Restorative Yoga poses to relieve shoulder tension

Achy shoulders… hands up if you DON’T suffer from them… nobody? Well that doesn’t surprise me. Which is why we will focus on effective ways to relieve shoulder tension in this post.

Probably the number one topic that people ask me about is neck and shoulder tension. Because we all have it at some stage. Sitting at the desk, looking at your mobile phone all day, driving, cooking, cleaning, carrying children. Pretty much everything we do during the day sadly contributes to neck & shoulder tension. Especially if we don’t do it mindfully and don’t pay attention to our posture!

Relieve Shoulder Tension

In my 13 years of practising yoga I’ve tried out many different styles of yoga. I’ve loved building up strength with Ashtanga Yoga, learning more about correct alignment in Iyengar Yoga and exploring movement in Scaravelli Yoga. Shoulder tension has always been a part of my life since I was a teenager. Yoga has helped but I definitely can’t say that just any type of yoga helped.

I’ve definitely had times when my ego took over, when I so wanted to achieve a pose that I lost sight of why I did yoga in the first place. To make my body feel better!

I think it’s very important to recognise what it is that your body needs at a given time. There is definitely no one size fits all approach. So whenever I feel now that things are not going in the right direction I slow down and listen to my body.

Restorative Yoga

There is no better way to slow down and listen than in Restorative Yoga. I’m not a Restorative Yoga Teacher but I’ve always loved exploring it and have been practising it for many years. It’s my Go To style of yoga whenever my body needs healing in any way and when I have aches and pains.

In Restorative Yoga we hold the postures a long time (5-20 min) similar to Yin Yoga but different in the way that the body is fully supported by props (blankets, blocks, bolsters etc.)

Being supported in that way means that the body can completely relax and release which is so important to relieve shoulder tension. Don’t worry if you don’t have a lot of yoga props at home. Bath towels, simple fleece blankets and books will do just fine as props.

Video – two restorative yoga poses to relieve shoulder tension

I did this short Facebook Live session on my Yogaberry page recently and I really hope you find this useful! You will find two poses that you can practise easily at home. And you will see that less if often more!