Cobra pose for low back relief

Low back pain is one of the most common complaints of our time.

And with good reason: We spend much of our time seated and we don’t exercise our bodies enough.

In today’s video yoga teacher Lauren Golen will share with us the Cobra Pose for low back pain relief. This is a terrific pose that not only stretches the lower back and relieves it of tension, but also strengthens it at the same time. Let’s have a look.

Begin by lying on the floor, face down, chin touching. It is preferable to use a mat, blanket or be on a rug for this, as opposed to the hard floor. A softer surface like a bed will not do.

You want your body straight. Place your palms on the floor under your shoulders; fingers in line with shoulders and pinky with deltoid.

You will hold a slight pressure of your hands against the floor. This is for support and NOT to push up your upper body. That action comes from coiling your spine upward.

You will want to keep your elbows close in to the sides of the body and the shoulders pulling downward.

You will next want to tighten your legs by contracting your quadriceps muscles to a degree that your knees feel as if they could come up off the floor. But keep them where they are.

Now you will contract your back muscles as you flex your spine to raise your head and chest up off the floor. Do not push with your hands, which is easy to do and does get you into this Cobra position. However, this defeats the purpose. Use only your hands for stability as you coil up like as cobra.

To help keep you up and raise you even more, you want to bend the neck to raise back the head. You also want to look up with your eyes, as if trying to see over and behind your head.

Squeezing the thighs and the legs together to hold firmly in place.

Now, if all of your abdomen above your navel, you can now engage a little pressure from your palms to push you up that last small bit. Again, this is the helper at the end of the posture, not the method to achieve the posture.

Hold the posture for 30 seconds, and then slowly release back down and relax.

Finish by coming up and sitting on your knees and bending into the Child’s Pose to relax the lower back.

Do this exercise three times or more, several times per week as you feel the benefit, and not strain. You will begin to feel low back pain relief immediately and preventive relief, too.