Yesterday I wrote about benefits of yoga after pregnancy; and today we continue this subject, and see how yoga helps relieve neck and shoulder pain.
During breastfeeding or bottle-feeding many new mothers experience pain in neck and shoulders because they spend many hours in a leaned forward position to feed the baby. As a result, the hunched posture can cause other problems, such as headaches and back pain.
The solution yoga offers is doing Brahma mudra and Gomukhasana. These exercises can be done right before the feeding.
Brahma Mudra
While inhaling, pull the top of your head upward; on exhale, place the chin on the chest and look at the tip of your nose. Again, on inhale, pull the head’s top upward, and move your head back, focusing your eyesight between the eyebrows.
Now, pull the top of the head upward on inhale, and while exhaling, look to the right side over the right shoulder as much as possible. Head upward on inhale, on exhale look over the left shoulder.
You can also add tilting your head to right and left shoulder on exhale, and circular movements of the head circling your eyes at the same time: inhale on a half a round, and then exhale on the other half.
Gomukhasana or the Cow Face Pose
Kneel with your legs crossed, so that the knee of one leg is in front of the other leg’s knee. Now sit on the floor between your heels – the right ankle is placed next to the left buttock and left ankle near the right buttock. Keep your spine straight. Join the hands behind the back in the following way: one hand moves over the shoulder, and the other one – from below. Hold the pose for 5 breaths, then change the hands.
If Gomukhasana is too difficult for you, you can do Virasana, where your knees are kept together, and the heels are close to the buttocks
These are the simple yoga poses to relieve pain in neck and shoulders. To make your body more trained and experience less of such pain, you need to follow a routine on a regular basis.
From my own experience, such poses as Trikonasana, Parsvakonasana, Virabhadrasana, Bhujangasana, Paschimottanasana, Ardha Matsyendrasana, etc. – do help with neck, shoulder and back pains; they not only relieve them but prevent as well. But such prevention is only possible if you do them regularly, better – daily.
I have never been pregnant but my yoga instructor did recommend I looked at some exercises like this as I suffer often from shoulder and neck pain. I’ve had a lot of trouble trying to find some on the net which is a shame because I love doing yoga at home. I really can’t wait to try this, Really helpful and clear instructions too. I also would recommend to those suffering with the same or similar kind of pain to me (post pregnant or not) to invest in a memory foam mattress also as it really has helped me out. Thanks for sharing!