I did this 30-minute yoga practice after a five-hour car journey and it provided immediate relief to my stiff neck and shoulders

A woman practice a warrior two yoga pose on a mat; she is in a lunge with her left foot forward and right foot back. Her arms are extended at shoulder height. — (Image credit: Getty Images)

My shoulders and neck are prone to aches and pains if I don't move around enough, which makes long car journeys a nightmare.

Sitting in an upright position for hours leaves me incredibly stiff and it often takes days for my body to get back to normal.

I was struggling with this recently after a five-hour trip. I really wanted a massage to soothe my aches, but I decided that it would be cheaper and easier to try some stretching.

How to do the 30-minute yoga practice

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You don’t need any equipment to do this routine—just a yoga mat—but I also used a yoga block for a couple of the movements to provide more support.

There’s one sequence that’s repeated throughout the routine, which involves holding the arms out to the side, with your elbows bent and hands pointing up, then gently arching your back to open your chest. You then round your back and extend your arms in front.

The variations on this sequence become more challenging throughout the practice, but you can always go back to the simplest version of the flow if you find any of the advanced poses too taxing.

How it helped

The sequence repeated throughout this routine both arches and rounds the upper body in the same way a cat-cow does.

The arching movement reverses the hunched posture I had during most of the car trip, providing some relief to my tight upper-body muscles, while the rounding lengthened my muscles and helped to decompress my spine.

This combination felt super satisfying for my upper body and the repetition of it throughout the practice meant that I could move deeper into the stretches each time.

By the end of the 30 minutes, my shoulders and neck felt significantly better than when I sat down on my mat.

I’m saving this routine so I can use it whenever I need some relief—after a long car journey or a day spent hunched over my laptop.

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Alice Porter is a freelance journalist covering lifestyle topics including health, fitness and wellness. She is particularly interested in women's health, strength training and fitness trends and writes for publications including Stylist Magazine, Refinery29, The Independent and Glamour Magazine. Like many other people, Alice's personal interest in combining HIIT training with strength work quickly turned into a CrossFit obsession and she trains at a box in south London. When she's not throwing weights around or attempting handstand push-ups, you can probably find her on long walks in nature, buried in a book or hopping on a flight to just about anywhere it will take her.