4 Yoga Poses for Shoulder Pain and Injuries

If there are any body parts that definitely share your load, it’s your shoulders. They bear the load of every burden you put on them, real as well as imagined. But while other body parts get their time under the sun, when it comes to our poor shoulders, their misery is seldom discussed.

Unless you’re a practicing sportsperson, you’re unlikely to injure your shoulders in a major way. But do you realize that all those long hours that you spend hunched over at your desk, and all the stress and strain you accumulate, they all affect and injure your shoulders too? This can greatly affect one’s exercise regimen, especially if they are a gym buff. However, there are other ways to work around this. If you too are waking up with unexplained shoulder aches, and pains, you could switch to Yoga. Not only is it a gentler exercise regimen but it can also help you in recovering from those shoulder injuries.

Although shoulders often play a crucial rule in almost all Yoga poses and exercises, so we need to modify them in order to provide relief to them and treat their injuries.

Before we begin to tell you about these modifications, let us first examine what kind of injuries we are aiming to treat.

Shoulder: Our Load-Bearing Joints

The composition of shoulders (the unique joints) allows them a great deal of flexibility and a larger range on movement. But it also means that they are at a greater risk of injury. Primarily, these are the two injuries that occur:

• Injuries affecting joints such as tendonitis which affects mobility
• Injury to the muscles which are present around the joint, which weakens muscles

Now, you should ascertain which of these is the issue with your shoulders. Usually, the pain can manifest itself when you raise your arms or when you carry a load on your shoulders.

In these cases, you wouldn’t be able to practice poses such as Downward Facing Dog, Warrior II, UrdhwaHastasana, since they require you to put stress on your shoulders and raise your arms. Neither can you practice balancing poses, as it puts your shoulder at risk.

But here’s what you can do.

Modifications For Yoga Poses

To carry out these modifications, we suggest you make use of the following process to make it more comfortable for you:

• Yoga blanket, Yoga block, and Yoga strap

1. Cobra Pose Modification: Baby Cobra

• Lie on your stomach on the yoga mat with your toes pointed outwards and forehead touching the mat.
• Align your legs together, such that your feet and heels are touching.
• Place your palms (facing the mat) on the mat and elbows close to your torso.
• Slowly, inhale and push the torso and chest upwards.
• Instead of pushing with your palms, allow them to rest. Instead, use your back.
• Breathe out and bring your chest and torso back to the mat.

 How It Helps: This modification helps the arms by keeping the weight off them and strengthens your spine.

2. Warrior II Modification: Hands On Hips

• Assume the standing position as practiced in the Warrior II pose.
• Spread your legs. Put your one foot forward by bending it at the knee, at an angle of 90 degrees, with its toes pointed in the direction of the mat.
• Stretch the other foot behind, and position its toes perpendicular to the mat.
• Now instead of balancing your arms, put them on your hips.

How It Helps: Instead of further straining the shoulders by stretching the arms, this modification allows them time to heal.

3. Upward Salute And Chair Pose Modifications: Samastithi

• For positions such as UrdhvaHastasana or other ones which involve raising arms over your head, do this instead, bring them to your heart.
• Press your wrists close to each other and allow your shoulders to relax.

 How It Helps: In addition to providing relief to shoulder muscles, this move fortifies the wrist and provides relief with carpel tunnel syndrome.

4. Crow Pose Modification: SuptaBakasana

• Lie down on the Yoga mat, and bring your knees up to your chest
• Try to lift your shoulders, neck, and head off the mat by engaging your core.
• Push your hands towards the ceiling.
• Now join your toes and open your knees and bring them toward your triceps.
• Engage your lower abdomen and arrange your triceps such that they touch your knees.

How It Helps: It removes the pressure exerted by gravity and weight from your arms and shoulders, meanwhile, it strengthens your back by training it to engage all its muscles.

So there, these simple modifications allow you to get an intensive workout without further injuring your shoulder. They also precipitate healing of those injuries, thereby providing you relief from the shoulder pain. Try them and let us know how they worked out for you.

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