Day 2: Neck and Shoulders

Chapter 1

Tutorial

Welcome to Day 2 and this tutorial will talk a little bit more about the neck and shoulder practice that we're going to be going into in this Day 2 practice and this practice will use a ball and a dowel and a blanket and we'll be releasing those areas that just get so tight from an activity of being on our arms like climbing or biking, surfing and also carrying your children, being at a desk, being hunched over driving. So much of our life is in front of us and we're moving forwards towards it so this practice will be a go-to for releasing your day, whatever it is. We'll start off with in a seated position and I don't show it sitting on a blanket but for many of us our knees are up above our hips and if we sit there for a while then the blood can pool and our legs can go to sleep. So if that's happening with you I would suggest propping yourself up on the blanket to do all of the shoulder work that we're going to be doing at the beginning of the practice so that might really support you. At the end of the practice we'll be working with a ball and placing that in the back of the neck in the trap area in between the shoulder blade and the spine.

I just want to say that if you put the ball somewhere and it feels wonderful don't worry about getting it just right because there are so many trigger points in this area in the back of the neck up along the back of the trapezius area. So if it's feeling like a good itch and you're not clenching around it then don't worry about getting it in the perfect spot. I've said this before and I'll say it again that when you're doing pressure work try to make sure that you're not clenching the muscle tissue around the prop that you're actually allowing it to release so you're not gripping your jaw or hunching your shoulders or really tightening around it and that's just so helpful and other than that maybe don't put it on the spine if you have had spinal mischief before or stuff going on in your cervical spine or in your neck spine but really if it feels okay you can put it anywhere and get a good release. When you pressurize your tissue onto the ball or the dowel and then you take it out there's going to be a fresh flush of blood to those tissues and that's really beneficial for healing and hydrating and getting the fascia to slide again so a lot of the trigger points that we have the muscles converge and kind of knot up and they get dehydrated so you can think about this pressure work as rehydration of the tissues to help you have more mobility in those areas. We'll also place the dowel behind the back of the skull and if it's too hard for your liking or it feels like you can't move and you're really stuck there then you can always put a blanket over top of it and that technique will relax your eyes because those muscles are connected to your eyes so that's just really useful if you've overworked your eyes on a screen which happens so much to many of us these days.

Reach out if you have any questions don't hesitate I'll be there for you and I'm here for you for this entire time so please don't hesitate to reach out and I really look forward to releasing this part of the body which we carry so much stress and tension in so I will see you on the mat.

Chapter 2

Practice

Welcome to day two so glad you're here today we will focus on the neck and shoulders and a few props that will be useful for you will be a blanket definitely have a tennis ball or a lacrosse ball of sorts and again your dowel so we'll start and seated we'll just dive right in and maybe for you it's nice to have a blanket underneath your hips so you could grab that and we'll just allow the right ear to come down towards the right shoulder and take a few deep breaths into the left side of your neck and you can nod yes here and just allow the fascia and the tissue to stretch out on that side sometimes it's nice to allow your left arm to stretch out and that will give you even a little bit more sensation all the way down through the fingertips maybe you can turn that in and out and maybe rest somewhere on that side take a big breath in and exhale it all out exhale your day let your left hand come down roll your head all the way over to the other side and start that nodding breathing into the right side of the neck the throat maybe even the front of the shoulder and you can allow that right arm to reach out and you can turn it in you can open it up and then I like to be still there with my head for a deep breath in and out allow your hand to come down towards your knee and then exhale and roll your chin down towards your chest and then align your head and inhale and come up skull over your pelvis we'll take our right arm out to the side and just so you can see I'm going to turn to this way and flip your right thumb down and slip it behind your back and you can wiggle it up your back as much as you can almost towards where your right thumb could touch your right shoulder blade and your pinky finger could touch your left shoulder blade don't worry if you don't get it that high just open up through the palm let your left arm come up palm facing in and side bend to your right towards your bent wing there on your right side and maybe you even look up sort of sniff your armpit there and then allow your left hand to come behind your back and see if you can grab a hold of your right hand and snuggle it up your back a little bit more so then you can give yourself a little support you might even to wrap you might even build a wrap your fingers around your elbow and pull it in a little bit more and come back up to a neutral spine so breathing here for me this is quite intense you might allow your left arm to come up and over tuck your chin take your hand behind your back and reach your fingertips towards each other if you can't reach a clasp you might just grab onto the back the base of your neck with your left hand or even grab a hold of some clothing and reach your elbows apart as you come back up front ribs into your sit bones big breath in elbows moving apart and exhale and release that and take your right arm under your left and give yourself a nice big hug here and then if it feels okay you can let the backs of your hands lean into each other and just for a little strength there press the backs of your hands into each other and then let your right palms snuggle on the inside of your left palm then we'll inhale and lift up back bending the spine and exhaling and bring the elbows in and round the spine that feels wonderful inhale and lift up and arch and then exhale and round your spine and we'll come up to neutral spine and your right hand is pulling on your left hand to diagonal your left hand out to the side so you should feel a pretty deep stretch in your outer left shoulder here and you might even let your right ear come towards your right shoulder again and find those nods maybe you've had a big day on your arms today and you can breathe into opening up that tissue and not asking that tissue to do anything for you right now just allowing it to let go and release we'll come back up to center and allow the left hand to come right across the body pulling it with your right hand you can straighten out your left arm for a little bit more juice into the outer shoulder and then turn your rib cage and your gaze opposite direction of your hand so to the left I like to take a little side bend over to the right here maybe even so much that my fingertips touch the floor doesn't have to be that much and turn and look up let's let that go release roll your shoulders up and around your ears and exhale let them drop and just get used to enjoying the pause roll your shoulders back and up and exhale and drop them and we'll switch sides so your left hand comes out to the side I'm just turning so you can see and turn the thumb down and snuggle it up your back wiggle wiggle wiggle the sides a lot easier for me as you can see you might have the same thing so thumb touches your left shoulder blade pinky touches your right shoulder blade and we're going to take our right arm up palm facing in and side bend to the left and here you might be able to wiggle your hand a little bit more try to go directly over to the side instead of back bending or rounding your spine and then your right arm will come behind and grab a hold of your left arm and see if you can snuggle it a little bit more up your back maybe even inch your fingers around your elbow and hold that there and allow your hand to move more up towards your shoulder blades big breath in and out right arm can come up here behind the back of the head maybe grab onto the base of the skull where your elbows can reach apart that's a beautiful variation or if you can reach clothing or fingers find a little clasp and reach your elbows apart from each other if you're arching your spine here you're usually just evading that shoulder stuckness so keep your ribs in neutral spine natural curve of your upper back is convex slightly so not in a back bend and then we'll let that go and keep the left arm under the right and give yourself a nice big hug you might even be able to find your shoulder inner shoulder blades here and then if it feels good you can stay there or press the backs of the palms together left hand finds the inner right palm and exhale and round and inhale and arch lifting those elbows up and away exhale and round and inhale and arch come to a neutral spine here and pull with your left hand in the center point of your palm your right hand on a diagonal your right forearm on a diagonal you should be getting a pretty sweet stretch in your outer shoulder and then you might take your left ear towards your left shoulder here and do a few nods there let it go here take it across the body right arm comes across turn your rib cage and your head in the opposite direction straighten out reach out through your fingertips of the right arm and come into a little bit of a side bend here so you're getting a lot of nice elongation on the outer deltoid come on up release that in a few shoulder rolls here and just a suggestion try going if you're used to going 110 which i roll at that percentage sometimes too it's been really useful for me to go at 70 in my practice and just allow my body to unwind really and feel supported so then we'll come onto our hands and our knees here on your hands and your knees hands under your shoulders knees under your hips bring your upper back into a bit of a back bend and squeeze your shoulder blades together so you're sort of collapsing through your upper back and trying to squeeze the inner border of your shoulder blades together and then press into your hands and round your upper back so you're really isolating the upper back again drop your chest and squeeze your shoulder blades together even the bottom tips and then round your upper back good neutral spine there right in the middle of those two and let your right arm reach up shoulder blades a little bit down the back twisting through the upper back lifting off of your bottom collarbone it's a little bit strenuous here for a breath and then thread that through and under your left arm and bring your temple to the floor straighten out your left arm wiggle your fingertips forwards and you can press into your fingertips to maybe snuggle your right shoulder and your right head through so that it feels like you're rolling onto the back of your skull instead of being on your temple you should be getting a sweet lengthening in the trapezius area at the back of the shoulders and into the upper back so take a nice deep breath into this hips shoot back away from your skull sitting bones are neutral not shifting over to one side if you can and then we'll come out of that press down come back up to all fours readjust exhale drop the chest and squeeze your shoulder blades together and then inhale and press away so what we're doing here is we exhale and squeeze those shoulder blades together training those muscles in between your shoulder blades to engage inhale and press away just one more like that and that helps to counteract the slumping posture and up and away and then we'll take our left arm up and open this is a little strenuous press down to lift up off your bottom collarbone reach and then exhale and slide it through so your temple comes down walk your right hand forwards wiggle it out inch yourself a little bit more into that reach out through your limbs try to move your sit bones away from each other revolve your upper back so good feels so good and then walk back out of it nice and then just arch your spine here inhale and round your spine exhale bring your forearms down and start to exhale and inhale come forwards and back aligning your middle finger with the center point of your elbow and then you can stay here or tuck your toes walk your feet in keep your knees bent press back from your elbow to your hip point bring your ribs in maybe elongate your heels down whole palm presses whole neck releases deep breath in beautiful work exhale it all out come back down onto your knees take your hands under your shoulders little opening of the chest tuck your toes and reach back into your downward dog pedal out your feet feet together at the back of the mat inhale your right leg up short standing sequence here exhale bring it through climb up out of this or come right up inhale into a crescent lunge exhale your hands hit the mat walk away walk around to the left so your feet are parallel and then walk your hands way forwards here bend your knees a fraction hips away from your hands allow your upper back to melt and widen your shoulder blades on your mat walk your hands back underneath your shoulders bend your knees a little bit and round your way up to standing okay good hands behind your back interlock your fingers roll your shoulders a little bit back in the joint without overarching in your spine and then bend your knees and exhale fold forwards so there's two ways of doing this you can squeeze your palms together or you can open them up and you can explore what feels a little bit better for you i would recommend instead of you try to take your hands down towards the floor lift them up and clear your neck let's let that go hands hit the mat walk all the way around to the front so you're in shape of a lunge and exhale your way back into downward dog beautiful feet together at the back of the mat inhale your left leg up exhale bring it through climb up out of that you can put your hands on your knees or come right up into your crescent lunge beware of the length happening in your lumbar spine front of the hip exhale come all the way down walk around to your feet are parallel inner and outer feet press walk your hands way forwards widen your shoulders let your head hang let your upper back feel like it comes into a little bit of a back bend walk your hands back underneath your shoulders bend your knees round your way up here good hands behind get the weird interlock so the way that it doesn't feel natural just to create balance there open your shoulders without back bending bend your knees belly hits the thighs as you fold forwards something neat that you can try is bringing your thumbs to your sacrum to check in where the middle of your spine is and then if you're like me and you're a little imbalanced in the shoulders when you take your arms back and over your head you go straight back instead of over to the side so maybe that makes a little bit of a difference to you let that go hands come down walk all the way around downward dog and walk it out there good we'll take our right leg up again inhale exhale bring it through climb up come on down exhale walk it around round up standing and then turn your feet out and bend your knees so that your knees are going over your second toes and put your hands on your knees turn your fingers in and let one shoulder roll in and the other shoulder roll on top and then come to center and switch sides love this one maybe you'll even get a little adjustment in your upper spine one more time rolling your right lung under your left there i did and then rolling your left lung underneath your right come on up parallel your feet good inhale arms out exhale warrior two to the front of the mat inhale reverse and exhale windmill your arms into downward dog left leg up bring it through inhale your way up up exhale hit the mat walk around good bend your knees inhale come up turn your feet out knees in line with your toes sink in you can shift a little side to side fingers turn in so you're shifted a little forwards pelvis is coming through your inner legs roll one way roll the other way really think about the shoulder blade coming in towards the spine back up to center come on up parallel your feet inhale five pointed star warrior two to the front of the mat shift it back windmill your arms and find your downward dog and from your downward dog we'll come down onto our knees and we're going to shift onto our back and you'll need your props close by so that you can reach them we'll fold our blanket so that it's fairly high about the height of a bolster and then turn around so that you can put your head on the blanket so you have that height and then you'll take your ball and roll over to your left side and place the ball i'll show you here um just in between the shoulder blade and the spine somewhere in that trapezius area all those layered muscles there that is the classic place where we ask for a massage so we'll place the ball right in there and if you wanted more sensation out of this of course you could take the blanket out from underneath your head and you would get a lot more so i prefer to have this here and then you can wiggle a little side to side and you'll find maybe a little trigger point find maybe a little trigger point and just the muscles around that ball see if it's possible to relax them around the prop so sometimes i think that ball is the river stone your body is the river and just allow it to flow over the prop and sink i'm relaxing my jaw hopefully you can relax your jaw your pectoral area front of the chest hip front of the hip belly and you can take your right arm up here the side that you're affecting and just do some free form movement i always find this really interesting it's like you're pinning down that area of tissue muscles fascia deep fascia and then just gently moving it your arm can move out to the side it can move across your body you can even give yourself a hug you can take your arm over your ear and you can linger here just like any of these pressure parts of the practice you can pause the video and get in there a little bit more but we're going to switch sides here so i'll roll left release i might take a breath a pausing breath just to see if it feels a little easier to breathe on that right side which it does and then switch roll right and then take the ball in the left side in between the shoulder blade and the spine and wiggle around until you find that spot for you that feels like you're not tightening around it but it's almost like a good itch you might move around your arm across the body away and all these different planes of movement maybe even little circles that's really interesting soften the jaw the front of the chest and the front of the hips and maybe take this time to just do one positive affirmation for your body and say something thank you body for everything that you do or for a particular specific thing i was just reading this quote it was something i'm paraphrasing but you said to your body i want to be your friend and the your body took a long exhale and said i've been waiting my whole life for this okay we can roll over to the side take it out you might want to linger there a little bit longer and then we'll take this blanket out from underneath the head and we'll take our dowel and hold it with your palms up and then slide it right behind your skull right where your skull plugs into your neck so there's two knobby little muscles they're the occipital muscles on either side of your upper spine and you this will be pretty spicy just as it is you can always blanket the dowel to make it a bit softer and you can do little micro movements side to side to the right and left and i'm hardly moving here but i'm getting quite a deep pressure right into those really thick muscles these muscles are connected to your eyes so you could close your eyes as well and just really relax the eyeball into the socket if these muscles get really really really bound up and tight i'd imagine that that could happen from forward head posture or biking a lot they can give us some headache problems so just doing our best not to like dig in there too deep but just to get a little bit of release and this is hard when we're always used to doing things like 110% right just to get a little bit of release so we got seven days right deep breath in and then take that out and just rest your head i just suddenly felt how heavy my head is and close your eyes and take a few long breaths into back of the skull back of the neck and from here we'll stretch our legs out slide the shoulders a little away from the ears sense of the center of the palm is soft and close your eyes and just experience some gratitude that you've taken this time today to create this habit of taking care of the vehicle of your body you're making sure you're breathing deep checking your air filter burning clean energy throughout your day fueling yourself pausing and cleaning the windshield for clear vision in a couple more deep breaths here we have 24 hours in the day so plenty of time time maybe we get into the space where we think we have no time so leisurely here let your arms reach over your head stretch yourself bring your knees in towards your chest roll over to your side come on up up great job on completing day two and i'm really looking forward to day three with you see you soon namaste