huge breaths into your upper back. Last breath. Block the hands and or block back forward if you use the block. On this time coming to plank. And lower. Maybe you want to lower knees first or not if you're feeling really strong today. As you lower, Don't let the head get out of control. Keep the head in line with the spine. And then on this second side, We're going to add something else on. So bring your forehead to the mat. Let the whole neck relax. As you bring arms out to the side in a cactus shape or goalpost shape. Arms resting on the ground for a second. Head relaxed, Neck relaxed. Alright, And then. . . Lift the goal posts off the map draw shoulder blades together and then relax together and relax with little pulses Up up up. With the goal posts. Well this is initiated between the shoulder blades. And not in the neck, Not in the jaw. All right, And then set the hands back under your shoulders. Lift up to quadruped. And then finish up, Just do some regular cat cows. Inhale, Cow. Exhale cat maybe let the head hang in your cat this time Or if you feel like doing some side to side movement in your cat cow, Go for it. Or even circular sort of movements. Even shifting the hips back if that feels good. Oh. Great. All right. And that's it for this neck nurturing class. Hopefully your neck feels less stressed. The back of the neck gets longer. Maybe you don't feel more upright or aligned. And that's all good. All right. See you next time.