Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very good self-help book for neck and shoulder issues, October 5, 2010
This review is from: Healing Yoga for Neck and Shoulder Pain: Easy, Effective Practices for Releasing Tension and Relieving Pain (Paperback)
I have chronic tightness in my upper back, neck, and shoulders. I am well aware that yoga can be a helpful form of self-care, and in fact I practice yoga at home regularly several times a week. However, I thought that this book might provide me with some new information.
Author Carol Krucoff, a yoga therapist, asserts that yoga can help address pain on several levels: physical, psychological, and energetic. She acknowledges that neck pain is common, but rather than view neck pain as a disease, she suggests that is a phenomenon which can be controlled. Krucoff maintains that yoga offers healing through the practice of postures, breathing exercises, mindfulness, and meditation. Before getting into the actual yogic practices, Krucoff provides some basic anatomical information. She includes several different types of postural self-tests, from checking to make sure you aren't holding your head too far forward to performing a body scan awareness exercise to reviewing standing alignment.
The information on the actual practice of yoga begins about halfway through the book. Krucoff presents simple, basic postures, starting with breath awareness, body scan, and deep abdominal breathing. From there she introduces easy neck release and neck stretch poses, gradually moving the stretches into the upper back/shoulders as well as the lower back. She incorporates some postures focused on strength and balance, such as tree pose, and others designed more to stretch and strengthen (these fall under two categories: those for the neck and shoulders, which are performed seated in a chair, and those to target the back, which are performed lying face down). Modifications are offered for many of the poses, all of which are illustrated with straightforward line drawings. Krucoff concludes with some tips on keeping the neck healthy both on and off the mat.
Overall, this book provides some very good information for the self-management of neck and shoulder problems. The only reason that I rated it 4 rather than 5 stars is because it didn't provide me with any new information. As mentioned above, I am already using yoga to address my own chronic upper back, neck, and shoulder tightness. I have found several yoga DVDs to be particularly helpful: Yoga in the Garden of Serenity (the Neck & Shoulders chapter), Yoga: Relief from Neck and Shoulder Pain, Viniyoga Therapy for the Upper Back, Neck & Shoulders with Gary Kraftsow, and Yoga to the Rescue for Neck & Shoulders.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Straight Forward Support to Ease the Neck, May 1, 2010
This review is from: Healing Yoga for Neck and Shoulder Pain: Easy, Effective Practices for Releasing Tension and Relieving Pain (Paperback)
Krucoff has put together a clear, no-nonsense guide for how Yoga and awareness can ease neck and shoulder pain. This isn't just another asana book. The reader will gain new perspectives on what produces neck pain, how to ease it and most importantly how to prevent future episodes. As rich in "off-the-mat" Yoga as it is in presentation of classical asana and their adaptations. A must have for every home and business office!
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
disappointed, August 24, 2010
This review is from: Healing Yoga for Neck and Shoulder Pain: Easy, Effective Practices for Releasing Tension and Relieving Pain (Paperback)
I was very disappointed with this book.
I was hoping for some specific exercises for neck
and shoulder problems. Instead its just a basic routine,
do them all but if something hurts dont do it.
Thats not what I bought the book for.
It gives lip service to the anatomy of the shoulder.
The little it says seems pasted in from some
other source and its never referred to at all.
No interest is shown in the clavicles (collar bones) and very little
mention even given to the scapulae (shoulder blades).
Way too much time is spent on relaxation, breathing,
and meditation.
Any old yoga book that you have lying around will
do as well or better than this book.
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