Tai Chi for Shoulder Pain | 10 Minute Daily Routines

Hello earth citizens. In this video we'll show you a 10-minute tai chi routine for shoulder tension. We've invited our friend Jonathan from Body and Brain Yoga. He is the center manager for the Westchester Center in New York City. Are you all ready? Hello everyone, my name is Jonathan. Today we're going to be doing a 10-minute tai chi routine for shoulder tension. I did another previous video tai chi for chest tension. We're going to drop a link in the description below so please check out that video first. You can do that routine directly into this one and eventually you'll be able to bring those two together for a longer routine. And then later I will introduce even more so you can put all of that together. So why don't we go ahead and get started. So the first thing that we're going to be doing is a very gentle warm-up. I don't emphasize doing like profoundly deep stretches or anything like that before these routines. They're very subtle, very gentle, and you can do them about anywhere at any time in any condition that you're in. So you're going to gently bounce your knees, you're going to shake your wrists, and if you feel comfortable you can also shake your head side to side like this. If you're prone to getting dizzy maybe you don't want to do that but you can also move your shoulders more naturally. The point is to shake off tension literally. So you can shake your elbows, you can shake your shoulders, especially since we're going to be emphasizing shoulders. You want to move your shoulders up and down, you can turn your body side to side, take deep breaths into your chest, and then just allow yourself to be more free. If you're moving like this you won't release so much tension. So allow yourself more freedom and space to move. We'll do this for about five breaths, all right? Let's do it together. Inhale, exhale, and I strongly encourage speaking out. You can say ha or any sound is okay to open up your chest and shoulders. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, elongate your spine. Even while you're doing this, allow your spine to grow tall. Inhale, exhale. One more time. Inhale, and exhale. Start to slow down and come to a complete stop. Tuck your tailbone, elongate your spine, pick up your chest, take a deep breath in, and feel your body from corner to corner. Exhale out. Two more times. Inhale, bring your awareness to your shoulders. Exhale. One more time. Inhale, and exhale. Very good. So let's start with the basic motion. Commence, which means to open. Relax your arms and bring them up to about chest height, and then very comfortably let them sink. As your hands go down, your legs will also go down as well. This is called relax and sink. Inhale, and exhale. One more time. Inhale, and exhale. We're going to start by bringing the pinkies together. So the pinky represents the heart meridian channel, and it also represents fire as an element. When fire gets trapped inside of your shoulders, that's how we can become tense. Your arms will rise up with your pinkies still together. You'll bring them straight up as high as you can. If you're stiff, your arms may not go up so high, but if you're more flexible, bring them up higher. When you reach the highest point that you can, your arms are going to open out, and this is how you're going to open your shoulder with this motion, and your hands are going to sink down from the center here. Once you reach down to the bottom, you're going to release, and we'll go back to this commence movement again, and that completes the whole motion. Pretty simple, right? So again, pinkies will come together. You may feel your shoulder tension or anything. You will feel your chest, your shoulder, and even your back. Your hands will come up as you inhale. Your tailbone tucks in. Your belly sinks in. Your spine is going up towards the sky. Your fingers turn in as your elbows turn out, shoulders open. Once you get to your chest, you relax and sink all the way down. You return to the center, and we come back here. Let's do this again. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, and exhale. Very good. Place your hand on your abdomen. Lean your body weight about one degree forward towards the balls of your feet. Relax your knees. Tuck in your tailbone. Elongate your spine, and relax your shoulders as you elevate your ribs. Take a deep breath into your chest, and as you breathe, feel your shoulders. Imagine a string above your head. Make your body as long as possible, but relax and sink your weight into your legs. Breathe in deeply, and breathe out. One more time. Breathe in, and breathe out. Very good. You can shake your hands out. If you feel any tension in your legs, you can also shake your legs out. Otherwise, let's go through this again. Bend your knees. So these postures can be done with a closer posture, like feet together, shoulders width apart, even wider. If you're super intense, you can do these kind of things in an iron horse stance or different leg postures. Anything's okay. But we're practicing this neutral stance and the shoulders width apart, so that way you can get a basic idea of how you can apply yourself in your day-to-day functions. All right. So take a deep breath in from the bottom. Exhale. From the top, inhale. Exhale. From the bottom again, inhale and exhale. Start by bringing your pinkies together. Go straight up. You can take a look at your hands on the way up. Suck in your belly. Elongate your spine. Activate your shoulders. Draw the pinkies down towards your wrists. Turn your knuckles to face each other and open chest, shoulders. Bring your weight down. Fingers down. Sink your weight comfortably. Inhale. Exhale. Let's do this two more times. And one more time. Inhale and exhale. Very slow. Sink your weight. Open. Inhale and exhale. One more time. Inhale and exhale. Relax your arms by your side. Open your chest and elongate your spine. Feel the space between your chest and your shoulders around this region of your body. So as you breathe in, feel your chest. Your hands can be relaxed. And then feel the space between your chest and your shoulders, not just from the front side, but from the top, neck to shoulder, and back to shoulder as well. Breathe as if you can breathe into that space. Inhale. And as you exhale, trace your awareness from your shoulder to your fingertips to eliminate any tension from the shoulders out to the palms and fingers. Two more times. Inhale and exhale. Last time. Inhale and exhale. Very good. Place your hands on your lower abdomen and you can rest your eyes for these final three breaths. And again, check your body as you did in the beginning and feel even subtle changes are good. It doesn't have to be dramatic changes, but you can feel some activation in your shoulders, tingling, warm sensation, vibration, even an activation like a contracting and expanding feeling. Breathe in and breathe out. Let go of all the worries in your chest and shoulders. Inhale and exhale. Bring your feet together. Inhale and exhale. Everyone, you did a great job. To experience a full one-hour brain education-based class, please visit a local Body and Brain Yoga Studio near you.