Shoulders to Cry on
Dear Yoga Therapist: A Column for the Questions You Didn't Know You Could Ask
Dear Yoga Therapist: A Column for the Questions You Didn’t Know You Could Ask
Welcome to the column where the questions you don’t ask in the middle of class get an answer.
I’m Ronny, yoga therapist and your willing guide into all things body, breath, and being human. Whether you’re wondering why your hip flexors are staging a revolt, how to actually apply the Yamas when your coworker drives you nuts, or what on earth the koshas have to do with your anxiety — this is your space to ask.
No question is too small, too strange, or too woo-woo. Bring me your tight IT bands, your sleep trouble, and everything in between. I’ll give you my honest, Yoga therapist-informed, occasionally hot take.
This week’s question comes from a hairstylist whose shoulders have had enough. It reads:
“Hello, I am writing in hopes to find more comfort for my tight neck and shoulders, especially during yoga. I have been a hairstylist for just over ten years, and over time my neck and shoulder pain has increased. I went from working full-time 40 hours to 3 days 25 hours a week. I thought the decrease in workload would decrease the pain, but it has not. I have been to Physical therapy, massage, and received acupuncture in 2018. Physical therapy helps at times when I am consistent, but not always. I have been “diagnosed” with Bicep tendinopathy. No bone damage that I am aware of. I had frozen shoulder for 2 weeks in 2020 and my shoulder has been way worse since then. I am starting to notice the same pain in my right shoulder. This pain is making it harder for me to practice yoga without being in more pain, as well as doing my job, daily activities and especially while sleeping. Do you have any advice that may help me? Thank you for your time and energy in the yoga therapist column. I do find them to be helpful.
Signed,
Shoulders to Cry On”
Dear Shoulders to Cry On,
Thank you for writing! Ten years of holding your arms up for other people, and now your own body is asking for some of that attention back. If you’re working with a physical therapist or physician, please keep this letter as a companion to that care, not a replacement for it. Check with your care team before changing anything about your treatment plan.
I have to say, as a bald man, I haven’t sat in a barber’s chair in quite a while. However, cutting and styling hair seems to mean hours with your arms up and away from your body, day after day. That’s a lot to ask of the muscles that are supposed to keep your shoulders stable while your arm does the work. Over ten years, those stabilizing muscles get overworked and worn out long before you would call it an injury. The tendon in front of your shoulder (the one behind your “biceps tendinopathy” diagnosis) ends up picking up the slack. One part has been working overtime for a job that was supposed to be shared.
The frozen shoulder in 2020 adds another layer. That kind of stiffness tends to stick around in the joint even after the worst of it passes, and a joint that doesn’t move as freely gets compensated for by everything nearby — the neck, the upper back, even the other shoulder. That’s likely part of why your right side is starting to complain now. It’s not a new problem. It’s the same pattern looking for somewhere else to go.
For your yoga practice specifically, this usually means a few adjustments: keeping the arms lower and consider a bend in the elbow in poses that would normally ask for full overhead reach, softening the pace of vinyasas that repeatedly load the shoulder, and building strength in the muscles between the shoulder blades so they can actually do their job of holding things steady. None of this is about avoiding yoga, it’s about the practice meeting the shoulder you actually have right now, not the one you had ten years ago.
There’s a phrase from the Yoga Sutras that’s been useful to me here: sthira sukham asanam (sutra 2.46) — the seat, the posture, should be steady and at ease. This is the only instruction on yoga postures given in the Sutras. Patanjali, the writer of the Sutras, was describing a relationship where effort and ease are both present, and neither cancels the other out. A pose that aggravates your shoulder isn’t more advanced. It’s just causing you pain. Finding the version of a posture that lets you be both engaged and unguarded is not a compromise. It’s the actual instruction.
You’ve already shown you know how to be patient with your body — years of physical therapy, massage, acupuncture, showing up even when it “helps but not always.” That patience is not wasted effort. It’s the entire practice.
Keep showing up. We’ll keep meeting you there.
With love and steadier shoulders,
Your Y.T.
As always, if you are experiencing new or worsening pain, please consult with your physician or a qualified healthcare provider before beginning or continuing any movement practice. Yoga therapy is a wonderful complement to medical care — but it is not a substitute for it.