Cat-Cow Stretch
oec:cat-cow-stretch
A gentle quadruped mobility exercise that alternates between spinal flexion and spinal extension to improve vertebral articulation and core awareness.
Generated by gemini-3.8-flash from the sources below. No person has checked this record. Don't rely on it for safety.
Also called: Cat-Cow, Cat and Cow, Marjaryasana-Bitilasana, Cow-Cat, Cat Camel, Yoga exercise: Cow-cat
How to do it
Setup
- Start on your hands and knees in a quadruped position on a mat.
- Align your wrists directly under your shoulders and your knees directly under your hips.
- Keep your fingers spread wide and maintain a neutral spine with your gaze looking straight down.
Movement
- Inhale as you enter Cow pose: drop your belly toward the floor, tilt your pelvis anteriorly, lift your sit bones, and gently draw your chest forward while looking slightly upward.
- Exhale as you transition into Cat pose: draw your navel toward your spine, tuck your tailbone under, round your entire back toward the ceiling, and gently drop your head toward your chest.
- Flow smoothly between the two positions, initiating the movement from the pelvis and rolling sequentially through the spine.
Breathing
Inhale to expand the chest into spinal extension (Cow), and exhale fully while contracting the abdominals into spinal flexion (Cat).
Cues
- Move vertebra by vertebra
- Press the floor away in Cat
- Broaden the collarbones in Cow
Common faults
- Hyperextending the neck aggressively during Cow pose
- Keep the back of the neck long and lift the gaze gently rather than cranking the head upward.
- Bending the elbows to force movement
- Keep the arms straight with soft elbows so all articulation originates along the spine.
- Hinging only at the lower back instead of moving the entire spine
- Focus on mobilizing the stiffer thoracic spine by actively spreading the shoulder blades in Cat and pulling the sternum forward in Cow.
Safety
- Stay within a comfortable range of motion if experiencing acute back or neck discomfort.
Muscles
Joints
- Cervical spine: Flexion, Extension
- Thoracic spine: Flexion, Extension
- Lumbar spine: Flexion, Extension
- Shoulder blade: Protraction, Retraction
Details
- Movement
- Mobility drill, Spinal flexion, Spinal extension
- Modality
- Mobility, Flexibility, Yoga
- Mechanics
- compound
- Force
- not applicable
- Laterality
- bilateral
- Kinetic chain
- closed
- Level
- beginner
- Equipment
- None
- Record
- Repetitions; or Duration
- Load
- none
Related
Sources
- wger: Yoga exercise: Cow-cat, by damnlost (CC-BY-SA-4.0)
This record: CC-BY-SA-4.0.