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I wanted to fix my flexibility and unlock my stiff back—so I practiced this yoga pose every day for two weeks
If you asked me to rate my favorite yoga poses, cat-cow wouldn’t make the top 10. I’ve never felt that it provides me with a satisfying stretch or interesting challenge.
However, I also know that practicing it regularly can improve your spinal flexibility, which is something I could use a little help with.
I decided to dedicate a few minutes to this pose for 14 days, but I wanted to make it more challenging.
Yoga teacher Dina Cohen suggested squeezing a yoga block like this one between my thighs to activate the lower body and core.
Here’s what happened after I did this variation for two weeks.
(Image credit: Nicole Benedettini)
The yoga block improved how I moved
Having a yoga block between my thighs helped me engage my lower body and keep my legs steady.
This lower body stability allowed me to concentrate on the movement of my upper body, especially around my lower back, which ultimately improved my range of motion in the pose.
Visualizing helped me get a deeper stretch
Visualizations are a common yoga technique that I always find helpful.
When practicing cat-cow, I decided to imagine one thread attached to my lower back, one to my mid-back, and one at the top of my head.
When doing the cat, I pictured the mid-back thread pulling me towards the ceiling. For the cow, I visualized the other two threads dragging my lower back and head upward, as my belly dropped toward the floor.
Focusing on this helped me move more easily and get a deeper stretch in the back of my neck, lower back, and scapular area.
Mastering the breath was challenging
Matching your breath to the correct movement in yoga is important. It can impact how easily you move into a pose and help you relax.
It took time to master the correct breathing cycle for cat-cow, which is to inhale when doing the cow (back arched) and exhale when doing the cat (back rounded). If I wasn’t focused, I found that I accidentally inverted this pattern, even after practicing it for 14 days. I was surprised at how challenging it was.
However, when I got the pattern right, it helped me relax and cleared my mind.
My scapular muscles got stiff
This pose was quite demanding on my scapular muscles (located around the shoulder blades), particularly the cow.
I found that I needed to come out of the pose for a few seconds to relax my upper body, otherwise the tension became unbearable.
This shows that this is a problem area for me, and something I need to address with more practice.
