The Who, What, and Why of "Yoga for Shoulders"

So, I've been posting up for months about my Yoga for Shoulders classes and video.  You may be wondering why I teach Yoga for Shoulders and if it's appropriate for you.  So here is my story, some info on shoulder injuries,  and how you can and can't use yoga to heal:

Yoga for Shoulders—7 Steps to Healing and Preventing Sports Injuries

As a whitewater athlete, I’ve had my share of shoulder injuries over the years.  During my first couple of injuries, I was in my yoga teacher training and healed up pretty quickly; or so it seemed.  As I got older, I developed chronic pain in my shoulder.  I thought that I would just need to get used to the pain—I was an extreme athlete, and pain was par for the course, right?  Then I began studying yoga therapy and playing around with some different yoga techniques.  To my amazement, pain that I'd had in my shoulder for seven years went away in about two weeks with the right exercises.  As the pain faded, I gained a safe range of motion that I never thought possible, and my strength increased.  Now I can do all kinds of things that I had been told that I would never do again without surgery.  My yoga practice and paddling are thriving, and my athletic life is opening up to new possibilities every day. 

Inspired by my healing, I began educating myself further so that I could help other injured athletes use yoga to gain more freedom and strength in their bodies.  For several years, I immersed myself in more therapy based yoga teacher training, and I taught yoga classes to people with shoulder injuries.  Through the process, I discovered what shoulder problems are common in active people and what should be done in order to heal through yoga practice.    

Generally, active people's shoulders become injured because of trauma–such as a dislocation and/or repetitive motion and posture–such as kayaking or riding a bike.  Obviously, after trauma, an injury needs healing time.  If you experience pain in the following months or years, the injury has become chronic.  Bodily imbalances then develop that are often similar to repetitive motion injury.  Either way, the typical scenario is that the arm bone tends to move forward in the socket due to muscular imbalances.  As the arm bone rolls forward, it causes the opening between the arm bone, the collarbone, and the shoulder blade to become smaller until it pinches on important stabilizing tendons causing pain and swelling.  Further, when pinched, the tendons are cut off from the muscles causing instability in the shoulder. The symptoms of this are weakness and burning in the front and back of the shoulder and feeling as if your arm might come off as you reach for the shampoo bottle in the shower.

If you exercise and push through these pain sensations, go ahead and make an appointment with your orthopedist for surgery.  The exercise will speed up the injury process, and you'll need surgery pretty soon.  Think of a rope moving back and forth between sharp rocks.  What will eventually happen?  By pushing through pain sensations in your shoulder while working out or doing yoga, you’re causing damage—pain and swelling are your body's signal.  If you truly want to heal, you have to learn to listen to your body's pain signals and work within a pain-free range of motion, or you will be in pain and injured forever. 

So, what should you do to heal or prevent this kind of injury?  These are the steps that I take using yoga as therapy to help someone heal from a shoulder injury, heal after surgery, and to prevent shoulder problems:

1.  Breathing—learning to fully breathe in a relaxed body is the base of a yoga practice.

2.  Bandhas--energy locks in the body, some of which create necessary core stability for yoga poses. 

3.  Releasing the fronts of the shoulders.  This is stretching–kind of.  I like to think of it as releasing—you are gently returning your body to its natural state.

4.  Movement in the shoulder blades–your shoulder joint is actually only as mobile as your shoulder blades. 

5.  Standing poses—learning to move your whole body in a pain free range of motion.

6. Building core strength—not only strengthening your abs, but also your spine and shoulder blades.

7.  Weight bearing poses on the shoulders—a culmination of all the previous techniques, learning to balance effort and ease in the body by moving through poses that develop balanced strength.  

Can you get this from attending your local yoga studio?  Maybe, but probably not in a general class setting.  I've been in some classes where the teacher helped me tremendously.  But in some classes, when I was moving improperly and making my shoulder worse, no one ever corrected me.  Also, there are many poses done in general yoga classes that are not appropriate for athletes with shoulder injuries; some common poses will actually weaken injured shoulders.  If you are an athlete with shoulder problems, you should make a private appointment with a yoga teacher who is trained and experienced in shoulder therapy for athletes.  After you are healed and understand your injury, you will be free to go to any sort of yoga classes!

What about doing yoga on your own to heal your shoulder?  That’s okay as long as you know what you’re doing.  If you don't, seek help–or you may never get to do your beloved activity again!  A home yoga practice is good as long as it's tailored to your shoulder injury.  You can use a video as a guide, but make sure it's okay for your injury.  If you are going it alone, my advice is to always move slowly while you exercise and pay attention to your alignment.  If you get pain and pinching, stop doing what you are doing and work within a pain free range of motion.  

A path to healing is never quick and easy, but if you want to play hard, it's essential.  So, take the time and a little extra effort (and ease!) to get out of the pain and injury cycle and discover the amazing rewards of your accomplishment.  May your shoulders be free!

I am available for private instruction in Asheville, North Carolina and over the internet.  I also created a yoga DVD with a step by step program to heal and prevent shoulder injuries.  You can send me and email or visit my website YogaVenturesDotCom for more info!

A Review of "Yoga for Shoulders"

Making a yoga video is really tough.  First, I have to decide what all I can fit in there--I have to usually cut down my material tons and then think of how to put it all together so that it will be simple to the end user.  Then I have to figure out how I will say each cue so that the user can understand.  While I did practice for years on my yoga students before I made this video, once the video was finished, I wondered if I made any sense.  I wondered if the structure and the language were useful or confusing.  So, the first thing I did was send off the video to the very groups of people that I was targeting with this video:  active people who may or may not already do yoga.  I thought Tali from the Cupcake  Mafia blog would be perfect because she is an active outdoors girl who happens to be in yoga teacher training.  A teacher in training is perfect because they are being taught to be critical of other teachers and I wanted an honest opinion.  It helps me tremendously to hear that she understood the structure of the video and that the very purpose is to slow you down in your yoga practice and pay more attention to the process.  That is the only way to heal.  Thanks so much to Tali for taking the time to be thorough with my DVD and give a review that is super helpful to me and to you:

Review: Yoga for Shoulders with Andria Davis, RYT by Tali of the Cupcake Mafia blog. 

Finishing up the "Yoga for Shoulders" Video

We are finally finishing up the "Yoga for Shoulders" video! It's been a long tough road, but we finally got the last footage that we need. I am really stoked to help out others with shoulder issues and I really hope that this video will help out!

Here are some shots from Linville Gorge in North Carolina:


This is a restorative pose to work on releasing tightness and tension in the fronts of the shoulders that can cause impingement.


We will work on becoming more aware of the shoulder blades and work on moving them around to prevent frozen shoulder.


Not a bad place to be working! My husband and I do all of the work on these videos ourselves--we love it, but it's also very difficult in many ways. He is amazing--he does all of the camera work (3 video cameras and 1 still) and directs too! We use all natural lighting, which is why it takes us awhile to get the right day. We also do all of our own editing and sound.



A variation on Mountain Pose to help with better posture.



Downward Facing Dog Pose--we will work with the mechanics of this pose for safely performing the pose for those with shoulder issues and with using your core to lift the weight out of the shoulders and wrists.


Plank Pose--we will work on the same concepts as in Down Dog--how to use the whole body better to relieve the shoulders and wrists.


Whew! This is Chaturanga Dandasana (Four-Limbed Staff Pose). It is better to perform this one with knees down to work very diligently on making sure you are using your body correctly. It can exacerbate problems if done poorly, but if done mindfully it will build strength and grace in your body!


Ahh--my shoulders feel so good and free! I have not had surgery and I have never felt better! I have made much progress with this program for my own shoulders by overcoming injuries that resulted in impingement, pain, and severe shoulder blade winging and dysfunction. I heard the same complaints from many of my friends--some who had surgery and some who didn't, so I began to want to help people get out of the shoulder pain and injury cycle. I have been teaching shoulders classes for a few years and now have put the class together for this video. I hope that everyone finds freedom and strength in their shoulders!

Kayaking, Road Cycling, and Mountain Biking...

That is what I wish I were doing every waking hour! On the kayaking part, I almost have been! September and October is Gauley Season. This season takes place in West Virginia every year when the Army Corps of Engineers releases water out of Summersville Lake and into the Gauley River gorge below it to drop the lake in preparation for winter rains. Here is a video head cam tour of the Gauley River taken by my husband, Leland, via squirt boat, a special kind of glass boat that kicks the river up a notch.

On the 3rd week of September, there is the biggest festival in the whitewater kayaking world there. We had a booth and had some fun! Here are some pictures from the shenanigans at Gauley Festival 2010.

On the mountain biking part, I haven't been on my bike in months! But these ladies have been taking up the slack for me: the Minx Girls. They are some rad women from the UK, who just wrote up this Compendium for a huge cycling event over there. There are some core articles here (including one on yoga, hehehe!).

Tis the season for road cycling events here in Appalachia as we come into one of our best seasons—the colorful mountains, cool dry air, and dry roads make for sweet rides! This is one of my favorite local events, the Tour de Tugaloo. Tucked away in the north Georgia mountains, if you are looking for a ride with something for every level and a fun vibe, put this one on your to do list. You might even win a "Yoga for Cyclists" DVD!

See ya!

Yoga Core Exercises for Healing and Preventing Sports Injuries

It's not news that in order to increase your sports performance, you need to exercise your core. But if you think that this means doing a bunch of sit-ups, you need to freshen up your strategy. Core exercises should not only strengthen your core, but also teach you to use your whole body in a more functional manner. Your body is more efficient when your power emerges from your strong, stable center taking pressure off all the peripheral and much less stable joints of the body. The end result of learning to move from your core is that you will have better posture, less injuries, and more energy. The holistic viewpoint of Yoga makes it the perfect tool to teach us these lessons.

While doing these exercises, think in terms of your body as a whole. The point of these core exercises is to re-teach your body how to move in a more efficient manner. These exercises are from the upcoming "Yoga for Shoulders: Restore and Strengthen" DVD, so the focus is on how the core relates to the shoulders.

In all of the poses, make sure that when you engage your shoulder blades, that they move into the back and not toward each other. In the Boat Poses, think of all energy emanating from the navel and work on releasing unnecessary effort in the rest of the body:

Half Boat Pose, Ardha Navasana:


Begin in Supine Mountain Pose: lying on your back, feet together and flexed, arms at your sides. Lengthen your spine, relax extraneous tensions, and breathe fully. Exhale as you strongly engage the abdominals and lift the legs and torso without arching the low back or jutting the head forward. Concentrate on only using your middle: don't tense the fronts of the shoulders keeping the collarbones broad. Draw the shoulder blades down the back and then firm them onto the back. Breathe fully and relax the jaws and the face. Stay as long as you can stand it. Release back to the floor and relax fully taking deep breaths. Repeat.

Full Boat Pose, Navasana:

Begin sitting with your legs bent in front of you and feet flat on the floor. Lift in and up with the inner thighs, pelvic floor and navel. Lift up through the spine and the crown of the head. Broaden the collarbones and draw the shoulder blades down the back. Engage the bottom tips of your shoulder blades forward--toward your sternum.

Using your hands on the floor next to your hips for balance, exhale and lift your feet off the floor. Keep all of the above actions going. If you need more challenge, lift your hands and straighten your arms in front of you. Draw the arm bones back in the sockets, slide the shoulder blades down the back, and engage the bottom tips of them forward. Lift up with the back body as much as with the front body. Keep the collarbones broad and breathe evenly. Relax the face and jaws.

To go one step further, straighten the legs. Squeeze the inner thighs. Activate and spread the toes. Breathe and maintain all of the above actions.




Release back to sitting and take some deep breaths and relax all effort. Repeat.

The next pose stretches the front body and strengthens the often-ignored back body and the spine. A strong and flexible spine is part of a strong core:

Locust Pose, Salabhasana:

Lie in a prone position with your forehead on the floor, your feet about hip width, and your arms by your sides with your palms face up. Take a deep breath and release all tension. Lengthen your spine from your tailbone through the crown of your head. Broaden your collarbones, draw the shoulder blades down your back and engage the lower and inner shoulder blades into the back. Inhale as you lift your legs, torso, and arms. Keep the head in line with the spine and take your gaze up. Release tension from your face and jaws. Breathe fully. Exhale and slowly come down and release completely into the floor.


End with Relaxation Pose, Savasana:
Lie in a comfortable postition. Release your body into the floor completely. Stay for at least 5 minutes.



If these poses cause any sharp pains in your body, your body is not ready, and you need an instructor to watch and correct your alignment. Listen to your body and seek guidance if you need.

Improve Your Posture and Your Performance With This Simple Yoga Exercise

Aligned posture will bring you better health and livliness because it takes pressure off your joints and allows the blood to flow and the organs to function better giving you more energy for the fun and necessary things in life! Try this one simple and quick exercise: take a belt (or a strap, paddle, or broomstick) and hold it behind your back shoulder width with your arms straight and your palms facing your butt; stand in Mountain Pose with your weight distributed evenly between your two legs and into the base of the big toes, the pinky toes, and the center of the back of the heels; gently draw the belly in and up without disturbing your breathing; lift up through the crown of the head; broaden your collarbones, roll your shoulders open, draw your shoulder blades down your back and the inner shoulder blades forward toward your sternum; do not let the upper arm bones roll forward and down, do not let the rib cage protrude forward, and do not lock the elbows. Do this exercise as often as possible always letting the body unfold into the pose and not forcing. Smile and breathe!