How to gently relieve neck tension from sleeping wrong in 10 minutes?
The relationship between your neck tension and breathing mechanics
In mainstream fitness, strength training is often glorified as "healthy stress," and we're taught to push through the tension in our bodies to build strength.
Strength training is a form of stress, period! And when used wisely, it can expand our capacity over time. However, if a client arrives with a body that's already holding tension or has a low stress tolerance, my priority is to help them return to a more regulated baseline.
Last week, one of my lovely clients arrived at her strength training session and said, "I slept wrong last night, my neck and shoulders are extremely tense." Naturally, we began the session with a series of exercises to relax the muscles before proceeding with the strength training session. And I recorded that routine for you, too!
For many of you reading this, the exercises in this video may not be the first step, especially if your breath is contributing to your constant tension without your realizing it.
Let’s take a moment to cover some basics before we go ahead with the routine. ↓
The relationship between your neck tension and breathing mechanics
Due to modern lifestyles, many of us have become habitual neck breathers.
In a healthy posture and with optimized breathing mechanics, we utilize our diaphragm as our primary muscle for breathing, averaging around 20,000 repetitions per day.
But so many of us don't. What happens is that our secondary breathing muscles, including those in the neck, pectorals, abdomen, and intercostal muscles, have to work harder to make breathing possible. This extra effort can create tension in your body, leading to insufficient oxygen intake. As a result, it disrupts the natural expansion and contraction of your lungs and rib cage, which can place you in a state of survival mode and negatively impact your posture.
Keep that in mind, the secondary breathing muscles need to be activated only during forceful breathing, which happens during exercise or any other form of exertion.
How to improve your diaphragmatic breathing?
Although we recognize the importance of diaphragmatic breathing today, many still confuse it with belly breathing. In this video, I break down how to optimize your breathing pattern ↓
How to stop being a neck breather?
Learning diaphragmatic breathing can significantly reduce tension in your neck. However, if you've been stuck in this pattern for a long time, you may need extra support to release that tension. In this video, I demonstrate a gentle yet powerful exercise to help you fully release the habit of relying on your neck for everyday breathing. ↓
How to gently relieve neck tension from sleeping wrong in 10 minutes?
Now that we've covered the basics of breathing, it's finally time to share what I took my client through after she came in with neck tension from sleeping wrong.
Wanna dive deep for a 3-day posture bootcamp? Press play
If you need help improving your sleeping position, you can watch this video.
👁️ What your body has been trying to tell you?
If you want to go deeper and explore your body’s story, take this quiz to see what patterns show up for you!
The way we hold ourselves matters. Not just because of how it looks. But because it shapes how we live, how we relate, and what we’re capable of imagining. Let your body speak. Let it interrupt the collective war and offer you a new way of being entirely.
Client’s Unconditioning ↓
If you feel called to explore working with me to re-pattern your body, regulate your nervous system, and restore your power, book an alignment call here: https://tidycal.com/hedishah/alignment-call
Thank you for joining me on the path of unconditioning,
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Hedi Shah
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👁️ Bodyworker & Mindfulness Teacher
🌊 Teaching change makers to uncondition their bodies, nervous systems, and voices from systems built to keep them small so they can move, speak, and live with sovereign power.
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