10-Minute Yoga to Unkink Your Neck and Shoulders

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This 10-minute yoga for neck and shoulders practice is specifically designed to release your neck and shoulder tension. If you’ve been feeling stiff or have a little tightness in your upper body—especially in the neck, shoulders, or upper back—this class will bring you some relief.

It’s not just focused on your neck and shoulders, though. It’s also a 10-minute yoga practice featuring some unexpected variations on simple seated and standing poses. For example, you’ll practice Cat and Cow on your forearms to get into the upper back a little more and Goddess Pose with some added twists to release tension in the shoulders. It can simply be what you choose to practice today even when you’re not experiencing tension, stiffness, or tightness of any sort.

10-Minute Yoga to Unkink Your Neck and Shoulders

This practice works for all experience levels. No props are required although you’re welcome to use them for support in any pose.

Seated Neck Stretch

Begin sitting, whether cross-legged, kneeling, or however you like that’s comfortable to you. Lower your right ear toward your right shoulder. Keep your chin slightly lifted and then bring your left hand behind you to your lower back, as if you were reaching toward the right side of your waist. As you reach your left arm back, draw your left shoulder down. Keep your spine tall and neutral so you’re not tilting through your upper body.

Take some deep breaths here as you relax through your jaw. You can angle your chin slightly upward to change the sensation of the stretch or tuck it slightly downward to target along the back of the neck.

Seated Side Stretch

Keep your head as it is and release your left arm from your lower back and reach it up and overhead, taking a big side body stretch. Relax your neck fully, creating lots of space along the left side of your waist. Push your right hand into the ground to help lift yourself.

Seated Twist

Come into a twist by taking your left hand toward your right knee. Your right fingertips go on the floor behind you for support as you open your chest toward the right. Your hip bones are facing forward and you’re rotating through the torso. There’s no slouching or rounding. Exhale as you release and face forward again.

Then do the same stretches on your other side. So you’re going to drop your left ear toward your left shoulder and bring your right hand toward your lower back. You might notice that one side has a little more sensation than the other. Perhaps your dominant hand side has a little bit more tightness, which can be very common. Then come into your side bend and eventually take your twist.

Forearm Cat and Cow

Come into Cat and Cow, but try it on your forearms. So from tabletop pose, lower down onto your elbows, keeping them about shoulder-distance apart with your knees underneath your hips. As you inhale, lower your belly, lift your gaze, and curl your tailbone up in Cow Pose.

As you exhale, round your back and contract your core as you release your head in Cat Pose. Spread your shoulder blades away from one another. Keep going in and out of these two poses. As you inhale and arch into a backbend, squeeze your shoulder blades behind you. As you exhale and round, broaden them away from each other.

Sphinx Pose

Come back through to a neutral Sphinx Pose from here by staying down on your forearms and let your hips come onto the mat. Your feet are hip-distance apart. Push the tops of your feet into the mat, roll your shoulders back, open through your chest, and find a little more length here. Exhale as you release.

Downward-Facing Dog

Push your hands into the mat, tuck your toes under, and lift your hips up and back, taking your feet about hip-distance apart, maybe a little wider, in Downward-Facing Dog. You can absolutely bend your knees. The emphasis here is really going to be on a neck release, so let your head dangle and be heavy as you press your chest toward your thighs. You’re not here for long. So just stretch through the backs of your legs and straighten your arms.

Rag Doll

Then walk your feet to the top of the mat and take them toward the edges of the mat for your rag doll as you fold forward. Your knees are bent here and you can grab hold of your elbows and rock a little, side to side, maybe turning your head in slow motion. Notice if all of your body weight is in the balls of your feet and rock back into your heels a little.

Goddess Pose Twist

Release your hands to the mat, bend your knees, push into your heels, and slowly roll all the way up to standing. Take your legs wide in Goddess Pose with your heels slightly in and your toes pointing out toward the edges of your mat. Inhale as you circle your arms wide and up, exhale as you bend your knees and sink into a Squat. Then place your hands on your thighs and do a little shoulder drop and release here. Your right shoulder lowers down as you twist through your upper body toward your left side. This can be a really nice thigh stretch at the same time when you use your right hand to push your right knee open a little wider.

Switch sides, dropping your left shoulder as your right shoulder rolls back, and then come back to center.

Wide-Legged Standing Forward Bend

Straighten your legs, turn your feet in so they’re parallel to the shorter edges of the mat, and inhale as you lift and lengthen, and then fold down into Wide-Legged Standing Forward Bend. It’s a big hamstring stretch here, although you’re focusing on decompressing through your upper back and neck, so hold onto your elbows like you were doing in Rag Doll or take any other arm variation that you prefer.

Seated or Kneeling Chest Stretch

Bring your hands to the mat, toe heel your feet together, and then bend your knees and lower yourself to the mat so you’re either sitting or kneeling. Stretch through the front of the shoulders by bringing your hands behind you and coming onto your fingertips, bending into your elbows, and squeezing your shoulder blades and elbows toward one another. Feel that nice stretch through the front and tops of the shoulders.

Seated or Kneeling Eagle Arms Shoulder Stretch

When you release, stay on your heels, bend your elbows approximately 90 degrees in front of you, and wrap your right arm under your left once or twice. Press your shoulders down, keep your elbows up, and move your hands away from your face in Eagle arms. Maybe you tuck your chin toward your chest. Really, push your forearms toward one another.

Lift your head, release your arms, and then do the same thing on the other side, wrapping your left arm under your right arm.

Seated Meditation

Unwrap your arms and come to sit in any way that is comfortable for you. Close your eyes and bring your hands together at the front of your chest. Observe as you feel into your neck, your shoulders, your upper back, and your chest, noticing how just a few minutes of yoga can make a difference in how you feel and how you carry yourself. Pause here before returning to your day.

Thank you so much everyone for trying this short yoga for neck and shoulders practice.