YOGAJOURNAL.COM / 64 / DECEMBER 2017
ANATOMY
PRACTICE WELL
Your neck muscles
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TAKE A MINUTE TO SIT in Dandasana
(Staff Pose): Come to a seated posi-
tion on the floor with your legs
extended in front of you, or sit in
a chair with your spine stacked over
your hips and your knees bent, feet
flat on the floor. Now, place both
hands next to your hips, press your
palms down into the ground or chair,
take a deep inhale, and notice how
you feel. Then, let your shoulders
cave in toward your chest and allow
your head to come forward and chest
to collapse. How do you feel now?
When I ask my patients to do this
simple exercise, they report a marked
difference in their mood when com-
paring sitting upright (they use
adjectives like “alert,” “happy,” and
“bright”) versus hunched over (which
prompts reactions like “sad,” “tired,”
and “negative”). So while it’s no sur-
prise slumping can cause biomechan-
ical issues that trigger pain, it can
also lead to energetic problems.
Worse yet, most of us tend to adopt
this shoulders-hunched, neck-
craned-forward posture regularly
throughout the day, thanks to our
desk-bound jobs and affinity for
mobile electronic devices.
First, it’s important to look at
the muscular imbalances this col-
lapsed posture creates. In this posi-
tion, the muscles that round your
shoulders and internally rotate your
upper arm bones (subscapularis, teres
major, and anterior deltoids) shorten,
causing a tight feeling. What’s more,
the pectoralis major and minor (chest
muscles that draw your arms andshoulders forward and together)
as well as the levator scapulae, sca-
lenes, sternocleidomastoid, and
upper trapezius (muscles in the back
and sides of your neck that hold your
head forward) get overworked, which
also leads to tightness. And then there
are the muscles that get turned “off ”
and weaken: the ones that externally
rotate the upper arm bones (infraspi-
natus, teres minor, and posterior
deltoids); those that stabilize the
shoulder blades and draw them down
the back (serratus anterior, rhom-
boids, middle and lower trapezius);
and the cervical or deep neck flexors
(longus capitis and longus colli).
This simultaneous over- and
underworking of muscle groups
leads to imbalances that affect the
shoulder girdle. Over time, chronic
slumping can cause rotator-cuff
problems such as rotator-cuff syn-
drome (in which the muscles and
tendons of the shoulder get pinched
and inflamed, causing pain) and pos-
sibly even a rotator-cuff tear thanks
to chronic irritation. Neck pain is
another common side effect. Think
about it: When your head juts for-
ward as you stare at a screen, your
neck muscles—specifically the levator
scapulae and upper trapezius—have
to contract to hold it up. As a result,
the cervical flexors under the neck
become tired and weak, causing yet
another pain-inducing imbalance.
Whatever the root cause of your
slumping, your yoga practice can
help alleviate any resulting pain or
dips in mood by bringing more bal-ance to the muscles in your chest,
upper back, and neck. The poses
on page 66 are a great place to start.
I’m also a big fan of holding Staff
Pose: Sit upright with your palms
pressing into the ground beside your
hips. Draw your shoulders toward
your midline and then slightly down
your back; press your palms firmly
into the ground and attempt to drag
them away from each other isometri-
cally. By doing so, you engage the
weakened lower and middle trape-
zius and rhomboids, and you stretch
the tight pectorals.
And here’s one more simple
exercise for relaxing neck and chest
tightness: Interlace the fingers of
both hands and place them palm-
down on the top of your head, right
in the center. Press your head up into
your hands as you gently press your
hands down into your head. Hold
this dual pressing action for a few
seconds, release for a few seconds,
and then repeat once. You should
feel a straightening of the spine and
a lightness that may make you smile.
As I’ve learned, the best way to
find the most brightness and to coun-
ter the inevitable muscular imbal-
ances that arise as we move through
our lives is to take the time to under-
stand the biomechanics of these
imbalances. We do so by using our
body and studying the energetic
shifts the imbalances cause, which
in turn helps us more readily and
predictably access the proper correc-
tive yoga postures. It’s my opinion
that this is what yoga is really for. PHOTO: RICK CUMMINGS; ILLUSTRATION: MICHELE GRAHAMDo you often feel tightness in your neck and shoulders? Here are surprising
ways it might impact your body–and how yoga can help. By Ray Long, MD