Workaholic life saved by gentle yoga the chronic pain I was experiencing was made worse by long hours spent at a computer and driving it caused major issues for my upper arms my wrists my elbows and for Zoomers repetitive strain joint pain and age-related stiffness are especially problematic I’ve chosen a simple yoga series that will release overused our muscles from pain it’s so simple that you don’t have to be flexible or in great shape to do it we’ll start with a relaxing shoulder warm-up that will release fresh prana into our arms. And then we’ll strengthen our upper arms and massage our forearms and hands these poses are really easy. But don’t be mislead they will quickly change your arms. And you will notice a much better range of motion and ease of movement let’s start the healing joining me today Maggie Bev and Nina we’re all here to experience a little bit more openness in our upper body we’re gonna begin with shoulder circles.
So we’ll come to Tad Asana the feet are a little bit wider than hip-width apart heels out toes in spreading the toes nice and wide coming back on the heels and feeling the quadriceps activate. So we’re grounding the back line of the body let the in breast lift everything on the front line broadening the collarbones let the out breast take the shoulder blades down the back. And then the next time an out breath comes along we’re gonna take the shoulder forward. And then up. And then back. And then down forward up back and down this warm-up is going to really loosen up the shoulder joint and get some movement of energy deeper into the arm now we’ll go to the opposite side we’re exhaling forward inhaling up inhaling back exhaling the arm down inhaling or exhaling forward inhaling inhaling exhaling one more round exhaling inhaling inhaling and exhaling. And then we’ll just circle the shoulders a few times one way a few times the opposite way so moving some energy out of the shoulders is going to clear the path. So that the energy of the heart can come through and down into the arms. And the hands wonderful please continue to do a couple of these variations of the warm-up.
Yoga for Arms Photo Gallery
And we’ll be back in a few moments to go a little bit deeper into the arms. And the wrists healing yoga yoga for real people with real problems hi my name is Bev I’ve had problems with my arms for the last several years due to a pinched nerve in my neck it’s in my vertebrae 3 & 5 & what. Because of the pinched nerve what happens is I have pain running down my right arm all the way into my hand. And it prevents me from doing everyday chores. And it also prevents me from like driving you know checking my blind spots or backing my vehicle up as opposed to you know pulling through and. So It becomes very very challenging up until recently I basically wasn’t doing anything except being a couch potato. Because I had so much pain in my arms welcome back we’re working with the arms the wrists. And the hands in this practice today and Bev I understand that you have been dealing with some neck and shoulder and arm pain. And this kind of a practice is going to be fantastic. And it’s going to reduce some of the issues that you’ve been dealing with and increase your range of motion will allow you to be a little bit more active and mobile in your upper body. So we’re gonna begin with Vitruvian arm variations. So we come to Tad Asana the feet are about hip-width apart maybe a bit wider heels out toes in and we’re gonna give the upper legs a bit of an inner spiral. And just come back on the heels resting back on the heels feel the quadriceps activating now squeeze the glutes squeeze the side pelvis take the sit bones and tailbone down allow the pubic bone. And the hip points to come up and feel the spine just rising up out of the pelvis like a Lotus growing up out of the water letting the heart expand letting the collarbones broaden bring the shoulder blades together and move them down the back the upper arm bones the humerus bones they’re moving back as well and we’ve got this idea of opening up through the crease on the front and squeezing on the crease on the back of the arms let the back of the neck get nice and long. And then we bring the head toward the back plane of the body. So we’re starting to bring the head back opening up the throat maybe the chin just comes up ever so slightly. And the crown of the head is also rising up now we’re in beautiful in alignment a wonderful relationship with gravity next in breath that comes along we’ll bring the fingers down let the shoulder blades come down.
And then rising up the arms rising up the arms. And then beginning to turn the palms to face forward now we’re spreading the fingers nice and wide engaging the upper arm muscles engaging the forearm muscles really opening up the palms now we’ll take the gaze over to the right looking as far as feels comfortable don’t go into the pain zone stay in the comfort / discomfort zone and take a few long slow smooth and complete in-and-out breaths letting everything lift on the front line of the body exhaling down the back line of the body really reaching out with the fingers energizing the arms coming back to Center at the end of the next out breath and letting the arms come down now we’ll take the right arm up and over. And we’ll let the head rest in this area on the right shoulder we’re not really pressing or pulling we’re just basically pressing the head into the hand and resisting with the hand against the head the left arm is going to come up 45 degrees 90 degrees find a sweet spot reach out with that left arm and find out where the arm would like to be. And then we’ll take a couple of long slow smooth and complete in-and-out breaths really strengthening the arms really working the muscles and hugging them into the bones then the end of the next out breath is gonna bring the arm down. And we’ll be taking the hand behind the back behind the low back take the head of the arm bone here the humerus and move it back a couple of long slow smooth and complete in-and-out breaths into this whole open area of the neck we’ve got a lot of lymphatic tissue things can get stuck here very easily we’re breathing light and spaciousness into this open area we’re squeezing on the close side working with the shoulders is very important when we’re using our practice to relieve tension and holding out of the arms. Because a lot of nerves and blood vessels and lymphatic vessels run through this junction point and bring energy down into the hands. And then we’ll let the arm come back we’ll let go of the head coming back we’ll just shake the shoulders out a little bit.
And then we’re gonna come back onto the heels again maybe there’s a little bit of a micro bend in the knees. And then we’re gonna inhale the arms out shoulder height we’re gonna exhale and spin the palms up rotating the upper arm bones taking the shoulder blades down the back and in behind the heart open through the collar bones broaden. And then we’ll take some cactus arms here alright. And then we’re gonna in the ale and lift the arms up reaching for the sky fingertips spread wide apart exhale the arms come back down squeezing the shoulder blades together opening the heart inhaling lifting reaching exhaling coming down strongly energize the arms. And then we’ll release down circle the shoulders out. And then we’re gonna come to the forearms take the left hand on to the forearms. And just begin to twist things around thread your fingers. And just open and close your fist and see what kind of tension you can find in the forearms we’ve been opening up the shoulders opening up the upper part of the arm the elbows. And now we’re going to be going down into the wrists a little bit more let’s take a moment. And just shake the wrists out shake the hands out now I’d like to invite you to take any of these poses any of these movements that we’ve been doing and continue well we take a break and we’re gonna come back and go into a little bit more deep arm work healing yoga yoga for real people with real problems so what I found since I’ve started taking my yoga practice seriously is that I am able to turn and twist my neck a lot more I’ve got more strength in my arm. So I don’t have the pain is a 24 hour a day pain now it’s more you know depending on how much I use my arm.
So I find that the pain is starting to subside. Because of practicing yoga every day. So I really contribute the fact that gentle yoga has become a part of my life. And it’s not all about these twisty bendy poses anybody can do yoga and can benefit from them welcome back we’ve been working with the arms the wrists. And the hands freeing up some energy that may have been stored and blocked there for a long time down into the biceps the triceps into the forearms. And the fingers and we’re going to carry on with that idea coming into table pose. So we come on to hands and knees. And we spread the fingers nice and wide. And then we just get a feeling of grounding through the ball of the finger the index finger. And the meat of the thumb. And then we’re going to take the left hand and we’re going to swing it in the opposite direction. So the fingers are pointing back now in Bev’s case we’ve got uh some support underneath the heel of the palm and that’s going to give the effect of lifting the floor up a little bit closer to our hands.
So that would be wonderful, if you have a lot of tension in your forearms let’s go to the right arm swing the fingers of the right hand around now we’re just gonna take a couple of breaths here and find out, if we can isolate that area between comfort and discomfort. And the elbows back towards you long slow smooth in-breath and long slow smooth and complete out-breath letting the belly come to the front spine this is going to open up a lot of room for the blood vessels the lymphatic vessels the veins. And the nerves in the forearms in the palms in the hands. And the fingers using the breath to visualize light and spaciousness going into those places that are very tense especially. Because of our keyboarding and our texting we get a lot of energy stored deep in the forearms or two bones in here and there’s a lot of nooks and crannies that store a lot of tension let the out-breath be complete and drop that tension down into the ground then we come back shaking the arms again shaking the wrists out wonderful all right now we’re gonna be moving into reverse namaste we’ll be opening up some more energy blogs in the lower arms so reverse namaste is the opposite of this we’re gonna be doing this. But in behind the back working with reverse namaste is really important for wrist and hand health we are using a lot of devices and we’re creating a lot of tension here reverse namaste reverses that and opens up nerves opens up blood vessels and opens up lymphatic vessels here. So we’re coming into Tad Asana grounding through the heels energizing the legs. And then we broaden through the collar bones and bring the shoulder blades together. And then the arms come down. And then we bring the hands behind let’s point the fingers towards each other. And then see what happens it’s just the fingers touching here perhaps we need to use a belt we’re going to be bringing the fingers together maybe a little bit higher up the back and we’re going to be moving the upper arms behind you opening up through the collar bones long slow smooth in breaths long slow smooth and complete out breaths allowing the palms to come together and moving the arms up the back stay out of the pains own stay in the comfort / discomfort zone and work the breath in that boundary.
And then begin to release exhaling letting the arms come back and moving the palms up the. But we’re also gonna be externally rotating the upper arm bones and broadening more through the collar bones long slow smooth in breath long slow smooth and complete out-breath. And then we’ll release the arms turn around shake it out wonderful now we’re gonna come into Eagle. And the Eagle pose is gonna help us broaden the collarbones and allow us to really work with opening up more energy blogs in the arms. And the wrists please continue to work this variation of Eagle. And we’ll be back in a few moments for it cooldown healing problems circle your wrists and move your fingers and massage your forearms throughout the day this will release a lot of store tension in the layers of muscle and connective tissue welcome back I hope you’ve been enjoying this wonderful sequence that we’ve been doing for the arms the elbows the wrists. And the hands now we’re coming into a cool-down and elevated tranquility pose so we’ve got the spine supported with the bolster or you could use a rolled up blanket or a rolled-up towel at home the arms are out in a tee just moving away from the side ribs. And this is exposing the fourth chakra the energy of the heart. And you can see with the arms coming out all of this energy of love of forgiveness of tolerance of joy is coming out the arms coming through the palms coming through the fingertips now we’re just gonna take a couple of breaths and allow the out-breath to settle us down feel the parts of the body that are heavy the hips the shoulders the back of the head let the out-breath be complete feel yourself getting wider and flatter here, if there’s any pinch enos in the low back you just move your hips away from the bottom of the ribs now we’re going to continue to work with the energy of the heart by taking the fingers up we’re gonna point the fingers up to the sky spreading the fingers nice and wide. And then we’re gonna bring the hands together and we’re gonna hold onto the pinky finger and take a few breaths into each one of the fingers go to the ring finger couple of breaths opening things up we’re gonna be pulling the fingers back very gently try to find that boundary between comfort and discomfort and really enjoy that stretch it shouldn’t be painful at all going on moving on to the other fingers opening things up we’ve got the energy of the heart coming through the shoulders down the upper arms past the elbows through this newly cleared blog that we’ve created in the forearms. And this energy of the fourth chakra is coming through the heart chakra is coming through all of the fingers now let’s switch fingers go to the other hand breathing light and spaciousness into any of the areas that are calling for attention you can feel that there might be a spot in a finger that’s been injured or one of your fingers maybe your thumbs are really tense from a lot of texting or keyboarding. And then we’re gonna shake the hands out circle the wrists a few times. And then we’ll let the arms come back down again let the palms open to the sky and let the fingers unfurl like the petals of a lotus one variation in shav Asana or tranquility pose that you might really enjoy is using a bag of rice or a bag of beans or anything that you might have in the kitchen.
And then being able to just place it on the wrist on the heel of the palm. And just enjoy the sense of grounding on the arms it’s a wonderful way to just allow your whole upper body to release back and let this bolster support your spine let your heart open let your pelvis. And your hips rest down we’ll take a long slow smooth and breath into the feet the legs the hips. And the back breathing in light and spaciousness exhaling tension exhaling holding. And then another long slow smooth and breath. And the top plane of the body breathing in light and spaciousness and exhaling tension and holding. And then coming into an awareness of your heart. And just in your mind’s eye picture this beautiful green light this beautiful glowing green light radiating from your heart out through the shoulders out through the arms out through the hands through the fingers the palms this is the energy of life the color of spring green the energy of love and tolerance forgiveness and joy please continue to enjoy shav Asana for another 15 or 20 minutes, if you can. And we’ll see you again on healing yoga namaste you.
