Ep 98: Students with Shoulder Pain is More Common Than You Think

In this final episode of the series, I’ll discuss the unique challenges of the shoulders: the balance between mobility and stability, the high volume of weight-bearing in vinyasa flows, and the nervous system’s role in amplifying or quieting pain.

I’ll continue to explain how shoulder pain shows up in different yoga class formats, from repetitive transitions in vinyasa, to prop-heavy Iyengar setups, to restorative postures that need careful support. This episode will help you begin to shift your approach from rigid alignment cues to functional, adaptable options that meet your students where they are. 

By the end, you’ll feel more confident in supporting students without using fear-based language. Your role as a teacher isn’t to fix their shoulders, but instead to guide students toward movement, breath, and nervous system regulation that helps them feel safe and empowered to practice despite their pain & injuries.

Transcript

Monica: 0:00

Shoulder pain is a big reason students either hesitate to practice yoga or push through while they're currently practicing. In this final episode of the series, I'll discuss the unique challenges of the shoulders, the balance between mobility and stability, the high volume of weightbearing in vinyasa style classes, and the nervous system's role in amplifying or quieting pain. I'll continue to explain how shoulder pain shows up in different yoga class formats from the repetitive transitions we see in Vinyasa to prop, heavy Iyengar alignment based classes to restorative poses that need careful support. Welcome to the Essential Conversations for Yoga Teachers Podcast with me. I'm Monica Bright and I've been teaching yoga and running my yoga business for over a decade. This is the podcast for you. If you are a yoga teacher, you're looking for support. You love to be in conversation, and you're a lifelong student. In this podcast, I'll share with you. My life as a yoga teacher, the lessons I've learned, my process for building my business and helpful ideas, tools, strategies and systems I use and you can use so that your business thrives. We'll cover a diverse range of topics that will help you, whether you're just starting out or you've got years under your belt and you wanna dive deep and set yourself up for success. I am so glad you're here. Listen, I don't take myself too seriously, so expect to hear some laughs along the way. Now let's do this together. Welcome back to the podcast. I'm Monica, and I'm so glad you're here. Here we talk about the anatomy, the injuries, the nervous system insights, plus all the real life knowledge you wish had been included in your yoga teacher training. This is the final part of our series on supporting students with pain in yoga classes. In part one, we looked at the hips. Part two, we focused on the knees, and today we're focusing on the shoulders. One of the most common areas where students experience discomfort. The shoulders are unique because they serve. Two roles. In yoga, they provide mobility for a huge range of movement, and they also act as load-bearing joints, imposters, like downward facing dog plank arm balances. And that combination of mobility and stability is one reason why shoulder pain is so prevalent throughout yoga. When a student tells you they have shoulder pain, it could mean all sorts of things. They might feel pinching in the front of the shoulder and poses like Chaturanga, A deep ache in the shoulder joint when they hold their arm in positions for longer periods of time or even instability while they're in weight bearing. Poses. Sometimes the pain is related to muscle imbalances and sometimes it's to overuse and sometimes it's to sensitivity in the nervous system. As teachers, our job is not to diagnose the cause, but to understand the ways yoga can either aggravate or support the shoulder, and to create an environment where students feel safe to move. Anatomically the shoulder isn't just one joint, it's a complex relationship between the Glen Humira joint, the scapula, the clavicle, and even the rib cage. The socket itself is shallow, which is why we have so much freedom of movement. But that freedom comes at the cost of stability. Muscles like the rotator cuff, the deltoids, the lats, and the traps all play a role in keeping the joint functioning well. When there's an imbalance or when repetitive load exceeds what the tissues can tolerate, discomfort or injury begins to arise. Understanding that complexity helps us avoid one size. Fits all cues like pull your shoulders back and down, or keep the elbows tucked in and instead make space for variation. Now let's look at how shoulder pain shows up in different yoga formats. Just like we've done in the last couple of episodes in Vinyasa classes, the sheer volume of weight bearing on the hands can be overwhelming for some students. Downward facing dog plank toga, and. Upward facing dog often appear multiple times within a 60 minute class. If a student has irritated shoulders, that repetition can quickly flare up their symptoms. One strategy is to vary the transitions instead of always moving through tga, You might occasionally offer students the option to skip straight back to downward facing dog or to lower their knees and take tabletop. Remind your students that yoga is not about keeping up with every flow, but about finding sustainable movement that feels right for them. In Iyengar style classes, props are a powerful ally for students with shoulder pain. Using belts, blocks, and ropes can create space and support. For example, in downward facing dog at the wall, with hands elevated on blocks, Students can reduce load and still feel the essence of the pose. However, a potential pitfall in Iyengar based classes is the emphasis on precise alignment. If a teacher insists that everyone's shoulders Look the same in a certain pose. Students with limited shoulder mobility may push into discomfort to satisfy the teacher. This is where shifting from a rigid alignment mindset to a functional one can protect students with sensitive shoulders. In yin yoga, shoulder pain often appears in long-held shapes like saddle with arms overhead. Sphinx or supported fish pose. If the shoulders are sensitive, these positions can feel intolerable. After just a few minutes, y teachers can normalize the use of props under the arms, or the choice to keep arms alongside the body instead of overhead or out towards the opposite sides of the room. It is also important to emphasize that the target area in a yin pose doesn't have to be the shoulders at all. Students can choose variations that give them the yin experience without provoking and bringing on pain symptoms. In restorative yoga, the stillness of the poses can be a blessing, but if the shoulders aren't fully supported, discomfort can arise, for example, in a restorative back bend over a bolster, allowing the arms to drape overhead without support. Can cause the sensation of pinching. Offering props under the elbows or forearms makes the shape accessible and more soothing restorative yoga also reminds us of the nervous system's role in pain, where students are able to fully rest and downregulate the nervous system, often quiets pain signals for students who live with chronic shoulder pain. This practice can be a profound reminder that their body is not broken and that rest and nervous system support is therapeutic. Another key point is the role of fear. Many students with shoulder pain come into class with a history of being told not to lift their arms over their head, not to weight bear, not to move into certain poses. While caution has its place, these messages often leave students feeling fragile. As a yoga teacher, your language matters. Instead of saying, don't do this, if you have shoulder pain, you might reframe it to say, here are some options to explore. If your shoulders feel sensitive today, Sequencing for shoulder pain doesn't have to mean eliminating upper body movements either. Instead, it can mean balancing load with recovery, offering variations and spreading weight, bearing more evenly throughout the practice. For example, alternating between hands and knees based movements and standing poses can reduce repetitive movement and therefore repetitive strain. Incorporating breath work and nervous system regulation alongside movements also supports students who may carry anxiety about their pain. I wanna remind you of a common thread that runs through all three areas that we've covered. The hips, the knees, and the shoulders. Pain is not just a biomechanical issue, it's also about the nervous system, about the story a student has been told about their body and about the environment we create as teachers. We don't need to. Fix our students or to remove all of their pain. What we can do is create a space where they feel safe to explore where variation is normal and where their experiences are validated. For you as a teacher, that means letting go of rigid alignment rules, avoiding fear-based language, and remembering that your role is to empower and give agency. It also means continuing to deepen your own understanding of anatomy, pain, science, and sequencing so that you feel confident responding to the diverse needs of your students. This series was never about giving you a list of do's and don'ts. Instead, it's about expanding your mindset. When a student says, my hip hurts, or my knee feels unstable, or my shoulder, I feel a pinchy sensation. You now have a framework to respond with calm confidence rather than fear or overwhelm, and that's what makes you not just a yoga teacher, But a skillful educator and guide. Understanding anatomy, biomechanics, and the effects yoga Asana have on the body helps you help your students. If you've been enjoying these episodes, I know that you are a yoga teacher who's ready to teach with more intention and less fear around injuries. Let's continue to raise the bar for how yoga supports real bodies in real life. It's so important for us to have this conversation so that you remember that students of all shapes. Sizes, alignment and abilities come to your classes and you can serve all of them. You know that my goal is for you to love the yoga teaching life. It's important to understand movement and the issues students come to your classes with. Subscribe to the podcast so you're always in the know when a new episode drops, and share it with another yoga teacher who you think would love to be in on these conversations. And finally, thank you for helping to spread the word about this podcast. Alright. Thank you for listening. That's it for now. Bye.