Yoga for Neck Pain

Smartphones and tablets are something you can’t live without. You have them with you 24x7. Moreover, if you are a textaholic, you tend to spend prolonged hours texting messages by flexing your neck to look down at the device. Eventually, you have soreness in your neck muscles along with uncomfortable pain. In some cases, it’s found that the neck pain spreads to the adjoining shoulders or the back. You can bring your neck pain, shoulder pain, and back pain under control by performing certain yoga postures. These postures of yoga for neck pain efficiently work on the tension causing muscles and provide relief quickly with regular practice.
● Neck pain is one of the top 5 pain-related health disorders in the U.S. with 10% to 20% of the country’s population reporting neck pain at least once.
● Chronic neck pain, which is also known as a crick in the neck, stiff neck, and aching neck, leads to discomfort which can last from days to weeks and the pain may be due to malignant tumors.

How can yoga for neck pain help you?
Neck pain is a very common condition nowadays. Due to wrong posture or sitting at workplace for long hours many people develop pain in the neck. The most immediate and pocket friendly relief in this case can be provided by yoga exercises. There are many yoga exercises that give quick relief to the pain and ease the muscle tension.

Stiff neck caused due to prolonged hours of working can be treated with the help of yoga. It results in strengthening of muscles and increase in flexibility. Timely cure is important and inevitable as over the time a neck pain may develop into a serious physical problem. Basically this pain is caused due to sitting in one position for long hours which causes tension in the neck and it is important to ease this tension otherwise it may result into recurring headache, dizziness and nausea. However, if the pain continues for many days it is better to consult a physician.

Yoga Poses for neck pain relief
You may begin with basic exercises at the beginning developing further into advanced positions to give relief to your neck muscles. Let us look at ‘X’ Yoga poses for neck pain relief that will relax and strengthen your neck muscle:

Neck Movement
It is the most basic exercise for quick relief from neck pain. For practicing this pose, sit straight with your hands placed on your knees and move your face from centre to the right and then back to the centre and then to the left. While moving your head to the left/right breathe in and breathe out while moving to the centre. Repeat this ten times on each side for instant relief.

This pose can also be tried with moving your head up and down. Similarly you will breathe in while moving your head up and breathe out while moving to the centre. It is to be repeated for ten times in each direction for complete relaxation.

Fish Pose (Matsyasana)
Fish pose is effective in relaxing the muscles surrounding the cervical and thoracic spine. It also helps in expanding the chest and enables deep breathing. To perform this yoga, lie down on a flat surface and stretch your neck upwards to a point when the crown of your head in placed on the floor. Avoid overstraining your neck as it may result into muscle rupture.

Rabbit Pose (Sasakasana)
Sasakasana is great for neck pain as it stretches the back of the neck completely and hence gives a soothing effect to the pain. To perform this asana, sit straight in Vajrasana placing your feet, calf and knees flat on the floor; while sitting stretch the upper half in the front and while doing this lift your lower abdomen. Rest in this posture for 10 seconds, repeat this twice everyday for muscle relaxation.

Cat Pose (Marjaryasana)
Stand straight and bend down stretching both your hands forward. Place your knees on the floor and stretch your whole body forward in a way that you stretch your butts upward. Feel the stretch and hold in this position till the count of ten. Repeat this twice everyday to relax your neck muscles.

Cow Pose (Bitilasana)
It is performed in a similar way to the cat pose, the only difference is the fact that here the neck is lowered down when the body is stretched forward. Cat pose and cow pose are usually performed simultaneously to provide complete relaxation to the body.

Extended Puppy Pose (Uttana Shishosana)
The extended puppy pose gives utmost relaxation to your back as it gives deep stretch to your body, loosens muscle and relieves the ache. For this pose sit on your knees with your calf and feet flat, with this stretch your body forward and place your hands and forehead on the ground. Relax in this position for ten seconds. Repeat this twice everyday for better results.

Thread and Needle Pose (Parsva balasana)
Lie on a flat surface in a similar way like extended puppy pose and instead of stretching your arms in the front, stretch it turn wise with right/left hand in the right/left direction and the other hand in the front. This posture releases the tension between shoulders and shoulder blades. It twists the spine from neck to lower back and hence relieves from any sort of tension caused in your back.

Bharadvaja’s Twist
Sit straight with your legs stretched in the front. Shift your body weight to the left side and fold your right knee under your buttocks, now shift the body weight to your right and fold your left leg over the right knee pointing outside, look on your right. Hold in this position for 20 seconds and repeat the same on the other side. Repeat this exercise thrice everyday for better command and great results.

Mountain Pose (Tadasana)
Stand straight with your toes parallel to each other. Maintain shoulder distance gap between the two. With firm balance in your feet and knees, lower the upper half of your body in the front. Stretch it to a position when your hands are placed on the floor. In this pose, stretch your tailbone as high as possible to give complete relaxation to your body.

Tree Pose (Vrikshasana)
In tadasana, the entire body weight is shifted to one leg, the other leg is folded at the thigh. In this pose the hands are stretched upward in namaskar pose and meditation is practiced focusing on one point to maintain equilibrium.