Yoga at Home: Backward Handclasp -Great for Loosening Tight Shoulders!

Do you ever wake up in the morning with stiff shoulders?  Are you guilty of hunching over your computer at work only to realize an hour or two later how tight your rotator cuffs and shoulders feel?  Well, I have a simple (although not necessarily easy to do at first) yoga "fix" for such problems.  It's called the yoga backward handclasp or shoulder stretch and it's perfect for getting tight kinks out of your shoulder blades, rotator cuffs, and upper arms.  Check it out!  I do this yoga pose daily.

Backward Handclasp/Shoulder Stretch

Type of yoga pose: Active, can be done seated or standing 

Body parts targeted:  Upper arms, shoulder blades, spine, back muscles

How to do the pose:

1. Sit or stand erect. If seated, the Japanese sitting pose or any cross-legged pose (simple cross-legged pose, half-lotus, or full lotus pose) on your mat is most conducive for the backward handclasp.
2. Gently and firmly raise your left arm directly into the air as high as you can. F  -e  -  e-  l   the stretch—I often imagine myself trying to reach the clouds as I lift my arm directly into the air—I enjoy elongating my arm straight above my shoulder.
3. Slowly, move your right hand behind you, palm facing outward, and bend your elbow so that the back of your right hand is against your spine.
4. Bend your left arm at the elbow so your left hand, palm downward, touches the center of your back. Your left elbow is pointing straight up into the air.
5. Carefully work your left hand while at the same time inch your right hand slowly upward so that the fingers of your two hands can clasp each other if possible. This may be difficult when you first practice this exercise. Some beginners use props like belts or towels to make the reach if they can’t clasp their hands. I just kept my hands on my back as far as they could reach.
6. Hold this position motionless for 5 seconds.
7. Gently release your fingers and come out of the pose reversing the steps you used to enter it. Again, feel the stretch and imagine touching the clouds as you raise your left arm again directly up into the air. Release and bring your arm down. Inhale and exhale at least once. Raise your shoulders toward your eyes and gently shake them out.  That should feel so good!
8. Reverse sides and do the same steps starting by raising the right arm directly up into the air.  Inhale and exhale again after finishing the exercise.

Practice Time: Hold the pose for 5 seconds; add 5 seconds each week until you are holding the pose for 25-30 seconds on each side.

Number of repetitions:  1-2 on each side

Key benefits from this pose: 

1. Improves your posture.  You may start walking with more grace and elegance by adjusting and straightening your spine and back muscles.
2. Develops the seldom-used trapezius muscles at the top of the shoulder blades and the muscles under the shoulder blades. Helps to broaden and straighten the shoulders.
3. Opens the rib cage.
4. Helps prevent calcium deposits in the arm joints.
5. Eases tension in the shoulders and upper back.
6. Firms and tones upper arms.
7. Enhances breast health, according to some yoga teachers.
8. Enhances symmetry in shoulders and upper arms.  Yoga teacher Tara Fraser recommends this pose for people who play racquet sports like tennis to restore muscular balance for the less used arm.

 Special hints and Laura’s experience with this pose:

This exercise can seem difficult at first! Don’t become discouraged if it takes you a few weeks or even a month or more to be able to interlace your fingers as shown above.  If you store a lot of tension in your neck and shoulders, you may find it helpful and soothing to do this pose with the neck rolls back to back.

This was one pose I didn’t do for a few years when I was doing yoga off and on after my son was born. When I took it up again a few years ago, I could not clasp the fingers of my hands together at all and I felt a slight strain even attempting this! My left arm was much stiffer than the right. But, I focused on holding my hands as close together as possible. Over the next few weeks, I was able to inch my hands closer and closer until I could interlace my fingers and hold my hands together.  Yoga is so effective in creating or restoring balance in the body that later, I could not even remember which side had been the stiff one.

Yours for opening and loosening your shoulders with yoga,

Laura Venecia Rodriguez, the Beginners' Yoga at Home Coach

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Laura Rodriguez]

I appreciate your feedback - thanks!

[Laura Rodriguez]

I appreciate your comments. Please let me know if there's anything specific you'd like me to discuss.

[Michael Jackson Lyrics]

Really informative post. Spent a great deal of time reading your blog. keep up the good work

[Laura Rodriguez]

Thanks so much Renee for your comments!

[Account Deleted]

Very informative post. Get to know something new and very informative. Love to read more posts like this.

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