The Yoga Tune Up® Therapy Balls massage sequences bring awareness and blood flow to muscles. In addition they break up adhesions and as a result offer significant relief to pain and associated restrictions. The Upper Body Therapy Ball Series is helpful to release the rotator cuff muscles, as well the accessory muscles such as the trapezius, levator scapula and rhomboids, which could be overworked as a result of rotator cuff imbalance.
The Yoga Tune Up® shoulder exercise sequences provide opportunities to move the shoulders through their full range of motion.  Pranic Bath is one example: a rotator cuff and shoulder exercise that stretches and strengthen muscles from shoulder to the hands balancing the weak with the strong, the overused with the underused. Here’s the Pranic Bath below, also available on the Quick Fix for Shoulders video:
I think Jill’s exercises in general for shoulders are great!! But I do especially like the pranic bath and it’s so simple! Keep up the great work YTU folks!!
I like the full range of motion and chest opening that is happening. It’s a great shoulder warm up that is appropriate for any style class. I will be adding this to my personal practice for sure.
I really like the simplicity of this movement. It is something I could easily do everyday and always find the time for.
I thoroghly enjoy this shoulder series opening sequence…I like the how the seqeunce spirals through the shoulder flexion, internal/external positions and has that nice connection to the upper back – the upper back feels so alive after this and the chest and shoulders open as a result!
YTU’s shoulder opener series is super accessible. I come from a martial arts background where practices often are quite complex and can take a good deal of time to digest. With exercises like the Pranic Bath, it’s easy to see where restrictions can be found and focused on in a digestible balanced fashion.
No matter how simple this exercise looks from the outside, I’m still embarrassed at how winded I can become in moving through it dynamically. Even though as we practice this, we should be isolating the shoulders, the amount of opening across the chest added to the vigor of the pace, I feel like I’ve had my cardio for the day!
This is one of Jill’s one stop shopping poses: Pranic Bath warms up the shoulders, takes them through their full range of motion, works and stretches muscles in and around the shoulder joint, arms and upper back and chest, brings often unrecognized restrictions, tension and lack of movement into our awareness, and is a cardio workout to boot. What else could I ask for? Pranic Bath is part of my daily routine now.
What a great exercise the Pranic Bath is! it works the shoulder girdle form all planes, and all while maintaining a tubular core. I also find it to be a great assessment exercise that helps identify imbalances and misalignment. It also increases preconception capability as it demands a good level of movement coordination.
I love the Pranic Bath for the shoulders … after doing this in Jill’s training this week, i think I’ll start incorporating into my own personal practice. It was an amazing experience, and the release in the shoulders was almost overwhelming. I have an old injury in the right shoulder (tendonitis in infraspinatus connection) that keeps rearing it’s head once in awhile and I feel like this is going to help, much more than any one strengthening exercise. yay!
the pranic bath is a great way to warm up a class before getting into something more serious. I was taking a class from Louis Jackson in the bay area and he had us do this, and incorporated prasaritta side lunges while standing tall in the spine. Working out the hips and shoulders at the same time. Super solid, and now I know where he got his influence for warm up, as he is YTU certified. Good good!
Often when I only have time for one shoulder warm up exercise, I choose Pranic Bath. Why? Because it not only moves our shoulders in every conceivable direction, but it also engages the brain when we do it in reverse.
This movement was such a lovely way to discover your range of motion into the shoulders, and realize where your muscle firing patterns are off. I felt adhesion under the left scapula but as the heat increased with the motion of the movement, it became more smooth and fluid. Great coordination routine too, makes you really think,then let go into the motion
As someone with tight/tense shoulders, I am actively searching for the best shoulder exercise for me. I like the feeling of creating full range of motion in the pranic bath as it loosesn up all of my ichy areas from sitting at a computer. My goal is to do shoulder stand one day and I know that will not be possible until my shoulders are relaxed. This along with other shoulder exercises will get me there!
I really enjoy the Pranic Bath. It was surprising the difference in the range of motion between my left and right side. It really gave me an opportunity to feel how everything truly is connected to everything else. When I do this I can feel the stretch all the way into the muscles of my head. When I incorporated my breath along with the stretch it allowed me to really focus on where my range of motion was limited. Doing it in reverse provided an interesting challenge as my brain tried to figure out where, exactly, my arms and hands were positioned.
These dynamic stretches are essential for any weight lifting pose that brings the bar overhead. I thought I had impingement in my shoulder and a tear, but realized the teres minor, Infraspinatus, levator scapula and trap were all just super tight. Rolling these muscles in conjunction with the dynamic shoulder stretches brought blood flow and fluid to the rotator cuff and now I have less pain during and after workouts.
Ah, the Pranic bath! What a great opportunity to propriocept where you are and where you aren’t with shoulder range of motion. I have a definite lack on one side and it is improving as I spend more time using the YTU therapy balls and this great move.
I got rather injured in one of my shoulders (due to hypermobility/muscular weakness) from the way I was practicing yoga. I will try this as I love dynamic movement, yet I still feel tender and somewhat reluctant to move my shoulders up over head so tightly adducted. I am curious to knowing more about this one for sure as it seems to have gotten many people into a more free range of motion..!