Posture Check: Cobra
Picture 1: Cobra with neck hyperextended
Picture 2: Cobra with Neck aligned
Oh cobra pose…you dicey little nugget of a posture. You misrepresented fool. You snake in the grass. This is probably the posture I spend the most time on because it gets SO exaggerated from asking people to bend their backs in ways that are often not good for the back.
Today, I’m going to focus on only one part of the posture: the neck.
Purpose: Back Strengthener
Stretch or Strength: Strength
The head can go pretty far back because it’s a reflexive response in the spine, so our head doesn’t pop off. Handy right?
Try this: just where you are right now, position your head back as far as I am in Picture 1. This is not a place you want your head to be in for very long. Pretty quickly you will start to lose blood flow, you might get dizzy, you might feel pain. Here the cervical spine is in a place of compression. Here we are pinching the neck in a way that can cause issues.
So what to do?
Lay down on your belly and place your chin, lips or forehead on the floor.
Slide your hands below your shoulders with the elbows in the air.
Take a breath in, keep your gaze on the ground and lift your head and heart one inch off the ground. Imagine you’re holding an apple under your chin.
Lift and lower a few times without ‘dropping’ the imaginary apple.
Try it and let me know what you think!
~CC
