This month in class, at the request of a lovely Glenogle regular, we’ve been exploring shoulder mobility.

When it comes to the shoulders, due to the screen-focused and often seated nature of our lives, mean that a few common patterns emerge in this region:

• Tightness across the front of the shoulders

• Tension and weakness across the back of the shoulders

• Forward-head posture, leading to neck and shoulder tension

• Potential stress-related hunching of the shoulders, coupled with neck and jaw tension

Sound familiar? Trust me, I feel you: when I worked 50-60 plus hour weeks as a journalist, my shoulders and neck were a constant source of tension. It’s a pattern that reemerged with a vengeance while caring for my young children as well, due to all the holding and sitting required in early motherhood.

But there is hope! Through our yoga practice, we can counter the effects of modern life: stretching the areas that get chronically tight; strengthening the postural muscles to encourage good shoulder, neck and head placement; and learning good breathing mechanics to help manage stress.

When working on increasing mobility and releasing tension in the shoulders in our yoga practice, there are a few key things I like to focus on:

1. Opening the front of the shoulders with postures such as half binds, binds, reverse tabletop, wall clock and the floor version of wall clock

2. Strengthening the postural muscles of the shoulders and neck through swapping out endless chaturangas for poses such as locust and active cobra (where we float the hands rather than press the ground away to lift the chest)

3. Incorporate ‘pull’ and ‘press’ motions to build awareness of shoulder and neck placement. For example, these past few weeks in class we’ve been playing with clasping the back of the head with the hands, pressing the head into the hands and purposefully giving ourselves a very flattering double chin to strengthen the neck muscles (and sneakily wake up our deep core at the same time - win win!). We’ve been weaving this into lunges, locusts, tadasana, you name it! 

4. Learning to breathe deeply into the full circumference of the ribs. When we get stressed, we have a tendency to take shallow breaths, overusing the accessory breathing muscles and generating tension in the neck and shoulders.

5. Weaving in plenty side bends and twists to create space and mobility in the ribs and shoulders, improving our ability to breathe well.

I always feel so great in my body after practising in this way, so I hope you’ve felt the benefits too.