Yoga and Fitness

Posts Tagged ‘neck pain’

I have a pain in the neck. No, no, you didn’t read that right – I said I have a pain in the neck, not I am a pain in the neck!

I’m pretty sure it stems from my bad posture when I’m sitting at my desk. Oh sure, when I first sit down, I make an effort to keep my spine straight and my shoulders back. However, once I dig in and start focusing on my work, I forget about everything else. I slouch in my chair with my shoulders hunched while I type away, oblivious to everything except getting my work done.

Sound familiar?

Well, recently my neck has really been bothering me – what used to be a temporary crick has become a permanent one. At first, I thought it was my pillow, so I tried using another one…and another…and another…. Nope, not the pillow.

So at my last yoga class, I decided to mention my problem to my instructor – and I was surprised when many of my fellow participants said they had a similar problem. Sure enough, my yoga instructor said it was probably due to poor posture, although there could also be many other underlying factors that were causing the pain. And – of course – she said there were some asanas that would help to alleviate the pressure and stress on the neck area to relieve the pain.

She proceeded to take us through these asanas, as well as some breathing exercises. I was a little wary about trying them because my neck was so sore, but my instructor reminded me to do only what was comfortable and not push it, as I could injure my neck even more. Since I’d mentioned that I spend most of my time at my desk working on the computer, she also took us through pain-relieving asanas for the neck that we could do while sitting in a chair.

I have to say I didn’t notice much of a difference when I got home – the crick was still there. But that night I slept wonderfully and woke up feeling refreshed. I went about my usual business and didn’t even notice that the crick in my neck had gone until I sat down at my desk. That’s when I noticed that the pain was gone – yes!

I’d love to say that my posture has improved but I find that I’m still slouching and hunching my shoulders. The difference now, though, is that I take a few minutes every couple of hours to go through the yoga poses and breathing exercises.

Now if I could only remember not to slouch….