My introduction to yoga happened about 4 years ago. I am a laboratory professional and I used to suffer from very painful stiff muscles in my neck, upper back, and shoulders. I was also stressed from the demands of a busy clinical laboratory. I had also recently relocated from Bermuda to Southern California and was lonely and going through culture shock. A lot to deal with.
I was constantly going for massages which was nice and offered a quiet sanctuary away from it all. The knots behind my shoulder blades would not budge though. A massage therapist kept insisting that I just try some yoga. I blew off the idea several times.
Finally, I bought a few yoga DVDs and tried some of the exercises. It worked; and it works still. I maybe hit the mat 2 times a week. Sometimes I don’t get to it for a week or two. Ideally I would and want to say I do it on a daily basis.
The 2 DVDs that I really loved as a beginner were by Barbara Benagh:
- yoga for stress relief
- yoga for beginners
This is gentle hatha yoga. If you experience chronic neck, shoulder, and back ache from sitting at work perhaps try these DVDs. I bought mine on Amazon. Or search YouTube for simple exercises. Search things like “yoga for neck ache”. There are tons of videos and those are free if you are not sure and want to just try it.
To your health.
microyogi 