How to Do Cat-Cow Pose | Marjari Asana & Bitilasana for Back Pain Relief| Yoga With Archana Alur |

Transcript

[Music] back pain is something that we all experience in our life in part thanks to our lifestyle but it's also true that the more Harmony there is between our hips pelvis and spine the less likely we are to experience back pain Namaste I'm AR a warm welcome to you if you have been practicing yoga with me marar Asana and basana of cat Cow is a given in most videos these two ASAS are functional movements that help us with our life beyond the mat in this session we're going to see how to do marger ASA and basa what are its benefits and four powerful variations so we'll Begin by coming onto our knees and Palms you're going to see how to do the basic cat and cow place your wrist beneath your shoulders fingers pointing Straight Ahead spread your fingers wide so you're able to see the colors of the uh excuse me the color of the mat you can also press the top of your fingers like you're trying to create a claw anything is fine see that your knees are beneath your hips toes behind the knees and come to neutral position take a deep breath in now as you breathe out pull the navl in as you're pulling your belly towards your rib cage chin towards your chest crown of the head in the direction of the mat press press your palms into the Earth tailbone the space between your knees all your toes are pressing into the mat start breathing in relax your abdomen drop your waist towards the mat chin chest gaze forward now here try and open the chest shoulders slightly as you're trying to pull it out press into the mat remember you're not pressing into your wrist you're pressing is Distributing the weight evenly on your palms let's try that once again exhale pull that belly in massaging your organs chin to chest come the head towards the mat tail bonees space between your knees start breathing in relax it belly arch your back chest forward open the front of your neck chin forward gaze forward open the shoulders elbows can stay soft don't lock your elbows now I'll show you four powerful variations of these ASAS the first variation is I'll show you how to do this asaa sitting on the chair so that way if you have any problems with getting down and sitting on the mat or if you're at work you can still do this practice and it it relieves from that uh tension in the back or or the effects of sitting for long hours so sit to a point where your feet is flat place your hands on your thighs take a deep breath in now as you breathe out pull that belly in drop your chin to chest around your back now as you breathe in come to sitting tall then open the chest send the chest forward chin to a point where the wall makes the ceiling eyes can stay closed or you can look up towards the ceiling again exhale so in standing you're going to keep your feet at a comfortable distance from each other send your seat back knees bent hands on your thighs here don't go into a squat you're going to keep this open here knees soft hands come to rest on your thigh now as you breathe out pull that navl in round drop your chin to chest as you breathe in send that seat back arch your back CH chest gaze for complet exhale round inhale reach stretch exhale there one exhalation at the top again breath in to rotate breathe out round [Music] drop press into the mat one more on the side show A variation on the next one reach Arch you back inhale big inhalation rotate you'll feel this in your shoulder blade shoulders drop down round same thing just variation here is completely breathe out as you start breathing in open open and send take a deep breath in as you breathe out turn drop completely side the right side of your face on the mat see the your hips are not sending to the left side bring your hips directly over your knees hold now the next variation that we're going to do is elevated cat Cow so we may need books of equal size so you know thick books or you if you have blocks keep blocks or study boxes of equal height place your palms again wrist benath your shoulders knees behind press your toes into the mat arch your back as you breathe out pull the table in round and press you notice you're going to feel this slightly different from your regular cat and cow even how you place your palms matter here and round can always try as you're holding the block of your legs slightly ahead Arch as you breathe out round see which feels less intense begin with that and then to the next one pulling your abdomen compressing your organs [Music] and then from here can stay here especially if you have that low back discomfort reach stretch to a point where you can feel that lower back is getting stretched you don't have to bring your hips towards your heels stay here breathe in completely breathe out for the next variation we're going to come to tabletop here we focusing on increasing the intensity of our practice press all 10 toes into the mat see if you can even try and press that little toe open your palms wide you should be able to see the color of the mat press your fingertips as you're trying to create like that little claw stay here in tabletop knees come off H see that your hips are directly over your knees pull the navl in gaze between your palms five to feel this fold pull the belly in and one release send your seat back release your palms palms in receiving position rest your forehead benefits of doing this practice it counters the effects of uh sitting and standing for long hours because we use the core stabilization muscles to uh move the vertebral column or our spine through the full range of motion it strengthens the core muscles it also mobilizes the muscles from the pelvis all the way to the base of our skull wherever it is attached next it increases flexibility in our hip spine and shoulder and enhances the alignment of the spine simultaneously strengthening all the muscles along our back so this in turn helps us have a better posture it increases blood circulation throughout our body specifically in our spinal region now because of all these benefits it is great to prevent back ache and when you have back pain you can still do this ASAS but just remember to do it to a point of discomfort don't do the full range of motion this can help reduce pain and eventually when the pain reduces you can work with the same ASAS to build strength thank you so much for joining me in today's session I would love to hear your feedback in the comments below if you're new here remember to and if you thought this class was valuable please like and share namaste [Music]