Yoga Pearls: Cat/cow pose / Spinal Flex

Transcript

i'm dr gail dubinsky orthopedic medical doctor and yoga teacher in sebastopol northern california welcome to yoga pearls where we take foundational yoga poses and exercises and break them down and create more variations to make them accessible to more people especially those that don't practice yoga today's yoga pearl is cat cow or spinal flex what sets yoga apart from other exercise is its emphasis on range of motion of the spine so why is this important because movement is what keeps our joints and spinal discs healthy and lessens or at least delays the inevitable degeneration that comes with aging so what we're going to do is start on all fours for the classic cat cow and our knees are hip width apart our hips are over our knees hands are under the shoulders or if you have very long arms like me you can take them a little bit further forward if your knees are not enjoying kneeling on a floor you can use a cushion of some kind for the knees breath is very important in cat pose and spinal flex so as we inhale in neutral position to begin on the exhale we're going to lift the belly toward the spine and continue that motion rounding the back dropping the tail dropping the head on the inhale we're going to reverse that motion let the belly drop spine arch sit bones roll back chest forward eyes rolled up shoulders back exhale go ahead and really roll up the spine lifting the belly dropping the tail and head inhaling reversing [Music] exhaling trying to create as much roundness and evenness in the spine as you can inhaling as if you had a wide smile with the tail and the crown and the forehead going in opposite directions if you have carpal tunnel or wrist tendonitis or any other issues that make it uncomfortable to be on your wrists that's easy just go ahead and put your elbows under your shoulders and either have your palms together for this kind of variation or for a little more shoulder opening you can widen the stance and have your hands directly forward of the elbows elbows are still directly under the shoulders and then you would just go back to what follows easily is a child's pose which is an entire yoga pearl of its own so now for a little extra fun and variation and additional spinal movement we're going to add some side bending so first let's just in a neutral position of the spine let's just move our tail and our head to the same side and our waist in the opposite direction and then we'll go the other way so it's like you're making the letter c to one direction and then to the other direction so this really is a nice stretch for the waist and the lower ribs and then we're going to really have some fun i call this rotisserie pose we're going to take a breath in exhale come into a rounded cat and then as you begin to inhale bring the tail and the head out to the side waist in the opposite direction ending in your cowl pose and then exhaling going around to the opposite side and ending in your cat inhaling and exhaling you can easily do this on your elbows and we're going to reverse directions so we're going to exhale and inhaling coming up and exhale side and down and don't try to get too technical about this just enjoy the movement just experiment the head and tail go in the same direction and the waist is going in the opposite direction keep your breathing flowing don't get too uptight about the breathing just try it and have some fun with it okay so if you don't want to be on your knees but you can do a seated spinal flex and we can do that either in the chair or on the floor so we'll start on the floor and we can be in cross-legged position and i'll demonstrate again from the side so you can see the movement of the spine what's really important in seated spinal flex is that your spine is lifted that you're not slumped and that you're not just rocking back and forth you want to keep your head over your hips and you want to move the spine between the head and the hips so that's going to take some practice because most of us are not used to doing this movement so you can start one very one variation is to grab onto your shins and then using a little bit of force with the arms you're going to pull your lower belly and solar plexus forward pulling the shoulders back your head does not get much into this movement you really want to have it in your spine then exhale you're going to round back trying to keep your head more or less over your hips exhaling inhaling exhaling if you cannot sit upright without slumping with your knees up then you want to grab something firm to sit on so it takes you a little bit your elevates your sit bones and then it drops your knees and then you're more you're more upright and the next variation you can use your knees and that puts it more into your upper chest and mid back exhaling back and you know we spend a lot of time slumped over so you want to really open up the chest and pull the shoulders back on the inhalation i know there's a great temptation to throw the head back and drop the head down you can do that but i want you to really make sure that you're moving your spine as well and that your head stays overall over the hips even if it's looking up and looking down a little bit and then you can sit on your heels and again if you need a cushion between your butt and your heels easily done hands on the thighs again inhale this is more of the whole spine movement exhale inhale really pull those shoulders back it's a really active movement exhale really suck the shoulder plexus back inhale exhale so it's a muscular movement with the breath really pumping nutrients into the spinal discs energy up the spine okay so that can easily be done on a chair so spinal flex on the chair would definitely qualify as your mini work break where you don't have to change clothes take off your shoes get on the floor but all the same principles apply our spine is lifted the head stays more or less over the hips and we're breathing through the nose as we inhale opening forward exhaling back make sure you're sitting at the edge of your chair your feet are under your knees facing forward breathing deeply through the nose getting oxygen and nutrients to all the components of the spine energizing your brain [Music] keeping you fresh for whatever work will follow so i think we've covered most of the simple and effective variations of cat pose and spinal flex and for more of the same longer sequences different variations you can gaildubinskymd.com my yoga room in that website is rxyoga.com where you can see clips and download the entire dvds of rsi rx yoga and yoga for gardeners and also be sure to visit my youtube channel where there are more of these yoga pearls and other short instructional clips for your enjoyment thank you so much namaste i hope you enjoyed this video and that practice helps reduce pain and stress and enhance your well-being please check out my other short videos on this channel and my full-length videos at rxyoga.com i welcome your comments likes feedback and suggestions for new videos and namaste