Neck and Shoulder Stretch - 13 Minutes

Kathy provides stretches to help ease tension and tightness in the neck and shoulder area. This video is a short practice and can be helpful for anyone needing some relief and opening in the shoulder and neck region. This class is appropriate for any level of practitioner and options and modifications will be suggested.

Transcript

Hello, My name is Cappy. Thank you for joining me today. This is just going to be a short little class to stretch out our neck and our shoulders. This is a perfect class to Practice when you've maybe been sitting at your computer a long time or on your phone a lot and your neck and your shoulders are just feeling a little tight and they need some opening up. So let's just begin by. Finding a comfortable spot on our mat. I'm sitting up on a bolster. I like when I'm just going to be doing a seated position and just doing some movement in a seated shape. I always like to have my hips up a little bit above my knees. That helps my low back. Not feel so much tension. And you could sit on a pillow. You could sit on a book. You can also just sit on the floor. Whatever feels good to you. Which reminds me, I always like to tell people. Please, Everything that I'm offering, If this is a suggestion, And if at any time something I'm offering for you to do does not feel good in your body, Please don't do it. Please modify it. Do whatever you need to do to make your body feel amazing. So let's just begin, As I said, By finding a comfortable spot on our mat. Going to sit up nice and tall so as we inhale we're just going to elongate our spine we're going to make sure that the back of our neck and head are all in alignment. We're going to exhale and just kind of allow ourselves to land under our mat. Let's take one more breath together. So inhaling through our nose. Opening our mouths and exhaling. If we just land into this space for this free practice. We're going to be moving with our breath. So as we inhale again, I want you to just make sure you're sitting up nice and tall. And as you exhale, I want you to allow your chin to just fall down towards your chest. We're going to pause here for one breath. And then on your next inhale, I want you to lift your head up and slowly start gazing up towards the sky. I want to make sure that you are not clapping your neck here so you're keeping the back of your neck long. As you look up towards the sky, Exhaling and then we'll stay here for one breath. Then I'm going to invite you into a flow between those two shapes. So inhaling as we shift our gait back down, Bringing our chin to our chest. Exhaling as we land. And then inhaling as we turn our gait back up towards the ceiling or the sky. Letting her head fall back, Exhaling here. We'll do that one more time. So inhaling as we move back forward, Bringing our chin to our chest. Exhaling. And then inhaling as we shift our gaze back up towards the ceiling and tilt our head back. Exhaling here. And then inhaling our head back to our neutral position, We'll exhale here. Next, We're going to move our head from the side to side. So we're going to, Again, Inhale, Making sure we're sitting up nice and tall. Back of the neck is long. And then exhale as we allow our left ear to float down towards our left shoulder. We're going to pause here for a breath, An option. You can leave your hand on your lap. Or you can bring it down beside your leg, Which will intensify the stretch on the right side of your neck a little bit. So that's your right hand that you're bringing down beside your leg. Left ear is kilted towards your left shoulder. We're going to inhale bringing our hand back to our leg if we had it off. As we move up through center and we shift our right ear towards our right shoulder. Exhaling here and deciding if we want to Keep our hand on top of our knee or bring it beside our leg. Pausing here for a breath. Or two depending on how to be breeze. And then we'll flow between those two shapes. So inhaling, Hand confact the lap if you had it off. Exhaling as you tilt the ear towards the opposite shoulder. Pausing again for a breath. And then on your next inhale, Shifting through center exhaling as we allow the right ear to. Float down towards the right shoulder. Your next inhale, Moving up through center. We'll do that one more time. East side, Exhaling as the left ear floats down towards the left shoulder. Hand remains on the lap or goes beside the leg. Pausing for a breath cycle. Inhaling up through center, Exhaling as we tilt our right ear towards the right shoulder. Left hand on leg or beside the leg. And then inhaling back up into the center, Both hands on top of our legs. Now we're going to do some neck rolls. So essentially, We're going to put those two moves together by, Again, Inhaling, Sitting up nice and tall. Back of the neck is long. Exhaling as we lower chin to come back down towards our chest Then rolling your head to the left. Allow you to come back. Rolling it to the right and back to the chest. Moving through these circles at your own pace. Perhaps tossing in any areas that might feel like they need a little extra attention or time. You may hear some. Your neck cracking or adjusting normal as we twist Just reminding you, If at any time anything does not feel good, Please don't do it. Let me through one more next circle on this side and then we're going to reverse direction. So when your chin comes back to your chest. Reversing your direction, Rolling to the opposite side. Back to the other side, Back down to your chin. Again, Just a reminder that if there's a spot that feels like it needs a little extra time or attention, You can hold in that position. Moving at your own page here. Making your circle as big or as small as. Feels good to your body. Remember to continue to greed. We don't ever want to hold our breath. Holding your breath signals to our nervous system that we're in distress. But very important that we never are holding our breath. Then completing the cycle that you're in. Next time your chin comes down to your chest inhaling and returning to your neutral Center, Heated division. Excellent. Now we're going to do some shoulder rolls. So I'm going to invite you to place your hand on top of your shoulders. And we're going to go backwards first. So your elbows are going to come out towards the front of your body. Circle around. Point towards the back of your body. And then come back forward Moving at your own pain and also making these circles. Maybe your circles can't be this as big. Maybe they need to be a little bit smaller if you have a shoulder injury. Being mindful if this feels good or not. And as we did with our neck as well, I mean, Perhaps maybe you need to pause like this feels really good for me right here to just kind of pause and I can feel that opening the front of my shoulders. You know, We did. We sit like this so much that sometimes we do come a little bit rounded in the shoulders. But again, That's just my body and maybe your body doesn't feel that. So that's where I always like to remind everybody, Listen to your own body and do what your own body needs. OK, Completing that cycle, We're going to reverse direction. So. This now we're going to bring our hand or elbows back. And round them and then bring them forward. Moving at our own pace here Circles are what feels good to our body. And completing that cycle that you're in. I invite you to just let your hands come back down to your lap for a minute. Let's just take a cleansing breath, A reset breath. So a nice big inhale through the nose. Opening the mouth. Ah, Exhaling. Now I'm going to invite you to bring your right arm across your chest. You're gonna take your left arm and bend it around your right arm and either capture it on your forearm. Some people like to capture it up above. On your bicep area i don't recommend you do it on your elbow you don't really want to be pulling on that elbow joint and what we're going to do is we're going to use that left arm to pull that right arm closer to our body And you should feel this stretch right along the backside of your shoulder. I'm just going to stay here for a few breath cycles, Opening up the back of that right shoulder. And then I'm going to invite you to switch. So just letting both your hands come down. Your left arm is going to come across your body. Your right arm is going to bend at the elbow and you're going to capture your arm either on the forearm or like I said, Some people like to do it on the bicep. And then you're going to use that right arm to pull that left arm closer to your body. And just pause here for a few breath cycles. You should be feeling some sensation on the back of this. Left shoulder. You might fill it into your upper back a little bit. And then releasing out of that, Shaking your hands off. I'm going to invite you to clasp your hands behind your back. I'm going to turn to the side so you can see what I'm doing here. We're going to clasp our hands and you're going to straighten your arms. And then sitting up nice and tall when you do this, Maybe lifting your arms up a little bit. And that's going to actually open up some of the chest and the front of the shoulders. Reading here ollie lichting is high feels good to you and then releasing out of that shaking that out Returning to center. Lighting her hands in front of her heart. I thank you for joining me for this short little neck and shoulder stretch. I hope that this has helped open up your neck and shoulders and perhaps release any tension that you may have been feeling in those areas. As always, I'm very grateful that you have allowed me to join you in this class today. And I wish you the most glorious day, Whatever that looks like for you. Blessing.