How to protect the cervical spine during yoga practice?

Cervical spine problems often occur

Do not know if you have any experience sleeping stiff neck? Wake up in the morning and find that your neck can't move, or it hurts to rotate your neck? This is commonly known as stiff neck. Most people explain that stiff necks are caused by poor posture while sleeping, and some Chinese medicine believe that people who fall on their shoulders are caused by poor circulation of qi and blood.

Regardless of the cause of the stiff neck, judging from the painful experience of many people, the neck is a place where problems occasionally occur. It's just that we usually don't pay attention to maintaining it, so it's no wonder it occasionally complains.

If you know that among the most important skeleton supporting our body, the two most common parts of the spine, are the lumbar vertebra and the other is the cervical vertebra, then you will know how important it is to pay attention to posture and maintain it in ordinary times. Why do these two vertebrae most often have bone spurs and ectopic bones? Because of this, they are the two segments of our spine that can rotate at the largest angle. We can easily rotate the neck 180 degrees and the lumbar spine 90 degrees, but I don't think anyone can rotate the thoracic spine 90 degrees alone, right?

Because the cervical spine has a large range of motion, it is only a short length of a few segments, but it is very important. It not only protects the arteries and veins leading to the head, but also contains the trachea and glands. If there is a major cervical problem, how serious it will be.

In addition, the neck problem is not just neck discomfort, but also goes up to the head and down to the shoulders and chest. If you can solve your neck problem, your headaches, tight shoulders and excessive pressure will be reduced by at least one-third.

the maintenance mode

The way to maintain it is very simple. Turn the neck more often to prevent it from staying in a fixed position for too long. Some people have been using computers for a long time and only stared at the screen in front of them. They have hardly moved their neck for the whole day. It doesn't matter for a day, but it's still okay for a month or two months. After a year, I think it's difficult for his cervical vertebrae to be normal.

However, be careful when turning your neck and do not use excessive force. Some people are used to twisting their necks themselves and twisting their necks until they are carakala, thinking that this will loosen their shoulders and necks. However, this was a very dangerous action. It was possible that his shoulders and neck were stiff that day and he couldn't twist as usual, so something could easily happen.

Therefore, I suggest that when you get up in the morning or when it is cold and you hold the same position for a long time, you should recite the principle of "slow and big" in your heart when you first turn your head. That is, the slower the first and second laps, the better. And imagine your chin drawing a large circle in the air. If your shoulders and neck are particularly tight on one side, stay there for one to three more breaths. Please remember to do it counterclockwise after turning clockwise.

Points to pay attention to the posture method

If some students don't pay attention during yoga asanas, they may feel more tense in their shoulders and necks after returning home. So I have repeatedly emphasized that in yoga, we should pay more attention to the posture of this area and the focus of relaxing at any time.

Many people often twist their necks too much, which is the main cause of shoulder and neck discomfort after postures. For example, when leaning back, you will unconsciously press on your neck to let your eyes see behind you. If you look at your side from a mirror, you will find that the curvature of the entire spine is even wider to your neck, as if your neck is about to be broken.

When doing Cobra pose, many people also have the same condition, that is, their necks are tilted back too much. Not to mention camel pose, bow pose...

To avoid this situation, when doing various postures (not just leaning back), please always tell yourself to retract your chin slightly to lengthen your cervical spine and keep the entire back spine in a natural state. If it is a reclining movement, the spine should have a smooth arc rather than being deformed as soon as it reaches the neck. (Internship Editor: Wu Jinyu)