Customer Reviews

Healing Yoga for Neck and Shoulder Pain: Easy, Effective Practices for Releasing Tension and Relieving Pain

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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!

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.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Healing Yoga for Neck and Shoulder Pain. The book is easy to read and provides lots of information on the healing power of using yoga practices in everyday life. The exercises I have learned from the book are invaluable to me, since I work at a computer for many hours a day. I work with people who have health challenges at our non-profit organization, which promotes exercise as a preventive and therapeutic tool for patients. Carol Krucoff's book sends an important message to many people who believe that yoga is simply an exercise for the fit and flexible. One of my favorite lines in her book is, "Yoga is not a one size fits all endeavor." Carol does a great job teaching and motivating people of all fitness levels to engage in yoga practices for their health.

The subtitle of this book sums up what can be accomplished: easy, effective practices for releasing tension and relieving pain. The book provides 38 specific practices, divided into 6 areas (Centering and Breathing, Whole Body Stretch, Standing Poses, Neck and Shoulder Poses, Back-Bending Poses, and Deep Relaxation) to aid in healing. As a novice yoga practitioner, I have found the practice instructions easy to follow. Depending upon how much time I have, I may perform more or less of the practices, but I have found that even a few minutes of practice can be helpful. For anyone interested in trying out yoga to help with neck and shoulder pain, this is a book for you.

This book gives practical and easy ways to access the healing power of one's own mind and body. The text is clear and concise, and the illustrations are quite well done. This is a book that would benefit anyone with neck and shoulder pain, even if they have never practiced yoga. I will recommend it to my yoga students. It is also a wonderful resource for yoga teachers.

Healing Yoga for Neck & Shoulder Pain: Easy, Effective Practices for Releasing Tension & Relieving Pain provides readers with simple, yoga-based practices that can be done at home and work to relieve muscle tension. It's a unique self-care program developed by the author herself, so is not to be found in competing collections. Health and general collections where yoga and workplace health are of interest will relish this title.

Ms. Krucoff truely knows her anatomy.

This book is easy to follow and understand.

The format is well laid out and makes it understandable for all levels of anatomy knowledge.

If you suffer from neck and shoulder pain or are a yoga teacher I recommend you buy this.

It is also not to wordy with many visuals.

Krucoff's clear, easy-to-follow instructions taught me to release the tension and mitigate the pain that often result from a long automobile commute to a job where I sit at a desk and work at a computer most of the day. Thank you!

Krucoff has done it again! (Healing Moves, 2000). Her second book brings a narrower focus onto the power of yoga philosophy, mindfulness, and simple yoga poses for the healing of upper body, particularly neck and shoulder pain. Her journey starts with the basics of anatomy and the understanding of stress and the mind/body/emotional connections that can cause chronic pain. Her language and style gently and easily draw you into the understanding of "East meets West" healing practices that can have a major impact on improving your quality of life, increasing movement, flexibility, strength, and ease into the upper body. This is one of the best and easiest to understand books that I have read on integrating yoga into our busy, stressful lives. The poses are well illustrated and many are done in a seated position for those who find it challenging to get down on the floor. What a nice introduction to a different way of looking at Life and dealing with the root causes of neck and shoulder pain, rather than just popping a pill.