yoga teachers fellowship

Core Pose: High Cobra:  Sadie Nardini on June 24, 2010

A teacher friend used to call this “Teenage Cobra” because it’s more grown up than Baby Cobra, but not quite as much as a full Urdhva Mukha Svanasana, or Upward-Facing Dog.

From Plank Pose, lower yourself to the floor slowly, knees up or down. Make sure your elbows are directly over your wrists, and shoulders lifted. Your low belly and front thighs should pull towards the sky as you lower to provide more stability and less dropping out of the posture as you transition. Once there, do an alignment check. Your palms are by the low ribs, preserving the right angle of your arms. Let’s start from the ground up: firm your pointed feet into the earth, carve your tailbone toward the floor, and on an exhale, draw that lower belly in and up the spine as you press into the mat with your palms and begin to rise to your spine’s capacity.

Think not of jutting the ribs forward to achieve the open-hearted look of this pose, but rather, as you ground the hands downward, wave upward along the front of your spine as it moves back into the body and up towards your crown. This will generate the movement from your pelvic core, a place of inner power and support that can sustain that open heart from a safe and healthy root.

Once your chest opens, you should be ready for your inhale–let it flare your ribs wide in all directions. Roll your shoulders back naturally and take the shoulder blades down the back slightly to support your chest lifting like two helping hands behind the heart.

Your head slides back and up with a natural neck curve, completing the graceful curve of this asana without risking cervical (neck spine) compression. You’re free, open, and available for life in every moment. That’s the yogi way. Namaste’.