Yoga for Neck Pain

Fortunately, through the practice of Yoga asanas and breathing exercises, you gain awareness of things happening in and around your life.



And Yoga can help turn all of problems around. If you have a neck pain, your first task is to learn to reestablish a normal curve in as many situations as possible: sitting at your desk, standing in line at the grocery store, lying in bed.

If done properly, all backward bends except Sethu Bandha Sarvangasana (Bridge Pose) engage your neck extensor muscles.



Asanas like Salabhasana (Locust Pose) and Bhujangasana (Cobra Pose) – backbends in which the weight of the head is lifted against gravity – provide the most strengthening benefits for the back of the neck muscles. However, as you practice these asanas, see that you pull your shoulder blades away from your ears and do not to compress the back of your neck.



Try to feel as if the cervical curve is distributed evenly throughout your entire neck and you're stretching your neck, even as you bend it backwards.

If you tend to have neck pain, Sarvangasana (Shoulderstand) can worsen the problem. As the pose drops your chin toward your chest, it makes it very easy to completely flatten the cervical curve or even curve the neck in the wrong direction. So, if you have a fairly recent, still painful, and acute neck injury like whiplash from an auto accident, avoid Shoulderstand. It would only exacerbate the injury, and practicing it too soon could significantly prolong your healing time.

Besides avoiding alignments and poses that flatten the neck too much, you should also work on strengthening the muscles that help support your cervical curve. These include the muscles along the back of your neck. However, the best known is probably the upper trapezius that reaches from the base of the skull down to the upper shoulder blades. All backbends help here.

If you work on building strength in the back of your neck and get rid of your flattening habits, you usually succeed in restoring a normal cervical curve, helping ensure a healthy neck for decades to come. And get rid of that horrible pain in the neck.