Massages and stimulates abdominal organsġ.Strengthens and stretches the spine and neck.Cat-cow helps bring the spine into correct alignment and can help alleviate back pain when practiced regularly.īenefits of cat-cow pose include the following: This sequence also helps to develop postural awareness and balance throughout the body. Coordinating this movement with your breath helps relieve stress and calms the mind. Flowing between cat-cow helps stretch the back, torso, neck, and stimulates the abdominal organs while simultaneously opening the chest.įor a relatively simple pose, the benefits of cat-cow are numerous. If you have had an injury it is safe to keep the neck in line with the torso.Cat-cow is a gentle flow between two postures that increases flexibility in the spine which is why it is commonly used at the beginning of class to help warm the body and prepare for more rigorous postures. If you have a fussy neck, be mindful not to over extend.(Make sure the pillow is wide enough that you can have your knees under your hip points.) Use a blanket or pillow to pad your knees.Also a juicy Pre-natal Yoga pose for soon to be Mommies. Happy Addendum: Cat-Cow is fun and awesome for kids. So, put some mindful time into the spine and of course, remember to ENJOY it. Time with the spine can make you look and feel younger. These days, I often find myself saying, “We are only as young and as happy as our spines” as we do Cat-Cow in class. Throw down your inhibitions and enjoy Marjariasana-Bitilisana! Or as my pal Dustin read it, “Marijuana Brita Filter.” This is also a common pose in most Hatha Yoga classes so you will be well equipped if you hit the mat in a public setting. Cat-Cow can be empowering and energizing! It will leave you feeling awake, loose, and with less tension and weight in the body. Integrate with the breath and you have yourself quite the little Yoga pose. As you journey up and down your spine close your eyes and see it move from the crown to your root. Use this dance up and down the spine to check in with your back and tune into the whole body. Be careful that you don’t just start going through the warm-up motions to get to the other asana. Then we let the flood gates go and boom we are in the Cat-Cow races! Start your vinyasa, or flow, nice and slow here. We press up and out of our limbs filling to the brim with sensation and breath. (More on this woo woo stuff later.)Īt our table we connect to the power of that central energetic channel (the danda, or staff, as it is in Sanskrit) and we fill the body with awareness. A connection to this line improves posture, coordination, and brings on an empowerment and grace. Just by bringing our attention and awareness to this channel I believe we can improve our quality of life. From the ground to the crown as Shiva Rea calls it. Wake up spine! From the crown of the head to the tip of the tailbone lives a central energetic channel. It is here that I offer students an opportunity to check in with their spine. The Cat Cow Pose is often considered a “neutral” position in yoga but lately I have been offering my students an opportunity to really play with opposition and sensation by using or connecting to an active table top pose as the warm up for Cat-Cow. In this video we actually start with Table Top position. With the amount of dough we spend on elixirs and anti-age this and age reducing that I am happy to say that this “anti-aging” posture is free and always available to you! Lets break it down… I think it’s an old yoga adage and I think they are good words to live by. I once heard a teacher say, “You are only as young as your spine is flexible.”
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