Neck

Welcome, my name is Hattie Bluestone, and this yoga sequence is designed to cultivate both strength and mobility in your neck. To begin, come down onto your back. If you like, you can add a small blanket or a thin pillow underneath your head. And take a moment to make sure that that blanket or pillow is underneath your head but not underneath your shoulders. From there, draw your knees in toward your belly.

Take your arms out to the side like a T and let your legs go down to the right. So this is a reclining twist. Take a moment here just to let your body acclimate to the shape. Take a deep breath, and we'll begin. As you breathe in, stretch your left arm up toward the sky.

As you breathe out, place your left hand on your right hand. Inhale, reach your left arm back up toward the sky. And exhale, take the back of your shoulder and the back of your hand toward the earth. We'll switch sides. So inhaling, lift your left leg up, let your right leg follow, rolling across your back.

And as you exhale, let your legs go down to the left. Now you're in a reclining twist on your second side. Your right arm moves. Inhale, reach your right arm up toward the sky. As you exhale, place your right hand on your left hand.

Inhale, sweep the right arm up toward the sky. And as you exhale, opening into that twist. Switching sides with your legs, inhale, lift your right leg first. Let your left leg follow, rolling across your back. And as you exhale, take your legs down to the right.

Inhaling, sweep your left arm up toward the sky. And as you exhale, place your left hand on your right hand. Breathing in, sweep the left arm up. And as you exhale, open back into that twist. Feel the heaviness of your left shoulder and arm.

Inhaling sides with your legs, inhale, lift your left leg up, rolling across your back. A little massage for the back there, exhaling, taking your legs down toward your left. Right arm moves. Inhale, sweeping the right arm up. Exhaling, right hand to left hand.

Let your head be heavy like a bowling ball here. Inhale, reaching your right arm up toward the sky. And exhaling, opening your chest. One more time on each side, inhale, rolling across your back. As you exhale, let your legs go down to the right.

Your left arm moves, inhale, sweep it up toward the sky. Exhaling, palm to palm. Inhale, lifting the arm. And as you exhale, open twist. Switching sides, inhale, lift your left leg up, rolling across your back.

Exhaling, taking the legs down to the left. Breathe in, sweep the right arm up toward the sky. Breathing out, palm to palm. Inhale, sweep your right arm up. And exhale, pausing in this open twist.

Take a resting breath here, inhale. And exhale. Come back onto your back. Once again, drawing your knees in toward your belly. We're going to come back to a reclining twist.

So again, take your legs down to the right and open your arms out to the sky. Now take your left hand and place it on your right hand. We'll draw some circles around the body using our left fingertips. So glide your left fingertips up and overhead on the floor or on your mat. And then glide the left arm back out to its left side, down toward your hips, fingertips trailing along the earth.

Lift your left hand up and set it down next to your knees, and we'll begin again. So gliding your left fingertips beyond your right fingertips, up and overhead, inhaling. And as you exhale, opening back into the twist, chest turning toward the sky. Glide your left fingertips down toward your hips. And again, lift the hand up, set it down next to your knees, and continue.

Gliding your left fingertips past the right, feel the stretch in your upper back. Just gliding on the floor, if possible, overhead. And then out toward the left, feeling now a stretch in your chest. During all of this, let your head be heavy like a bowling ball, just going along for the ride, resting into your blanket, breathing in, and breathing out. One more full circle with your left hand gliding the fingertips along the floor.

Every circle gets a little bit bigger as you warm up. And then the next time that your left arm arrives back out to the left, just pausing there again, softening your shoulders, maybe even closing your eyes, and taking a mindful breath, feeling as the breath flows in, feeling as the breath flows out. For the second side, roll across your back and take your legs down to the left. Now we'll be moving our right arm. So turning your right fingertips down toward the ground, glide your right fingertips down toward your hips, lift the right hand off of the earth, and set it down next to your knees.

Glide your right hand to your left hand, maybe even beyond your left hand, up and overhead, keeping the fingertips touching the earth, if possible, and then back out to the right. Just like that, drawing some big circles on the earth, letting again your head and neck be at ease, letting the movement naturally flow from your thoracic spine, your upper back, through the neck, inhaling, and exhaling. Gliding the fingertips along the earth, two more circles, seeing if you can enlarge the circumference of those circles as you keep going, making them a little bit bigger, and one more. We're creating a lot of space and mobility in the upper back here, and you can take some of the attention off of your neck. Next time the right arm ends up back to the right, just pausing there again, allowing your eyes to close, and taking a mindful breath in, softening as the breath flows out, and from there, rolling to the side of your body, we're going to come all the way up toward hands and knees.

So setting up for cat and cow with your hands underneath your shoulders and your knees underneath your hips, spreading your fingers wide apart. As you breathe in, draw your heart forward and lift your sitting bones up, and as you exhale, round your spine, inhale, heart draws forward, sitting bones lift, and exhale, tuck the pelvis under, rounding the low back, mid back, upper back, head hangs down. Again, inhale, sitting bones lift, stretching your belly, gently drag your hands back toward your knees, and then exhale and press the earth away through your knees and your hands as you round. Get two more, inhale, cow pose, and exhale, cat pose. One more, inhale, feeling the back bend, especially in your upper back, and exhale.

Same thing, feeling the stretch here, especially in your upper back. From there, come to a neutral spine, and come onto your fists instead of your hands, so you'll place your knuckles down into the mat, and your thumbs are pointing forward like thumbs up toward the top of your mat. As you breathe in, gently squeeze your two shoulder blades together, and as you exhale, push down into your fists and spread your shoulder blades wide apart. Inhale, gently squeezing the shoulder blades together, gliding them together, and exhale, gliding them apart, pushing your fists straight down into the earth. Inhale, with control, feel your two shoulder blades squeeze toward one another, exhale, gliding them apart.

It might feel here like your upper background, so that's good. Inhale, gently glide the two shoulder blades together, exhale, broadening your upper back as you push down into your fists, and one more time, inhale, this is scapular retraction when the shoulder blades squeeze in, and then protraction as you spread them wide apart. Come back to hands and knees, and then sit your hips back toward your heels to come into kneeling. If kneeling isn't comfortable, you could also come to a cross-legged seat for a moment. This is one of my favorite exercises for helping with neck pain.

So lengthening your spine, pressing the back of your head back and your upper back, almost as if there's a wall behind you. And then from there, slightly tuck your chin toward your throat. Feel the back of your neck lengthening up, almost as if you're pressing the arch of your neck back into that imaginary wall. And then relax that chin tuck, it's a very small movement. Slightly tuck your chin toward your throat, feel the back of your neck strengthening and lengthening, and then slowly relax.

Again, tuck your chin toward your throat, as if you're pressing not just the back of your head and your upper back into a wall, but also your mid-neck, pressing that mid-neck into an imaginary wall, and then softening. Two more times, chin tuck, lengthening the back of your neck, and relax. And last one, slight chin tuck, pressing the arch of your neck back into that imaginary wall, and then softening. From there, we'll integrate that movement into our next flow. Come to hands and knees, and breathing in, stretch your left arm forward and your right leg back.

Find that same chin tuck, slight tuck of your chin toward your throat, crown of the head shining forward. Inhale here, and as you exhale, imagine you're pulling something heavy with that left arm as you bend your left elbow and draw it back, shoulder blade reaching away from the spine. At the same time, turn your gaze toward your left. Inhale and stretch the arm toward straight, slight chin tuck again, and exhale, slowly release. You might imagine you're balancing a book on the back of your head here.

Inhale, reach your right arm forward and your left leg back, slight chin tuck. Exhale, pull the right arm back, bending the elbow and turn your gaze to the right. Breathing in, stretch your right arm toward straight, chin tuck, and exhale, slowly release, hand and knee. Again, inhale, right arm and left leg, chin tuck. Exhale, bend the left elbow, pull the shoulder blade away from the spine, look to your left.

Inhale, slowly re-lengthen the left arm, and then exhale, hand and knee. Inhale stretch your right arm forward and your left leg back, slight chin tuck, and then exhale, look to your right. Breathing in, lengthen the right arm, and exhale with control, placing down your hand and knee. One more on each side. Inhale stretch your left arm forward and your right leg back, exhale, pull your left shoulder blade away from the ear, look to your left.

Inhale, chin tuck, crown of the head shines forward, exhale, hand down and knee down. Inhale, right arm and left leg lift, chin tuck, balancing that book on the back of your head. Exhale, look to your right as you bend the elbow. Inhale, slowly turn your gaze back to the center, and exhale, hand down and knee down. Nice job, come down onto your belly, set the tops of your feet on the mat, place your hands underneath your shoulders, and then roll your shoulders up, back, and down.

Hug your elbows in toward the sides of your waist, and then as you inhale, lift into cobra pose by pulling the mat with your hands from the front of your mat to the back of your mat. So drag the mat toward you to lift your chest. Again, slight tuck of your chin toward your throat, cobra pose, exhale forward and down. Again, roll your shoulder blades up, back, and down, inhale, cobra pose. This time look to your left, so look over your left shoulder, maybe you can even see your left foot, and exhale, forward and down.

Second side, inhale, cobra pose, rolling the shoulder blades away from the ears, turn your gaze to the right, and maybe even see your right foot as you exhale, soften forward and down. Good, one more time to the center, shoulders roll away from the ears, inhale, strengthening the upper back, slight chin tuck, and then exhale, soften, pressing from here back into child's pose, bringing the hips toward your heels, take a resting breath, and then downward facing dock. So tucking your toes under, reaching your hips up and back, making a triangle shape with your body, and letting your head feel heavy to create a little bit of traction in your neck. Take a long, slow breath here. From downward facing dog, step your feet forward to the top of your mat, coming into a standing forward fold.

You can have your feet hips distance apart here, and any amount of bend in the knees that feels good on your spine. Let your head hang down, and then take your hands to hold the opposite elbow. From there, gently rock your arms from right to left, forward and back, even drawing some circles. Our goal here is to just really feel the heaviness of the arms, creating a little bit of traction through the shoulders and upper back. From there, take your hands and place them gently around the base of your skull.

So your fingers are slightly interlaced, placing your thumbs at the base of the skull, hands wrapping around to the sides of the head a bit. And we're not at all pushing on the neck, so just using the weight of your hands to create a small amount of traction through the neck. Feel the heaviness of your arms and head, and take a few resting breaths here. And softening your face and jaw, and perhaps even imagining you're sending the breath into your neck, creating more space in the discs of your neck as you breathe in, and feeling them soften as you breathe out. And then let your arms dangle down, we're going to roll up.

So bending your knees, rounding your spine, starting to come up to standing. Take your time, push into your feet, and roll your shoulders up, back, and down. From there, turn to the side of your yoga mat and take your feet wide apart. Turn your right toes to the right, and bend your right knee so that your legs are in warrior too. From there, let your right hand just rest on your right thigh, and stretch your left arm back in space, back, back, back, until you feel a stretch in your chest.

From there, inhale, and as you exhale, sweep the left arm forward and round your spine. Breathing in, straighten your front leg as you stretch your left arm back. Breathing out, bend the front knee as you stretch the right arm forward, scooping with your left arm. Inhale and open, stretch your chest, look to your left. Exhale, bend the front knee, rounding your upper back, stretching.

Two more, inhale, turning open, reach through your left fingertips, straighten the front leg. Bend your front knee as you round your spine and scoop the left arm forward. One more, inhale, opening up, stretching your chest. Exhaling, bending the front knee, and rounding. Find warrior too, breathing in, lifting both arms, and then as you exhale, straighten your front leg for triangle pose.

Notice the way your hips can move from side to side. In triangle, they move toward the back, toward that back left foot. Reach your right arm forward and then open your arms. As you open your chest, take your gaze up for a moment, turning your chest toward the sky. Inhaling here, and then as you exhale, just gently turn your gaze toward the ground.

Feel the heaviness of your head. If this is enough stretch in your neck, you can stay here. For more stretch, turn your left palm to face back. From there, bend your left elbow and gently wrap the left hand behind you to your low back or the outside of your hip. Feeling stretch along the left side of your neck, and taking a couple of breaths here in triangle pose.

Rolling your left shoulder up, back, and down. And then from there, bending the right knee to come into side angle. Option one, your right forearm is on your right thigh. Option two, your right fingertips come down to the earth. Either way, let your head be heavy and your gaze be down.

From there, push into your right foot, open your arms, and we'll switch sides. So turning now your left toes out and your right toes in a little bit, bending the front knee to find warrior two. Let your left hand just rest on that front thigh, and as you breathe in, stretch your right arm back, feeling stretch on the right side of your chest, exhaling, rounding your spine, scooping the right arm forward. Breathe in and straighten the front leg, open the right arm, exhaling, bend the front knee, rounding your spine, scooping. Three more, inhale, turning your gaze to your right, exhaling, scooping with your arm, bending the front knee, two more, inhale, open, stretch your chest, exhaling, stretching your upper back.

One more, inhale, opening up, maybe lifting your gaze a bit, and then as you exhale, rounding your spine. From there, find your warrior two, both arms lift, and then straighten the front leg. Notice the way your hips can tick-tock from side to side, they go toward the back, your left arm reaches forward, and then opening your arms up and down, so you have a really big wingspan here, from fingertip to fingertip. From there, gently turn your head toward the earth, feeling a stretch perhaps on the right side of your neck. To feel more stretch in this shape, your right hand turn the palm of the hand to face back, and then bending the elbow, take the hand to your low back or the side of your waist.

Gently stretch along the right side of your neck and breathing here in triangle pose. From there, bending the front knee for side angle, you're welcome to take the left forearm to the thigh, if you happen to be really flexible, maybe the fingertips come to the ground. Taking a few deep breaths here, rolling your left shoulder up, back, and down. And then from there, pushing into your feet, opening up the arms. Now turn both feet to face the long edge of your sticky mat.

Take an inhale, becoming really tall through your spine, and as you exhale, forward fold, taking your hands to the earth or to blocks, letting your head hang down. As you feel the stretch in the backs of your legs, your hamstrings, settle in for a deep breath, inhale, and exhale. From this forward fold, we're going to make our way all the way down to our belly. So take your time coming down, resting on your belly. Before we do anything here, just taking a moment to come back to the earth and feel the support of the earth, taking a resting breath, and then setting up for sphinx pose.

So in sphinx pose, your forearms are parallel to one another. Your fingers spread wide apart, and then rolling your shoulders up, back, and down, away from the ears. Again, you might find a slight tuck of your chin toward the throat if that helps your neck feel comfortable here. Take a few breaths, feeling the movement of the breath in your ribcage, upper back, and then we'll stretch our neck here in this position. So taking your right ear toward your right shoulder, rolling your chin down toward your sternum, and then taking your left ear toward your left shoulder.

So it's like tracing out the shape of a necklace with your chin, rolling your chin down toward the chest, over to the right side and up, down toward the chest, over to the left side and up, allowing your breath to flow as you gently move your head from side to side, shoulders staying down and away from the ears. When we're stretching our neck like this, we just want to feel a mild to moderate stretch. So being gentle with yourself as you go. Do one more and then come on down and make a pillow for your forehead with your hands stacking your hands, one on top of the other. Find again that slight chin tuck as you rest here, feeling the movement of your breath into the earth.

Now plant your hands next to your chest and we're going to press up to a seated position. Here's a nice opportunity to use that blanket again. So folding your blanket so that you can sit on it with your hips a little bit above your knees and feeling as comfortable as possible in this seat. Rolling your shoulders up, back, and down. Now one of my favorite neck stretches, take your right ear toward your right shoulder.

From there, turn your chin down toward your right collarbone. And then from there, looking up and over your right shoulder, so you're looking just behind the right shoulder. We want to feel here a stretch along the left side of the face, left side of the neck. And then to add to that stretch, take your right hand and place your right hand just underneath your left collarbone. You can press slightly in and gently drag the skin around the collarbone downward.

Again, this is just to add to the sense of stretch along the left side of the neck and face. If you take your left hand and gently wrap it behind your back, you'll feel an even deeper stretch. Okay, pausing here, perhaps allowing your eyes to close. And feeling the movement of the breath underneath your right hand. As you breathe in, feeling the lungs expand.

As you breathe out, sensing your whole body start to slow down. One more breath. Other than moving your head back to center using the muscles of your neck, instead, take that right hand, place it into the right side of your temple, right side of your forehead, and gently press the head back to center so it doesn't have to do any work. We'll do the same stretch on the second side. Gently take your left ear toward your left shoulder, turn your chin toward the collarbone, and then look up and over your left shoulder.

So it's like you're looking at something just behind that left shoulder. This is a great place to stay. If you want more stretch, you could take your left hand and gently place it underneath the right collarbone. So you're pressing the left hand gently into the chest and dragging downward. If you'd like even more stretch, take the right hand and place it behind your back.

As you settle in here, you might allow your eyes to gently close and tune into the movement of your breathing, especially underneath your left hand, feeling the expansion of the breath as it flows in and the dissolving away of that expansion as it flows out. One more breath. And again, instead of moving your head back to the center using your neck muscles, just take your left hand and assist your head back to the center. From there, we're going to come down to lying down on our back. Once again, you could take your blanket and make a small pillow for your head, setting up so that your head is on the blanket, but your shoulders and your upper back are off of the blanket.

Draw your knees in toward your belly, taking your hands behind the backs of the knees, bending your shoulders, taking a few resting breaths here. And as you exhale, see if you can let go of any unnecessary tension or stress that your body might be holding. You might imagine it flowing out of your body as you exhale. Just settling in right here and right now. We'll set up for final relaxation.

So allowing your legs to extend and your arms to extend, allowing your eyes to gently close. And as you exhale, feeling one last sense of releasing any unnecessary tension or stress. If you have longer to stay here in final relaxation, please do. If you'd like to close today's class with me in a comfortable seated position, roll to the side of your body and then press yourself up to a comfortable seat. As you set up here, you might allow your eyes to close, lengthening the back of your neck and your whole spine, and then drawing the palms of your hands together in front of your heart.

And one more mindful breath, breathing in and out. Thank you so much for your practice today. Namaste.