Featured Pose Seated Cat Cow Pose


by Baxter and Nina
This deceptively simple, gentle pose from our office yoga series brings mobility to your entire spine, allowing you to move your spine in two of the six important movement directions in which your spine can move, extension (back bending) and flexion (forward bending).  Mobility in the spine is important for maintaining the health of your spine, and for your entire body since your spinal cord, which communicates with your entire body, moves through your spine. Although most people don’t think of having arthritis of the spine, but it is a significant problem (see Arthritis of the Spine) and moving your spine is the best medicine for arthritis in this area. The gentle spinal movements can even help relieve back pain.

The pose also benefits your hip sockets because your sitting bones move back and forward with your spine, bringing movement into your hip sockets, which can get stiff from sitting from long periods of time. And because you move with your breath in this pose, inhaling into the backbend and exhaling into the forward bend, it’s a good way to learn breath awareness and beginning pranayama.

Accessible to everyone who can sit up, the pose is also so gentle that almost everyone, in any condition to do it. You can do it in any type of chair, even in the car! (In fact, Baxter did it just yesterday, while he was stuck in a !@#$%! traffic jam coming back to the East Bay from San Francisco.)

Baxter prescribes this pose for:
Instructions: Start by sitting near the front of the chair seat, with your feet hip-distance apart and planted firmly under your knees. Straighten your arms, and place your hands on or near your knees. Before moving into the pose, establish the lift of your spine, from your sitting bones through the crown of your head.
As you inhale, start moving from your pelvis, rocking your hips forward so your weight comes more onto the front edge of your sitting bones. As you continue to inhale, gently lift your spine and lengthen into gentle backbend. Lift your breastbone forward and up and allow your head and neck to lengthen out and back, coming into the Cow backbend.
As you exhale, start moving from your pelvis, dropping your pelvis in the opposite direction, moving the back of your waist backward and rocking onto the back part of your sitting bones. As you continue to exhale, allow your middle back to move back as well and drop your chin toward your chest, coming into the Cat forward bend.
Repeat both the Cow and Cat positions, moving with your breath, allowing your inhalations and exhalations to be slightly longer than they are when you are taking a resting breath. Do the pose for a minimum of six rounds up to any number that feels good to you.

Cautions: Because these are mild, everyday movements, those pose is relatively safe. However, if you have been instructed by your doctor to avoid certain movements of your spine, for example, some people who have lumbar disk problems are warned about forward bending movements being potentially dangerous, you should try smaller movements at first and see what your body can handle. The same cautions apply to people who have significant injuries to their necks.

Note from Nina: Oopsie! I just realized we already wrote up this pose in April (see Chair Cat Pose). Naturally, that write up is different if you care to compare it with the new one. I think it's time for us to move onto an entirely new set of poses....

Subscribe to YOGA FOR HEALTHY AGING by Email ° Follow Yoga for Healthy Aging on Facebook

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Best Weight Loss Supplements For Women Are Safe

By Della Monroe A womanly physique is one of mystery and beauty, even if one does not have an hourglass shape. The main function it serves throughout an average lifetime is one that requires special care. This is why the best weight loss supplements for women deliver necessary nutrients for results that can last for years. Every day the average person sees a new diet plan on the market, maybe even more often if one were to follow the media. One common factor is that many of the ads are targeted to women, as they tend to be judged more often than men when it comes to physical appearance. Unlike diet aids of yesteryear, these supplements are designed to do more than help the user lose a few pounds. These days more scientists are looking into plant derived ingredients as opposed to chemicals that may help a person lose weight but are also harmful when taken over a period of time. In the past, artificial stimulants have been associated with organ damage and users normally regain the ...
Keep reading

The Good Thing About Cardiac ELISA Kits

By Rosella Campbell With the continuous development and improvement of most technologies, it has already formed new dimensions. A technology in the medical field has been formulated new aspects. With the existence of diseases and anomalies, ELISA technology has been used in this matter. The Cardiac ELISA kits are one of the most useful and a good one. These are tools good in working with the hearts of most animals and to detect defects on it. The procedure in identifying illnesses depends on a certain enzyme reaction that provides better results by giving a particular color changes. The antibodies and the enzymes are mixed with antigens and eventually change its color in indicating an existence of the reactions. Through this test, most researchers can detect both antibodies and antigens. Certain exercises are able to identify certain levels of antibodies and antigens in most patients. These are useful in determining a particular disease before developing chronic problems. Doctors...
Keep reading

The Benefits Of A Handmade Goat Milk Soap

By Carolyn Stone Many people are making use of the different types of soaps if they are washing their faces and bodies thinking that it would give them perfect results. But starting top use the soap made of goat milk can surely give your skin with good health benefits. This type is advised for usage for people who have dry or sensitive skins, and even for people who have the conditions like eczema or psoriasis. This soap become one of those natural products that are being produced by manufacturers for body care. The handmade goat milk soap is now available for production even when at home since the ingredients may be bought in nearby stores. Three most common ingredients in creating this are the nourishing oils like palm, olive, or coconut oil, the essential oils for health benefits and fragrance, and of course the goats milk. The next paragraphs are the 5 most common benefits the people can obtain when using the soaps. First is the alpha hydroxy acid. Lactic acid is none very com...
Keep reading