Shoulders and neck

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This is something I give to just about everyone. The idea that we must pull our shoulders back to get rid of that rounded shape is bonkers. Just think: You're rounded forward, hunched over, and from there you pull the shoulders back, adding contraction backwards on top of the contraction forwards. That is what I call a colossal muscular traffic jam. 

Instead, use this little sequence to reset your ribs so that your shoulders can hang in an easy place. 

• Interlace your hands above your head. Don't touch, just hover. Keep your elbows bent.

• Turn the palms away from you without straightening the arms.

• Look up at the backs of the hands, then immediately look forwards again. No need to hold a position here.

• Un-interlace your hands, bring your arms out to the side and down.

Here is a video of this tip:

This short sequence helps take the tension out of the neck by moving the shoulders and arms relative to the head and neck. Some reaching, gliding, and swiveling helps “support the short,” as I always say. This lets the muscles return to neutral, especially the tone along the side of the neck and out to the shoulder joint. Do not stretch or pull on your muscles, just give them an alternate, more intelligent pattern!

Another version of “support the short” to ease muscle contraction along the neck. Here, you raise a shoulder and tilt the head towards it as much as you can without strain. Leaving the two close together, begin to tilt yourself to the side and back up without separating the head and shoulder.

Do that five or six times, then stand upright and let the shoulder drop. How does that side of you feel now? Do the other side.

This is such a healthy movement as long as you allow your whole self to participate. If you're robotic or stiff and only moving the arm from the shoulder joint, it won't be fun. If you let your chest, belly, pelvis, knees, rear end, and back all respond to the arm, it's “super fun,” as my eleven year-old client says.

With the back of the hand on the wall, begin to swirl the hand around up, down, sideways, toward the floor, toward the ceiling. The only constraint is that the back of the hand stays on the wall. You can lift the wrist and elbow, just not the hand. With the constraint, how do you respond to the hand? Can you let your whole self move? Draw circles, shapes, swivels, arcs, letters, whatever makes you happy. Then, stand up and let the arms hang. Can you feel a difference in the arm you were playing with?

I love this move. It's a puzzle trick for sure to move the elbow without lifting the hand off the belly. It teaches you to move the ribs, upper back, collarbones, and more. Plus, focusing on the elbow takes the attention off the shoulder. This is a wonderful move for people who get knots in their upper back near their shoulder blades.

For the full lesson like this, see:
205 Collarbone and shoulder extravaganza

As you clarify how the arm connects to the back, the power of the arm improves. Test it and see.

This move rotates the hand on the chair next to you. You vary the rounding and arching of the back as you rotate through the arm and sense the bone-by-bone connection into the collarbone and sternum.

For the whole lesson on rotating the hand, see 187, 188 Rotate hand on chair.

This is another sequence I give to just about everyone as we all have eye strain from holding still and focusing for long periods. This will break up the intensity of that lock-down in the neck as well as free the head on top of the spine. For this movement, you look at your finger in front of your face and turn your head left and right. Simple, right? Then you look at your finger and at the wall out in front of you, back and forth. Still simple. Then, turn your head while changing the focal distance from finger to wall and back.

For the whole lesson, see 239, 240 Focal distance.

This is a lovely, slow exploration of the bone-by-bone sequencing of the fingertips through the arm, into the shoulder, collarbone, breastbone, ribs, and spine. The alternating trajectories and feeling of folding in the ribs in many directions help reset the arm as it connects to the middle of your back.

As you move the arm, you sense the belly, breath, and jaw, the trifecta of stress factors. As you allow movement to connect the dots while breathing, while soft in the jaw, the arm and shoulder become lighter and lighter.

For a similar lesson, see:
200 Left shoulder reintegration

A lovely loosening of all the tension right between the spine and the shoulder blades. This exploration often softens those shoulder-blade-knots many of us get.

This movement has the arms in a triangle, palms together. You lift the pelvis high in the air and bring the triangle to one side as you oscillate with a little push-pull on the feet (not bopping up and down but sliding head-ward and foot-ward), massaging the area between the shoulder and spine. The ribs start to slide on the front of the shoulder blades, pushing them down and back, over and over. Notice how the arms hang after this!

For a full lesson on this movement, see 65 Spine like a chain

This sequence practices the engage/disengage strategy of activating the muscles and letting them go. After dropping the shoulders percusively on the floor many times, the brain senses, “oh, yes, there's the support, there's the support,” and the muscles stop gripping so much. This is a classic move that everyone can benefit from, all the time.

For a full lesson on this movement, see 197, 198 Shoulder plunking.

A short, quick way to soften the tone across the upper back. You hug yourself with the arms and make a round shape of the upper back. Then you lift one shoulder and the other to shift the contact side to side. The trick here is to keep the contact continuous, no hops and jumps. “The floor is our teacher,” Moshe says. Feel how the appropriate lifting and pressing lets the back slowly come into fuller and fuller contact with the floor.

For a full lesson on this movement, see 38 Rocking and turning frees the spine and neck.

This short sequence I give to all my clients with jaw pain. It’s a good place to start if you hold a lot of tension in the jaw. Start by opening the mouth a couple times, then leave it open and slide the jaw forward and back in the open position. Then open it again and see if it’s easier. If you have a lot of jaw tension, please see all the sensorimotor jaw lessons here: Release the jaw, neck, and face. It is possible to retrain this very cumbersome area.    

Another thing to do is to talk with your tongue sticking out out. Do not pull it back in. Talk for two minutes to your plants or your dog. Narrate what you’re doing. This stops you from using the same muscles you usually rely on. You will feel a big relief in the muscles on the side of the cheeks.

Also try a counter-rotation of the head and jaw. This is best done lying down. Put one hand on the forehead and one on the jaw bone, thumb on one side, fingers on the other. Roll the head one way and the jaw the other. This will be very small. With gentle, delicate movements, you can improve the differentiation. Notice if your eyes or tongue are fixed and let them be free.

Lastly, tilt your head and jaw opposite. Lying down, put the fingers of both hands on your jaw bone and the thumbs underneath, not gripping hard. Hold your jaw in place as you tilt the head back. You are not opening the mouth using the jaw, you are separating the skull from the jaw. Go very gently and delicately and it will improve.

For full jaw lesson, see 246, 247 Jaw integrates whole self.