The cobra is a bending pose that can start from the plank position. It’s used in yoga, called the cobra pose, which is known a “bhujanga” in Sanskrit.
The cobra exercise is made up of a series of gentle movements. These motions will work your ankles, neck, wrists, hips, and arms as you go through the actions of the pose. This helps to warm your joints up and get you ready for brisker exercise.
How to do a cobra? Before you start this exercise, you should take a few seconds and limber up. Stretch out your body and check your flexibility. This will help you to be able to go through the motions of the cobra exercise without stiffness or risk of injury.
The cobra exercise is one that works for back is known as a back bending posture. Before you do any kind of exercise or yoga pose like that which would require your back to be bent for the pose, you definitely want to warm up.
If you don’t, you could injure your back and pull a muscle, putting yourself out of commission. No one wants to have to take a few days off after they did an exercise improperly, so warming up before you do the cobra is essential. It protects you from injury and ensures that your back muscles are warmed up enough to do the exercise properly.
How to Do the Cobra Pose
I hope I didn’t scare you off by talking about the risk of back injury when doing this exercise. I think it is important that you understand how to do this exercise properly so that you minimize your risk. With any kind of exercise, there is some risk. You’re stretching your body, putting yourself through exertion, and probably doing some movements you’re not used to doing every day.
Any time you go from a level of low activity or from a state of rest to doing exercises, there’s a bit of risk. You want to make sure you’re warming up properly, and then on top of that, you want to make sure that you’re doing the exercises properly.
When it comes to exercising, the form is very important. Having the proper form and ensuring that you do the exercise in the right way makes certain that you get the most benefits out of it. Each exercise offers a list of benefits that make it worthwhile, and the cobra is no exception. I’ll talk about those benefits later on, but first let’s discuss how to do a cobra plank.
Start by lying on your stomach. From this position, raise your head and trunk using your palms to support yourself. You should keep your elbows bent and arch your neck backwards. Look up as you arch your neck and ensure that your navel is flat against the floor. Press your toes against the floor and then extend them outwards. Hold this pose for a few seconds. You’ve just done a cobra plank.
Detailed Instructions for the Cobra Pose
I have just a quick overview of how to do a cobra weave plank, and this back bending exercise isn’t very tough to pull off, as you can see. However, I want to break down the pose into different parts and focus on each of them. It’s important that you understand exactly what you want to be doing at each point and ensure that you’re doing the pose correctly.
To begin this pose, make sure you’re lying with your body on the floor. Your navel should be pressed against the floor and your entire body should be at rest. From this position, stretch your legs backwards while keeping your toes touching the floor. Place your palms under your shoulders and press against the floor, pulling your elbows near to your sides.
Next, press your thighs and the top of your feet against the floor. As you apply pressure through these parts of your body, you’ll be preparing yourself to move into the next part of the pose.
Breathe in deeply and straighten out your arms as you apply pressure through your palms into the floor. This action should lift your chest from the floor. You only want to lift enough so that your naval rises off the floor. Your pelvis should still be pressed against the floor, if you are in the proper pose. At this point, squeeze your buttocks and push the center of your body down towards the floor.
Use your shoulder blades to open up your chest in a forward motion. Engaging Your shoulder blades like this will help to evenly distribute the weight on the backbone along your whole spine. Now, you’re in the cobra pose. You want to hold this for about 20 seconds, but it could be a few seconds more or less. Breathe out in a relaxed manner as you hold the pose, and once you’ve held it for long enough, you can ease back down to the floor as you breathe out.
The Benefits of the Cobra Pose
Why would you want to include this pose in your exercise routine or in your yoga sessions? I want to list off some of the benefits that this pose can offer you, and I think you’ll see that it has some value after you read through the list.
As a back bending exercise, the cobra pose can be really good for your spine. It can strengthen your spine and ensure that your back is healthy. It helps to make your spinal region agile, flexible, and strong. It can also benefit your spinal nerves and help to tone your body.
The pose is also a really good stress reliever. It helps you to get out of a stage of fatigue low energy, relieving stress, and improving circulation. It can specifically provide blood circulation benefits for your face, helping you to look healthy and vibrant.
The pose opens up a lot of your body, stretching muscles and limbering you up. It is a great way to start your exercise routine, preparing your body for exertion. It’s helpful for asthma, as it benefits your heart and your lungs, opening them up. It also tones various parts of the body, such as the buttocks as you do a squeeze during part of the pose.
The cobra pose stretches out your abdomen, shoulders, chest, and your lungs. In doing this, it benefits these different muscle groups, improves circulation, and improves respiratory function.
Have the pose is also good for your liver and kidney functions, and it can benefit digestion too. In working the abdominals, the pose help strengthen the muscles around your digestive system and opens up your airways.
The pose can be used to help with medical conditions as well, treating health problems and benefiting people who suffer from certain medical issues. I mentioned already that it can help with asthma, but it’s also good for reproductive issues, as it benefits the reproductive systems of both males and females. There is some evidence to suggest that the cobra pose helps with regulating menstrual cycles because of how it improves blood circulation.
Tips for Doing the Cobra Pose
I want to leave you with a few closing thoughts about how to do this pose correctly, to make sure that you get the most benefit from it. It’s not a good idea to do this pose if you have an injured back, you’re pregnant, or you’re suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome or a headache.
In all of these cases, you want to avoid doing the cobra pose and try different exercises that are more appropriate for you.
There are a few different ways you can modify the cobra pose, such as doing it with a prop to help with flexibility. Some people may have trouble doing the normal cobra pose at first, so working with the prop can help to brace them and make the pose easier to do.
Try doing it with a metal folding chair placed against the wall, and then put your hands on the front part of the seat and keep the balls of your feet on the floor.
For a greater flexibility challenge, you can do a deeper back bend. Extend your hands further ahead and straighten your elbows. Try to point yourself straight up towards the ceiling as you engage your sternum for lift.
