Tips for Yogi Shoulders

It seems my theme for a few months now has been shoulders. We've been exploring range of movement exercises and rotator cuff strengthening? Sore shoulders seems to be a common area of issue for yogi's. Why is this? Maybe these tips help, otherwise contact me for more personal guidance.

Sedentary Lifestyle

Certain areas around the neck and the shoulders are tightened up by our desk or lounge based lifestyles. We start to look like chairs, with rounded shoulders, slumped upper back and chin poked forward. I've actually observed myself a lot at the computer, and tried to alter this tendency, but it's not easy. Even without the computer, in an effort to hear people I find myself leading towards them with my chin. This may be the cause of shoulder pain and then becomes further exacerbated when we do stronger poses in yoga, like down dog and plank.

To counter these tendencies with our daily 'end of day' practice we can reopen these areas by using prop's to create open. See one option in my youtube practice – nice relaxing end to your day.

Working beyond your capacity

Sometimes yoga practices can be the cause of our shoulder problem if we are attempting to work beyond our strength capacity. If you are not naturally endowed with strong upper frame, poses like Down Dog, Plank and Caturanga (which is basically a push up of your full body weight), can be simply beyond us without damaging strain, unless significant time is given to building up to them. If you are able to determine the degrees of difficulty of your positions, then stay with what feels manageable. Something like.. Down Dog (bent knees, moving in and out, progressing to holding it), Plank (initially on knees, progressing to full plank), Forearm dog to strengthen arms, then Caturaga on knees (probably for a long time increasing the number of repetitions) and then after a few years maybe full Caturana is possible.

So this are simple common checks, but sometimes there are other biomechanical factors that need addressing and this is my expertise as a physio and yoga therapist to help you with. I'm very passionate about the shoulders with yoga and am running a lot of training in addition to my classes and one-one work.