BellaOnline Forums Health and Fitness Yoga Cobra Pose

The third pose in that "3 minutes" exercise book is called lizard - but in essence it is cobra pose with your toes curled under. He tells you to keep your stomach on the ground - and to straighten your arms out. I can't both keep my stomach touching the ground and have my elbows straight.

I assume I should focus on the stomach-on-ground part and then just straighten up my arms as much as I can, to have my back curve as much as I can?

Thoughts?

I would just do Low Cobra, resting on your forearms. You don't have to push up into High Cobra with straight arms unless you are ready. The back curving is more crucial.

It sounds like Lizard is in between Upward Dog and High Cobra.

Let me go try it right now and see how it feels.

... Okay, yeah, I would just do it with the elbows on the ground.

ok I'll work on doing it with my forearms down. I found a website that says even for regular cobra not to "push up" with your arms - which is what I was trying to do. They said if anything to put your arms behind your back so that you're not tempted, and to use your stomach and back muscles to raise you up.

Hi Lisa!

I'm curious about this lizard pose. I've never seen anything like this with the toes curled under and the arms straight. I'm a little concerned because of the amount of pressure that is being put on the low back in this position. I would agree with Jilly in this and do a modification to Cobra with the forearms on the floor if your going to have your toes curled under as well.

Can you tell me what purpose the author has for this pose? That may give some insight into why the toes are curled under and I might be able to recommend some adjustments or modifications to help get the same effect without putting the low back at risk for injury

the gist of this book is if you do six poses for three minutes total that you'll maintain your body's flexibility. So pose one is extended child pose with the arms stretched out and the toes flat. Then is cat cow. Then is lizard with the tours curled under to get the muscles not hit yet. The aim is after all six poses you've hit everything.

OK I am including their image of lizard to get help with this. This is part of my ability to review this book thoroughly - I'm generally very sensitive about copyright issues but you're allowed to share parts of a book in order to review it properly. This Lizard image is really stumping me so I'm calling in experts to help!



They want you to keep your hips on the ground. Curl your toes under. Straighten your arms.

Hey Lisa

Years ago I used to think there was virtually no difference between low cobra, regular cobra, locust pose or upward dog but they are all radically different.

What you're seeing in the pic above is upward dog with thighs on floor (usually thighs are off the floor). The way to do it without putting strain on your back is with good breathing technique, visualization and contracting the right muscles.

Notice how her stomach is NOT touching the ground. It's her hips and thighs that are touching the ground. Notice how she's pushing into the floor to hold herself up and how her shoulders seem to be really close to her ears vs. down (not good).

The purpose of this pose if you're doing it daily for maintenance is to strengthen your back muscles and stretch your chest, abs, and hip flexors (awesome for those of us who work at a desk long hours). The thing is there is ZERO benefit to holding it for 3 min. A better option would be to go up and down about 8 times then on the last time hold for 1 minute. This works tons better because you're not forcing the spine out of it's chair shape. Coaxing it back into it's natural S shape always works so much better.

The goal of this pose is to be able to keep the lower abs and hips pressed into the floor, to breathe in as you're raising up allowing the upper abs and chest to expand, and to raise up with as little help from the hands/arms as possible by keeping the shoulder blades down and squeezing them together and down towards the lower back gently). Visualize the front of the body getting long while the back of the body gets shorter (it helps to squeeze the glute muscles a bit too).

I do yoga for corrective purposes daily and upwarddog is last on my list of exercises because it is such an aggressive pose especially after you've been sitting for hours on end.

If I were you I would work on cobra first, not with forearms on the ground but with hands on the ground and arms bent and using the back muscles to really raise your chest off the floor (keep shoulders down and away from ears and shoulder blades pulling together and down towards the low back). Once you master that you can move on to locust then back to a higher cobra then to upward dog.

Sorry this is so long but corrective exercise is my area of expertise so when I see this kind of thing being explained all wrong it really gets me worked up (in a good way). I hope all this helps you with your practice. What's the name of this book? If the purpose of this book is yoga poses for health then it's way off the mark. What are the 7 other poses? I wonder if they're explaining those wrong too : ( Do they even have any modifications for beginners?

Check out my Back and Hip Mobility Exercises video to see what I mean about using the back muscles to peel yourself off the floor. I'm dropping down into the lizard first then slowly lowering down and I'm using my back muscles instead of arms to come off the ground, spreading my arms wide to reinforce the scapular retraction I was talking about above (shoulder blades together and down). This sequence rocks by the way for better posture and energy. This is not yoga btw, it's yoga inspired corrective exercise I can actually come up much higher now. Not struggling with my upper back like I was last year.

Dear Monica -

Thank you so much for all your help!

The book is

3 Minutes to a Pain-Free Life: The Groundbreaking Program for Total Body Pain Prevention and Rapid Relief

I'll go look at your video!

Interesting. I looked it up on Amazon and tons of books that I've used for continuing education courses came up. I'll see if I can find it at the bookstore and take a quick look.

I think it's hard for physical therapist to make that crossover into practical yoga for rehab and for yogis to make the crossover into p.t. style practice.

Lots of people are trying to bridge the gap though and will be great when somebody finally does : )

Linda Christy Weiler is doing an amazing job teaching trainers how to do this. I've taken two of her courses and they were so helpful for working with clients in pain. She teaches yoga, chakra balancing, Egoscue Method, Franklin Method, and Feldenkrais (somatics).

Are you in pain or is this strictly for review?

Dear Lisa,

I completely agree with Monica on all the points she made. Some modifications that I would suggest for this is to play around with having the toes curled or uncurled. I understand that the author of this book is making certain points, however I don't agree with the idea that a posture has to be done the same way in every body, simply because no two bodies are the same.

Another modification that I would almost insist on is keeping the gaze forward and not tilting the head back. By keeping the chin down that will help to get the shoulders to move down the back AND it will take the unnecessary pressure off of the cervical spine. I'm of the very strong opinion that there is absolutely no need to drop the head back like that in any posture. The neck muscles need to be strong in order to reduce the strain there on the spine, and sadly most don't have very much strength in the neck. Doing this to the neck can cause subtle damage that can cause pain or aggravate any existing conditions of the neck.

A way to strengthen the neck is to practice camel without dropping the head back. Instead keep the neck long with the gaze on the ceiling. Being in a back bend with the neck actually working to keep the head held up with strengthen those neck muscles.

I like modifications and I teach as many of them as I can get into a class because a little modification can go a long way for the student that needs it. I have a hard time with any instructor that insists on a posture being done in only one way.

These are just some thoughts to add to the conversation and to your considerations

Deborah

Monica -

A guy at our gym is a massage artist on the side. He and Bob got to be friends and Bob suggested I give him a try to help support his business. The guy was pretty neat in that he's studied all over the world, he's in his mid-60s I would say and has a lot of interesting background. He had great advice for me on a few things I talked with him about when he was doing the massage.

He recommended the book when we were done as a way to proactively stay healthy and I said I'd take a look. But as you might see from my review if you see it there on Amazon, I wasn't blown away by the suggestions.

Also I heard from Bob afterward that the massage guy was being a bit grumpy that I didn't immediately follow every suggestion he made (changing my chair out for a ball seat etc) and that he was also grumpy with another friend who had seen him and who also didn't follow his advice immediately and thoroughly.

I tend to resist people who want to direct me like a marionette So I haven't gone back to him. And I think the fact that he felt this book was some sort of a Bible with perfect information also causes me to pause.

Deborah -

Thank you so much for the suggestions! I will definitely work on this. While I think the book isn't a golden recipe for eternal life, I do agree that adding more simple stretches into my free moments would be a good thing. So having a collection of quick things I can do while waiting for my tea to microwave or so on sounds good to me. I like to maximize every moment, in a gentle serene way of course

Lisa,

I like the image you present of gently and serenely caring for yourself as the tea warms

Have you ever considered adding Yin Yoga to your regimen? It's a very gentle style of yoga that works into the connective tissues, is calming to the nervous system, and is really very effective at causing relaxation in the body while at the same time stretching deep into the joints and into the connective tissues.

I understand the purpose of the author, and like you I agree with the need to gently care for the body with stretches. Yin Yoga is a very excellent means to do this without putting your body into any unnecessary strain. Just a thought!

Deborah

Hey Lisa

Deborah had some awesome suggestions and what you're saying is totally what I try to teach my clients. There is no one way to do anything. We all have different bodies and come to our yoga practice or to personal trainers with different issues (stress, injuries, cancer, adrenal fatigue, post pregnancy weight, depression, etc.).

It's important for each person to modify to any exercise or type of exercise to their level and their specific needs and it's also important to find small ways to take care of your body throughout the day as you said.

This is why I'm always going on about doing 5-10 min. of mobility daily or just anything that boosts health and restores your well being daily or hourly or as often as you need.

I think when people begin to see movement as a way to health they begin to find time for more healthy movement throughout the day vs. finding ways to avoid exercise.

You're definitely on the right path. It's all about balance no matter what type of exercise you choose.