Cobra Pose, Bhujangasana

How to do Cobra Pose, Bhujangasana: Yoga Backbend for Energising and Strengthening

Yoga classes in Milton Keynes

Bhujangasana – Cobra Pose backbend demands more arm strength than Sphinx Pose. Bhujangasana (Cobra Pose) opens the chest, stimulates the digestive organs, and increases mobility in the vertebral column.
1. Lie face down on the floor. Place the palms on the floor under the shoulders, fingers facing forward. Over several releasing exhalations, make your body as long and alive as possible, extending from the back of the waist down through the lower back, hips, buttocks, thighs, calves, and soles of the feet.

2. Tuck your tailbone under so the pubic bone presses to the floor. Lift your straight knees off the floor while keeping the tops of the feet pressing down to the mat. Inhale and lift the chest upward without using any pressure at all on the palms of your hands. Hold for a few breaths. This position works on strengthening the back. It will give you an idea of which muscles you need to work, and how strong they are without any help from the arms.

3. Now work on mobilising the back. Press the palms to the floor and continue to curl the spine up off the floor. Keep the inner legs and feet together as you press the pubic bone into the floor and move the back arching action a little higher up into the middle back. Pull back with the heels of the hands, so it feels like you are pulling your chest forward, through the arms.

4. Keep the shoulders soft and move down the back has you straighten the arms. Tuck in the chin in toward the throat so the back of the neck remains long. Stay here for a a few more breaths, expanding the chest on the inhalation and lengthening the spine on the exhalation.
5. When you combine this pose with a hissing sound on the inhalation and an awareness of the line of energy from the perineum to the sacrum, it becomes a mudra, Serpent Seal.

Yoga Tips

Gaze: The third eye or up to infinity.
Counter Pose:

• Deep forward fold
• Restful deep forward fold

Lighten:

• Practice moving smoothly in and out of Cobra Pose (Bhujangasana) before holding it for longer periods.

Effect:
Energising, strengthening
 

Cobra Pose, Bhujangasana Counter Poses

In yoga we use a counter pose in a sequence; For example, a twist follows a backbend to “neutralise” the spine, or a forward bend follows a backbend to help lengthen the spine and calm the nervous system.