tight shoulders

[Guest guest]

I have very tight shoulders to the point where downward facing dog

puts an incredible strain on my triceps and delts. What is the best

stretch or exercise to loosen them? Thanks

[Guest guest]

ashtanga yoga, "dmtaviv" <dmtaviv> wrote:

> I have very tight shoulders to the point where downward facing dog

> puts an incredible strain on my triceps and delts. What is the best

> stretch or exercise to loosen them? Thanks

 

I had that so badly that I could not do downward dog without lots of

pinching pain in the shoulder. I released this with constant shoulder

and pec stretches and after one particularly good release in a

restorative class I was finally able to begin doing downward dog

without incredible pain. The pose that released it was a lying twist

using sandbags to hold the shoulder down on the ground. I also did

side-lying shoulder clocks daily. Once I got the release from the

restorative pose that day the shoulder clocks became less painful.

Then I was able to start back to yoga. I didn't have frozen

shoulders, per se, but they were pretty tight. If yours are not that

tight then yoga might be all you need. I just needed a little (OK a

lot) of remedial stretching.