stiff neck massage self, restorative dessert yoga poses, shoulder pain

Stiff Neck? Massage Self instead of a Spa Dessert Yoga Poses

So do you have a painful, tight and stiff neck? Massage self instead of going to a spa and paying hard earned cash. I used to get tons of free massages when I worked at Spafinder.com a few years ago. I am very picky about my massage and more often then not when I got my massage my neck did not feel any better. They usually just concentrated on my back the entire time. I’ve been to countless chiropractors, acupuncturists, physical therapists, holistic doctors, yoga classes, alternative and VERY alternative healers. I would be so embarrassed to admin to anyone how much I have spent over the past 6 years in the hopes that my neck pain would go away.

I have had a stiff neck for years. One of my chiropractors in Philadelphia gave me this tip to help my neck and shoulder pain ( neck and shoulder pain seem to go together…. I don’t think I’ve ever met someone who had neck pain but didn’t have shoulder pain.)

I don’t ever travel without my tennis balls and a sock for my stiff neck so I can massage my self. I do have to allow a long time to do this since I start at the bottom of my shoulder blades and I lie on the tennis balls a few minutes and then after five minutes I move up to the next vertebrae. I keep going until I get to my occipital ridge….the ridge at the base of my skull and then when I get to that spot I often fall asleep. A great move if you have insomnia.

I recommend doing this tennis balls self massage on the floor and not on a bed. The pressure from the floor will drive the tennis balls deeper into those tight areas and really release that stiffness and pain. It does feel like restorative yoga which is one of my favorite kinds of yoga but requires a lot of props…. you won’t get Taylor Lautner abs from doing this gentle yoga practice but it is a treat and feels like a dessert yoga pose….I usually call it the dessert of yoga… so delicious and will send you to a deep place of tranquility and bliss.

Here is my video for how to do this neck and shoulder massage at home. Turn off your phone, tell no one to bug you for 20 minutes when you are doing this. My husband knows not to ask me anything when I am on my tennis balls…. I become so relaxed that I am incoherent.

I also have gotten so much relief with Jill Miller’s yoga flavored physical therapy moves in her Yoga Tune Up series. So I decided to order her DVD for upper body pain. This DVD is divided into 5 segments specifically for pain in different parts of your body such as your neck, shoulders, hands, wrists and back. The segments range from 5-10 minutes so they are very easy to fit into your day. I found that my pain and tightness had gone down mucho mucho. I have been teaching many of these in my classes and love seeing the look of relief and delight on my students faces when they are able to manage their own health through these moves.

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Jasmine Kaloudis teaches yoga in Philadelphia and yoga for couples and is the author of the best yoga websites for 2011.

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Stiff Neck? Massage Self instead of a Spa – Dessert Yoga Poses