Decreasing Neck & Shoulder Tension with Letitia

Saturday, Feb. 17th, 2024  •  1-3 pm

Join us in person or online for this two-hour workshop!

$60 ($54 for PY828 members)

12 in-studio spaces • Live attendance not necessary for online students • 30 days access to recording for all

Learn simple, practical movements to increase both the strength and flexibility of your neck and shoulders to decrease tension and relieve stress. Access the recording until March 17th.

• Discover and explore the muscles of the neck and shoulders to learn which ones need attention
• Learn simple yet effective myofascial massage techniques to enhance mobility and lessen tension
• Expand your toolkit of shoulder strengthening poses

What’s the most common physical complaint among my students: Neck and shoulder tension. And all kinds of stuff can trigger it, from gazing down at our phone, books, and writing pads; or sleeping in strange positions or on a less-than-ideal pillow; or tasks that keep our shoulders climbing up around our neck like keyboarding, chopping vegetables, or cutting hair; or even the habitual ways we stand, sit, walk. Add to these physical challenges emotional components that can bring tension into our neck, shoulders, and upper back, such as feeling overburdened, shyness or hesitancy around communicating our needs, or feeling a disconnect between our head and our heart. Idioms like ‘he’s got the weight of the world on his shoulders’ often express our understanding that neck and shoulder tension is more than just muscular imbalance or a pain in one’s neck.

In this workshop, you’ll learn about the muscles of the neck, shoulders, and upper back so you can identity what might be troublesome for you and then – based on your own self-exploration with those muscles – learn a wide variety of techniques, poses, and exercises to help decrease the tension in these areas. Lastly, we’ll work on some strength-building poses and movements because sometimes it’s overly-long, or overly lax muscles that are causing the problem. You’ll leave the workshop with a buffet of things to experiment with to reach a greater feeling of freedom, openness, stability, and strength in the neck, shoulders, and upper back AND you’ll have 30 days with the video to practice, refine, and explore what works best for you.

This workshop will be fairly prop-heavy. For at home participants, to get the most out of this experience, the following props are recommended. We’ll have all of this for students to use at the studio:

• an 8 to 10 foot yoga strap that can be looped
• a myofascial therapy ball (this could be a tennis or a lacrosse ball)
• a long dowel around 1-2″ in diameter (this could be a broom handle)
• a pair of yoga blocks
• a yoga chair or a folding chair with a flat seat and a back (or something similar)

For online participants, you’ll get the most out of this workshop if I can see your whole body from head to toe as well as be able to move in closely to view demos or work close to the camera.

In-person attendees are capped at 12. Masks are optional but welcomed in the studio. Live attendance is not necessary for online participants. All students will receive the class recording and have access to that recording until March 17th. We will have a designated demo model for online participants to be able to view at all times.

And in true Purna Yoga fashion, we’ll also discuss nutritional aspects of shoulder health and meditation techniques that can help to bridge the gap between our mind and our heart center.

I’m no stranger to neck and shoulder issues myself. Let’s explore this area of the body together to feel more freedom and ease in the neck, shoulders, and upper back.

Register below or call Purna Yoga 828

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