Relief For Tense Neck & Shoulders, Quick Yoga Stretch For Stress & Pain Relief With Julia Marie

yoga plus download now for free hey yo you welcome I have a 10-minute upper body flexibility video just for you it’s a great video to pair with my 10-minute flexibility for the lower body or if you’re just feeling tight and tense today this is exactly the 10 minutes you need to let go of some of that stress and if you’re looking for something that gives you a little bit more control and range of motion in your active power yoga practice you absolutely need to tune in to this video we’ll use a hand towel and let’s get started seated so I’m sitting on a yoga block right now so that I can just have a little bit of neutrality in my hips it feels nice from a low back I can really focus in my upper body from here just lift your chest and start with rolling your shoulders back so much of our day we are hunched forward at a computer or driving or texting it is so great to move our body in the opposite direction so we start to create some balance oftentimes we start to blame the things that we’re doing for activity like oh ouch my yoga practice hurts or oh ouch I went to go play golf and maybe my back hurts but really the origin of those problems with day to day living so if you find yourself stuck in a specific movement pattern like typing texting driving all day long you absolutely need to do some stuff to balance it out great on your next inhale I want you to take your arms up high and as you exhale press your palms down so you’re actually pressing the arrow a good inhale gather it up and exhale press the palms down use your breath to movement inhale reach it up exhale press it down so why are we moving as we start to think about flexibility well I want your muscles your tissues to be a little bit warm before we hold any big stretches it’s not super great to stretch on cold tissue so you want to work with a little bit of warmth before you get into deeper release good couple more times I’m sure you’re really activating in and out fantastic good so from here you’re going to take your arms and interlace your hands behind your back loop the shoulder heads back and then actively push your knuckles down and press your chest forward as you press your chest forward if you notice you’re dumping in the lumbar I want you to zip the low belly in and lift your chest up this activity right here is the essential thing that you need for things like headstand and handstand just that simple act of drawing into the midsection and lifting up through your spine is what we do all the time in yoga so right away you’re already activating some of the muscles that you need in your core just stabilize a strong spine and bonus you’re getting a nice stretch for your shoulders good now bend your elbows and sweep your knuckles over to the side body squeeze your elbows together kind of like the ThighMaster but between your elbows imagine that you had to press a little machine together so from there we’re going to take a bind behind your back so I’m actually going to turn to the side so you can see this and as you take a bind interlace your fingers loop the shoulder heads back so you’ve already worked with those shoulder rolls to get your shoulders prepared press the heels of your hands together and energize your knuckles down and instead of dumping down into your lumbar you want to draw in and up so you’re gonna feel the pelvic floor lift the belly draw in and up and then send your heart a little closer to the ceiling this right here is the action that you need for headstand for handstand for all of our moves in yoga where you have to have a strong core so bonus you’re working your core here as you’re opening up your chest if you have a little more space in your shoulders today squeeze the heels of your hands together and lift your knuckles farther away from your tailbone as you hug your shoulder blades into your spine really nice good then release your arms on your inhale sweep your arms up we’ll take Eagle so swing your left arm under your right elbow over bend at your elbows and either grab for your shoulder heads especially if this is a newer move to you or bind at your wrists as you bind at your wrists lift your elbows up today and send them a little bit forward so you’re actually drawing the shoulder blade away from the spine now so the opposite action of what we just did with our bind really really nice hold that for a couple more breaths continuing to lift and up through the spine tone the pelvic floor tone the low belly and release your arms down good on your next inhale sweep the arms up this time we’ll take the right arm under the left elbow over bend at the elbows bind at your wrists or go for that bear hug you are binding at the wrists and your elbows forward and lift them up good staying tall to the spine and continue to breathe it can be really tempting here to kind of hold your breath when you find a stretch that feels intense but that is the body basically saying too much so if any stretch causes you to hold your breath back out a little bit really nice work release your arms roll your shoulders a couple of time and then I’m gonna go ahead and come off this block and take a reverse tabletop so for reverse tabletop plant your feet in front of you hands behind you if you have a lot of range you may be able to turn your fingers all the way backwards but for most of us we’re starting somewhere in the middle allow your chest to lift take your shoulder blades in towards your spine and then down your back so it’ll feel like you’re pressing your heart forward from there lift your hips up allow this to be about the chest today so often I’ll use this move to activate the lower body as well and so you are going to feel your legs and your glutes work and that’s to elevate your heavy pelvis those are heavy bones so they need some action but I also want you to focus and squeeze your shoulder blades together and press down through all of your ten finger pads so you will find a little bit of warmth coming up through the arms take one more breath in and release your hips down good so just coming down to an easy cedar sukhasana roll your shoulders back a few times so from this easy seat grab your hand towel and just depending on your shoulders you might need something a little longer like a belt or a yoga strap hand towels often work just fine I like to fold it a couple times so that you have about a foot a foot and a half between your hands if you need a little more range for your shoulders maybe you take it wide like a belt lift your towel or belt overhead press your knuckles so where your rings would go up to the ceiling and then lift your chest through and lean over to your left as you do that actively press the side of your right fist up good starting to find an understanding of your shoulders is so essential for some of our more advanced moves in yoga like wheel or if you’re working on something like handstand and everyone’s different so you need to know what your end range is come on back up keep your towel in your right hand and just release your left hand bend your right elbow and then come up your back we’re coming into gamma Kasana stretch or a cow face cow face pose camel kisana good excellent this one can be a little bit tricky so if you notice that you have miles and miles and miles of strap between your hands is totally fine and then send your left arm up bend at your elbow a little internal rotation to the right arm so that means the thumb comes in and down Bend and then reach for the strap behind you hmm there’s so many little muscles in our shoulder shoulders are so complex and the reason they’re complex is because we have a lot of range of motion in our shoulders so when we feel that we are tight or stuck and we just want to open open open open open really we need to balance out so that might being a little bit of strength and a little bit of stretch great release the towel interlace your hands again behind your back so we already worked with that quite a bit draw the shoulder blades in and down and then bend your elbows and sweep your knuckles to your right waist squeeze your elbows together in my 10 minute video for the lower body we talked a little bit about reciprocal inhibition or working with partner muscles in your body and this is also something that happens in our upper body so if you start to engage the muscles between your shoulder blades it’ll actually start to open up your chest or your PEC muscles and we need that because that’s often where we feel really tight and then swing to the other side hug your elbows in it’s like you’re squeezing a book or even a ThighMaster between your elbows I like to envision those old-school thigh masters I’m you’ve totally seen the infomercial probably and then hug your elbows together and you get this really sweet opening good nice work release your arms wiebel out your fingers shake out your hands roll your shoulders a few times and then come to this tall seat and let your eyes close so just sitting tall with your eyes closed just focus on your breath [Music] and sometimes when it comes to our head neck and shoulders it’s just tension that’s built up through the day it’s not always physical tension it manifests physically we feel it physically but it might be stress from work stress from life unresolved thinking patterns unresolved to-do lists the stuff that starts to creep up in our breath and a little bit of stillness honestly that’s the most advanced yoga being able to sit still with yourself that’s all what we’re working towards take a few more moments to deeply breathe and feel your shoulders melt as your crown lifts [Music] this is the stuff that everyone needs especially if you are on a physical goal taking a moment to get your mind right with it is essential on the path let your eyes blink open feels refreshed feels more open I have more space to breathe my shoulders aren’t barking at me I hope you feel the same way giving our body a little bit of TLC and starting to really understand the joint mechanics of our hips our spine in our shoulders is essential for yoga and essential for any movement modality that you love so tune into this video often especially when your neck and shoulders are giving you a little bit of trouble and I know that you are going to feel better really soon hey it’s Julia and welcome to my 30 day yoga for weight loss program I’ve designed this program to help you live more optimally in addition to 30 days of yoga you will find bonus tips and homework assignments at the end of each video to help you stay on track you did it in fact we’ve created a really balanced program this means you are going to be addressing all aspects of your well-being from your physicality all the way to how are you feeling mentally and emotionally throughout the entire 30 days we’re starting right here from the ground on up to build a practice that you can sustain and day-in day-out for your whole life but let’s just start with 30 days I can’t wait to get started with you and I’ll see you on your mat and download our yoga plus yeah it has tons of videos ten minutes all the way to an hour I can’t wait to see you in the next video and until then namaste you
Video source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3vGpumoyWY