How To Do Cat Cow Yoga Pose: Benefits, Techniques And Types

Cat Cow stretch showcases the rhythmic flow between two poses, bringing warmth and flexibility to your spine. This sequence helps develop your postural awareness and balance throughout the body. It also brings the spine into correct alignment and can help prevent back pain when you practice regularly.

The spinal movement of these two poses stimulates the kidney's adrenal glands, further coordinating the movement with your breathing techniques to relieve stress.

You can perform this exercise on a yoga mat or a carpeted floor. 

Starting Position: All Fours

• First, start on your hands and knees, aligning your wrists underneath your shoulders and knees underneath your hips.
• Then, think of the spine as a straight line connecting your shoulders to your hips. 
• Now, visualize the line extending forward through the crown of the head and back through the tailbone. It is the position of a neutral spine.
• Keep your neck long by looking down and out. 

Inhale And Arch For Cow Pose

• First, curl your toes under.
• Then, Tilt your pelvis back so that your tailbone sticks up.
• Now, let this movement ripple from your tailbone up your spine so that the neck is the last thing to move.
• Afterward, your belly drops, but keep your abdominal muscles hugging your spine by drawing your navel in.
• Finally, gaze gently up toward the ceiling without cranking your neck.

Exhale and Round for Cat Pose

• For the cat pose, release the tops of your feet to the floor.
• Then, tip your pelvis forward, tucking your tailbone. Again, let this action move up your spine. Doing that, your spine will naturally round.
• Now, draw your navel toward your spine and drop your head.
• Finally, take your gaze to your navel.
• Repeat the cat-cow stretch on each inhale and exhale, matching your breath's movement.
• Continue for 5-10 breaths, moving the whole spine.

The cat-cow pose, also known as Bitilasana Marjaryasana, is a gentle flowing sequence between two poses, bringing flexibility to the spine. It is a fantastic spot for beginners and experienced practitioners alike, offering multiple physical benefits.

Therefore, here are the mentioned benefits of indulging the cat-cow pose in your stretching routine below:

1. Increases spinal flexibility

With proper form, the cat-cow pose is a useful back stretch that helps improve your spinal flexion and extension.
The continuous movement between these poses mobilizes your spine, lubricating the joints and increasing the range of motion in each direction. As you round your spine in the Cat pose, you create space between the vertebrae, stretching the ligaments and muscles along the back of your spine.

2. Improves Posture

This yoga stretch strengthens muscle groups throughout your back, improving body posture and helping to prevent lower back pain.
This exercise allows for better alignment by gently stretching and strengthening the muscles supporting the back, arching the spine with each breath cycle. Also, it engages multiple muscle groups in the back, abdomen, and neck, including the spinal erector muscles, which are crucial for maintaining proper body structure.

3. Promote Healthy Digestion

This workout can help improve digestion by massaging the abdomen and stimulating the digestive system.  Together, these exercises stretch your back and belly muscles, which later aid in improving circulation and gently massaging your organs to promote gut peristalsis.
The pose alternates between arching the back upward (cow pose) and rounding the back downward (cat pose).

4. A Great Way To Warm Up

Cat-cow stretches are a fantastic way to prepare your body weight for more demanding yoga poses or physical activities. This is crucial for preventing injuries and ensuring your body can handle the deeper stretches and poses that may follow.

Additionally, cat-cow helps to warm up the muscles surrounding the spine, improving blood flow and preparing them for activity. It is also the spine that you can do before engaging in more intense yoga poses or physical activities.

5. Alleviates back pain

If you are suffering from back pain, this exercise is a blessing in disguise for you.

Regular practice of the cat-cow pose can help alleviate minor back pain by promoting flexibility and relieving tension in the spinal muscles. The flowing movements can increase circulation to the back muscles, potentially reducing stiffness and tension. It can also improve spinal flexibility, which may contribute to reduced back pain.

This pose is hands-down one of the popular mobilizers to include in any warmup any day while focusing on back flexibility. You can find several variations and techniques to perform it effectively with proper form, which are mentioned below with steps in detail:

 1. Regular OI Cat-Cow

How To Do

• First, start on hands and knees with hands under your shoulders and knees under your hips.
• Then, round your back by tucking your chin toward your chest, lifting your ribs, and tucking your tailbone, rounding your back like a scaredy cat.
• Then, slowly arch your back by lifting your tailbone, dropping ribs, and lifting your collarbone and head. 
• Alternate arching and rounding, for 4-8 reps.
• Make it more active by engaging your muscles: every time around your back, consciously push the floor away with your hands and feel your chest muscles engage.

2. Narrow Cat-Cow

How To Do

• First, stand on hands and knees like a regular cat-cow pose, but slide your hands back close to your knees.
• You can also ball your hands into fists instead of trying to keep your palms flat on the floor.
• Go through your arch and round steps during cat-cow movement but with this narrow stance.
• Repeat for 4-8 reps.

3. Disco Cow

How To Do

• Start on hands and knees like other variations.
• Then, circle your chest or ribs by dropping it down the floor, over to one side, upto the ceiling, and over to the other side.
• Afterward, do 4-8 circles in one direction, then switch to another.
• Add in some head/neck circles while you circle your chest.

4. Segmented Cat-Cow

This variation is fun to work on, isolating each part of your back during the movement and breaking down into the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spine.

How To Do

• Begin on hands and knees with a neutral spine like a regular stretch.
• First, isolate the neck movement, keeping your hips, lower back, and ribs natural, and arching your neck by lifting your head. Then, drop your chin to round through your neck. 
• Keeping your neck and hips neutral, round your upper back by pushing your hands into the floor to lift your chest and the back of your ribs toward the ceiling.
• Then relax your arms and let your chest droop toward the floor, helping flatten out (or even slightly arch) your upper back.
• Then, keep your neck and ribs neutral, arch your lower back by lifting your tailbone toward the ceiling, then round your lower back by tucking your tailbone toward the floor. 
• Repeat for 3-6 pelvis cat cows.

5. Low Cobra Cat-Cow

It is also a nice variation to do using the shoulders following a cobra position.

How To Do

• Start in a low cobra position, lying on the floor on your belly, with your belly and bottom-most ribs touching the floor.
• Reach your hands forward to straighten your arms, keeping your chest lifted.
• Tuck your chin towards your chest, and initiate the rounding position by pressing your hands firmly into the floor. Engage your abs by pulling your belly into your spine.
• Keep pressing into the floor hard enough to try to lift your hips and tuck your tailbone to round your lower back.
• Hold for a moment, then slowly lower, starting with your hips, back to your arched straight-arm low cobra position.
• Repeat for 3-8 cat-cobras

Practicing a cat-cow pose can warm the body and prepare it for many activities.

You should keep the following information in mind when practicing this rhythmic sequence which is mentioned below:

• In Cat, let your head drop, releasing the back of your neck. Do not force your chin to your chest.
• You can also increase the abdominal massage and strengthening effects by drawing your belly firmly toward your spine.
• Allow your neck and head to be the very last part of the movement.
• Keep your shoulder blades broad and draw your shoulders away from your ears. This helps to protect your neck during the movements.
• Be aware of your breath and its coordination with your movements. Imagine your breath traveling up and down your spine as you inhale and exhale, like an ocean wave flowing onto the beach and retreating.

Common Mistakes To Avoid

• When you lift your gaze to the ceiling, do so with control, and don't overextend your neck. When you get into the Cat position, let your head drop naturally rather than forcing it down. 
• Keep your shoulders relaxed and not drawn up toward your ears.
• Keep your arms straight so the movement is with the spine, not your arms and elbows.