A Complete Guide to Cat-Cow Pose

Sometimes, all you need is a gentle stretching exercise to relieve all the physical and mental tension. A gentle stretch ensures you don’t push your body much. That is where the Cat-Cow pose comes into action. From relieving stiffness to releasing stress, it does everything you want a yoga pose should do for you.

With that said, let’s have a reading of the brief introduction of the Cat-Cow pose before jumping on to how to do it. Furthermore, check out various benefits of practicing Cat-Cow pose. Read on.

Cat-Cow Pose: A Brief Introduction

As signified from the name itself, the Cat-Cow pose is a combination of two yoga poses, Cat pose & Cow pose. It comes under a warm-up or cooling-down routine that prepares you for the upcoming activities in your schedule.

The Cat-Cow pose aims at increasing the flexibility of your spine, neck, and waist muscles. Moreover, it negates the prolonged sitting that causes stiffness in your spine.

Steps to Practice Cat-Cow Pose

Follow these steps to easily practice the Cat-Cow pose without any issue.

Kneel on the ground and keep your spine parallel to the floor.
If your knees hurt, do not forget to place soft padding under your knees.
Place your hands in alignment with your shoulders.
Ensure that your shoulders are aligned just above your wrists.
Lock your elbows before practicing the Cat-Cow pose.
Breathe in and push your hips out.
Make sure your spine form a natural curve.
Furthermore, contract your shoulder blades.
Look towards the ceiling while breathing in.
Breathe out and look down.
Push your scapula muscles away from each other.
Squeeze your abdominal muscles for core engagement.
Ensure that your spine forms a rounded stance.

This completes a single cycle of Cat-Cow pose. It completely depends on your goal in mind or yoga sequences as to how many repetitions you should do of the Cat-Cow pose.

Benefits of Practicing Cat-Cow Pose

The Cat-Cow pose has plenty of benefits. Check them out to know what can you expect with consistent practice of the Cat-Cow pose.

Flexible Spine

Too much sitting, bending forward, or staying in a single position minimizes the range of motion of your spine. That is where you should practice the Cat-Cow pose. It enhances the forward and backward movement of the spine. Moreover, it relieves any stiffness due to improper posture or living habits.

Massages Knees

The knees are one of the complex joints that need proper care and nourishment. Kneeling while practicing Cat-Cow pose gently massages your knees. Moreover, it releases joints fluid that ensures your joints remain moist and lubricated.

Strong Neck Muscles

Looking up and down while breathing in and out strengthens your neck muscles. Moreover, it releases stress from your neck and muscles surrounding your shoulders. Furthermore, it has a positive impact on your upper body and smaller spinal joints.

Better Scapula Engagement

Scapula muscles are there to support your neck and shoulder muscles. Moreover, they are responsible for better engagement of upper back muscles and generating more power in your arms. Practicing the Cat-Cow pose improves the scapula engagement that ensures your upper back and neck have maximum stability.

Relaxes Your System

The Cat-Cow pose has minimum movements while breathing. However, they ensure you have maximum relaxation. That is achieved by completely relaxing your Central Nervous System. It releases hormones that soothe your body and give a gentle massage to your brain. Hence, you feel a lot better with regular practice of the Cat-Cow pose.

Precautions to Take While Practicing Cat-Cow Pose

Even though anyone can practice Cat-Cow pose, however, you should keep a few things in check to stay away from injury or any accident.

Always practice on softer padding to not stress or hurt your knees.
Never push out your hips too much, it might lead to an injury.
You should not practice Cat-Cow pose in case you have a wrist injury.
People having shoulder injuries should not practice the Cat-Cow pose.
Practice slowly if you have cervical or upper back pain.

Wrap Up

Whether you want physical or mental benefits, you should include the Cat-Cow pose in your routine. Just be consistent with your practice to have a perfect body and life.