Gentle Practice For Neck Tension & Hypermobile Shoulders

A gentle hypermobility-informed yoga practice for neck tension, shoulders, upper back and arms.

In this guided audio practice, we explore support before reach: beginning with breath, ribs, shoulder blades and upper back, then gradually moving into the arms and hands. The focus is not deep stretching or maximum range, but mindful activation, stability, body awareness and trustworthy movement.

This practice may be supportive if your neck and shoulders often feel tight, tense or overworked — especially when stretching gives only temporary relief.

This is not therapy or medical advice. Please adapt everything to your body and stay within a range that feels safe, supported and steady.

With care,
Monika.

Transcript

Namaste! Welcome everyone, I'm Monica. Today I invite you to a gentle hypermobility informed yoga practice for the shoulders, Upper back and arms. The theme is support before reach. So this is not about deep shoulder opening, It is not about stretching as far as we can and it is definitely not about pushing into maximum range. Instead, We will explore how the shoulders and arms can feel more supported when we begin closer to the center of the body, The breath, The ribs, The shoulder blades, The upper back, And the connection through the whole body. This is not therapy and it is not medical advice. I'm sharing mindful movement principles and practices that have been helpful in my own body. Especially with hypermobile patterns around my shoulders and spine. Please, Please, Adapt everything to your own body. If anything feels painful, Unstable, Too intense or not right for you today, Please make the movement smaller, Pause or simply listen. Especially with hypermobile joints, Smaller and slower is often much more useful than bigger and deeper. Today we will work with three simple zones. Zone 1 is close to the center of the body, The ribcage, The shoulder blades. The upper back and also the breath because with the breath we are able to move the upper body. Then zone 2 is the upper arms and the elbows. And zone 3 is the hands, I mean underarms maybe, Hands and the fingers. And very often when we reach, Lift the arms or move the shoulders, We start from the hands, So from zone 3, But today we will explore the opposite. We will begin from zone 1, From the back of the body, From the ribs, From the shoulder blades, And then we will allow the movement to travel outward into the arms and hands, So the arms can move from support. So let's begin. You can practice seated on a chair, Seated on the floor or standing. For this first part, I suggest sitting if that feels comfortable. Let the feet rest on the ground if you are on a chair or if you're sitting on the floor. Allow the pelvis to be supported by a cushion or blanket if needed. Take a moment to arrive. If you like, Close your eyes. Feel the sitting bones. Feel the pelvis. Fish and Beans. Feel the feet if they are touching the ground. Before we do anything with the shoulders, Let's build a little support from below. Gently press the feet into the ground. Not strongly. Just enough to feel my legs are here my legs support me Now gently activate the glutes just a little, Maybe 10 or 20 percent, Maybe a little bit more, Just enough to feel the back of the hips switch on. Then soften again slightly without losing the connection completely. Now allow the lower belly to offer a little support. Not gripping, Not bracing, Just a quiet sense of gathering inward and upward, Lengthening. Take a slow breath in. As you breathe out, Allow the ribs to soften. As you breathe in again, Let the ribs gently expand in all directions. As you breathe out, Relax again, Feel the support underneath you, The pelvis, The legs, The feet, The center of the body. Now bring your awareness to the shoulders, Not to fix them. Not to pull them back, Just to notice. Where are they? How do they feel? Is one side different from the other? Can the shoulders be supported by the body underneath them? Now bring your awareness to the back of the ribcage. To your shoulder blades. The space between the shoulder blades. The upper back. Imagine the shoulder blades resting on the back of the ribs. Just resting, Not squeezed together, Not pulled down, Not lifted into the neck. Just resting on the back of your ribs. Let the back of the body feel a little wider. Take a breath into the back of the ribs. And exhale softly. Again, Allow your breath to flow into the back of your ribs. And exhale. Now place your hands on your thighs. Keep the elbows soft. And very slowly let the shoulder blades move apart from each other. This is a small rounding of the upper back. Not collapsing. Just allowing the shoulder blades to glide away from the spine. And then with the inhale, Allow the shoulder blades to return. Not squeezing, Just returning the small movements. Exhaling gently rounding the upper back a little bit and allowing the shoulder blades to move to the sides the lower part of the shoulder blade moving to the side And with the inhale slowly coming up. Allowing the shoulder blades to return. Notice if the neck wants to help and the neck stays soft. Just continue this movement on your own, Exploring. And the jaw stays still. And the movement begin from the shoulder blades and not from the head. Beautiful. One more time. Shoulder blades slowly move apart. And they return. Now let's explore a small up and down movement. You can do it with both shoulders at the same time or one after the other. That the shoulder blades glide slightly upward, Not a big shoulder shrug, Just a small movement. And maybe slightly moving them back. Then let them soften back down. Again, Very slowly a small glide upward. Perhaps to the bar. And the soft return. The movement is small, With your breath and support it. Now combine this into very small shoulder blade circles. Shoulder blade moves slightly up, Slightly backward, Slightly down. And perhaps slightly forward, Very small, No forcing. So deep opening, Just reminding the shoulder blades that they can glide on the ribcage. Now change direction, Small circles in the other way, Moving up a little bit forward and allow them to sink down again. Moving them back. Allowing them to glide upward. Little bit forward and then down again. Let's reverse one more time. So, Lifting, Slightly moving your shoulders back. Allowing your shoulder blades to glide down the ribcage Just one more round, Slowly. Moving your shoulders up. Bye. And allow the shoulder blades to glide down your ribs. Now pause, Let the arms and shoulders rest. Feel zone 1 again, The reaper. The upper back. The shoulder blade. And your breath. And the support from below. Now we will bring a little activation into the arms. So again, This is not strong effort. We are not trying to create tension. We are waking up support. So you can bring your palms together in front of the chest. The elbows soft, The shoulders wide. And just gently press the palms into each other, Starting to build the pressure from zone 1 to zone 3. Only 10 or 20 maybe 30 percent Feel how this wakes up the arms, Maybe the chest, The back of the shoulders. Keep the breath soft. Keep the lower belly as a gentle support. Keep the glutes and legs quietly present. Then slowly release, Starting from the hands. Underarms, Upper arms and then the shoulder. Do this a few more times. So again, Bring the palms of your hands together. And slowly start to activate. From the shoulder blade. Upper arms. Under arms, Into the hands and fingers. Keep breathing, Keep the shoulders wide and open. Then slowly start to release from the fingers, The hands, The underarm. The upper arms. Placing your hands on your thighs. Now let's do this two or three times more but this time we change one thing so you bring the palms of your hands together And now only one hand gently presses into the other hand. The other hand receives. So start from the shoulder blades again, Building this gentle activation. Keep breathing. And then slowly release. Hand, Wrist. Underarm. Upper arm. Shoulder. Then start to activate the other arm, Shoulder blade, Upper arm. Underarm. Breathe. Hand. Fingers. Keep breathing. Shoulders wide. Neck soft. And slowly release, Starting from zone 3, So the fingers. To hum. The wrist. Underarm, Upper arm and the shoulder blade. Let's do one more round, Pressing with both hands, Both arms, Both shoulder blades evenly. So let's start again from the shoulder blades. To the arms, To the wrists. The hands. The fingers. And slowly release from the fingers, The hand. The wrist. The arms. The shoulder blades and allow your arms to rest for a moment. Beautiful. Just feel into your arms, Your hands, Your shoulders. And after this gentle activation, Let's add some more movement. Again, Starting from zone 1, From the shoulder blades. Can slowly bring the shoulder blades outward a little bit, So the lower part of the shoulder blade. And with this movement, Slowly lift your arms to the side, Lift the elbows. And then bring the arms up and overhead the shoulders stay relaxed if you wish you can bring the palms together. Gently build this activation from the shoulder blades to the tips of your fingers. Then release from the fingertips, Hands, Arms start to open. Still stabilizing with your shoulder blades, Slowly bringing your arms down. Let's do this one more time, Exactly the same movement, Starting from the shoulder blades. Lifting the arms, Slow movement. Bringing the arms overhead. If you don't want to reach overhead, Stop wherever it feels comfortable for you to stop. Bring the palms of your hands together. Gently activate your arms from the shoulder blades to the tips of your fingers. Keep breathing. Shoulders relaxed. Let's slowly release from the fingertips. Starting to open the arms, Lowering the arms. Beautiful. You can continue like this or join me in a little bit different movement. So again, Starting from the shoulder blades, Lifting the arms over the side. Bringing the palms of the hands together. Feeling this gentle touch of your palms. Then, From the shoulder blades, Start moving your hands down to your heart space. Take a slow, Deep breath here. Then again, Initiating the movement from the shoulder blades, A gentle push, Start moving your fingers up. And then from here, Start to release from the fingertips, Gently opening the hands, The arms, Shoulder blades still stable, Slowly bringing your arms back down. Let's do this one more time, So slowly starting from the shoulder blades, Bringing your arms up over the sides. Bringing the palms of your hands together over your head. Shoulders open, Shoulder blades stable, Stability from your belly and the legs. Slowly initiating the movement from the shoulder blades, Starting to pull your hands down. Your heart space. Gently press your hands together. Take a slow, Deep breath here. Then again, Initiating the movement from the shoulder blades, From the back. Slowly pushing your hands up. And then starting to release from the tips of your fingers, Opening the hands. Bringing the arms back down over the side, Still stability in the back. Your shoulder blades. Placing your hands on your thighs. If your eyes are open, Close your eyes gently. Feeling into your body. We do one more movement and if this is not for you today you can just repeat what we just did, The bringing the arms up over the side. So this time and again you decide whether you just do it with one arm or both. We just slowly initiate the movement from the shoulder blade again and the back. Slowly lifting the arm in front. The shoulders stay relaxed. You decide when you stop the movement. The belly gently activated. Take a slow, Deep breath here. Love your shoulder blade to be heavy. Glide down the ribcage. Then slowly start to release from the hands, Moving the arms back down. Let's do this movement one more time. Starting from the shoulder blades, Activating shoulder blades. And slowly lifting your arms with the muscles in your back, Allowing the belly to provide support. Take a deep breath in. Let the exhale slowly start to release from the fingertips, Slowly moving your arms back down. Beautiful. I invite you to close your eyes and just feel into your body. Perhaps you would like to visualize some everyday movements. You could reach for something just feel into your body how your body would do that maybe just try in your imagination or you would also like to do the movement with your arm right now how it is to reach for something if you're able to initiate this movement from zone one how you do that usually how it feels when you do that automatically and how that would feel If you started this movement from the back of your ribs, Your shoulder blade. Beautiful. Let's close with a gentle visualization. If you wish you can lie down if that's comfortable for you. I also have the rain stick here. Let your hands rest on your thighs or on your mat if you're lying on your back. Close your eyes if that feels comfortable or soften your gaze. Feel the shoulders. Feel the arms. Feel the hum. Feel the back of the ribcage. Feel the support underneath the shoulders. The pelvis, Believe. The field. The center of the body. If you wish, You might ask yourself. Do my shoulders feel a little more connected? Can my arms feel supported by my back body? Can a smaller range still feel satisfying? Can every movement begin from support? Take a slow breath in. And a gentle breath out. Invite small movements back into your body. Perhaps moving your fingers. Circling your wrist Holding your shoulders. Then slowly open your eyes again. Thank you for practicing with me today. Please take this exploration into your day. Wish you a wonderful rest of your day or a wonderful start into your day if this is your morning. Namaste.