Featured Pose: Seated Cat-Cow Pose

by Baxter and Nina

This deceptively simple, gentle pose from our office yoga series brings mobility to your entire spine, allowing you to move your spine in two of the six important movement directions in which your spine can move, extension (back bending) and flexion (forward bending).  Mobility in the spine is important for maintaining the health of your spine, and for your entire body since your spinal cord, which communicates with your entire body, moves through your spine. Although most people don’t think of having arthritis of the spine, but it is a significant problem (see Arthritis of the Spine) and moving your spine is the best medicine for arthritis in this area. The gentle spinal movements can even help relieve back pain.

The pose also benefits your hip sockets because your sitting bones move back and forward with your spine, bringing movement into your hip sockets, which can get stiff from sitting from long periods of time. And because you move with your breath in this pose, inhaling into the backbend and exhaling into the forward bend, it’s a good way to learn breath awareness and beginning pranayama.

Accessible to everyone who can sit up, the pose is also so gentle that almost everyone, in any condition to do it. You can do it in any type of chair, even in the car! (In fact, Baxter did it just yesterday, while he was stuck in a !@#$%! traffic jam coming back to the East Bay from San Francisco.)

Baxter prescribes this pose for:

• low back pain or stiffness
• arthritis or stiffness of the hips
• arthritis of the spine
• held tension anywhere from hips to neck
• beginner’s experience of pranayama
• general stress reliever while sitting at your desk
• warming up for office yoga or any other physical activity

Instructions: Start by sitting near the front of the chair seat, with your feet hip-distance apart and planted firmly under your knees. Straighten your arms, and place your hands on or near your knees. Before moving into the pose, establish the lift of your spine, from your sitting bones through the crown of your head.

As you inhale, start moving from your pelvis, rocking your hips forward so your weight comes more onto the front edge of your sitting bones. As you continue to inhale, gently lift your spine and lengthen into gentle backbend. Lift your breastbone forward and up and allow your head and neck to lengthen out and back, coming into the Cow backbend.

As you exhale, start moving from your pelvis, dropping your pelvis in the opposite direction, moving the back of your waist backward and rocking onto the back part of your sitting bones. As you continue to exhale, allow your middle back to move back as well and drop your chin toward your chest, coming into the Cat forward bend.

Repeat both the Cow and Cat positions, moving with your breath, allowing your inhalations and exhalations to be slightly longer than they are when you are taking a resting breath. Do the pose for a minimum of six rounds up to any number that feels good to you.

Cautions: Because these are mild, everyday movements, those pose is relatively safe. However, if you have been instructed by your doctor to avoid certain movements of your spine, for example, some people who have lumbar disk problems are warned about forward bending movements being potentially dangerous, you should try smaller movements at first and see what your body can handle. The same cautions apply to people who have significant injuries to their necks.

Note from Nina: Oopsie! I just realized we already wrote up this pose in April (see Chair Cat Pose). Naturally, that write up is different if you care to compare it with the new one. I think it's time for us to move onto an entirely new set of poses....

For Tamasic Depression: Moving with Your Breath

Light in the Mist by Michele McCartney-Filgate

by Nina

Last week in my post Tamasic and Rajasic Depression, I mentioned how moving with your breath can be very helpful for people with tamasic depression (or for all of us on those days when we're just feeling blue). We don’t have scientific evidence to prove this, however, many long-time yogis have experienced the enlivening and uplifting sensations of vinyasas and mini vinyasas. And I'm here to testify to that! Some possible reasons why this works are:

• Moving with you breath engages your mind, providing you with temporary respite from depressing thoughts. Coordinating movements with your breath doesn’t give you time to brood or let your mind wander.
• Consciously breathing as you move improves your breathing in general, which can reduce lethargy and fatigue.
• Exercising in general can actually change your mood, possibly by changing your body chemistry.

You can use a vinyasa or mini vinyasa as a way to start a longer practice or as a mini practice on its own. If you’re too depressed to contemplate a challenging practice, try some simple movements. Just starting to move, however modestly, can sometimes get your energy flowing and may even motivate you to move onto a longer practice.

Practicing a vinyasa with a backbending movement may be the most helpful for depression. For most people, backbends are energizing and uplifting. Patricia Walden, who teaches yoga for depression, says that backbends “let in the light.” In Gary Kraftsow’s sequence for chronic depression in Yoga for Wellness, he includes a mini vinyasa with Bridge pose, a sequence that includes Warrior 1, and second mini vinyasa with Upward-Facing Dog pose, probably for the same reasons.

Today I’m just going to offer up a few ideas for poses you can use to start a practice or to do on their own as mini practices (and, hmmm, now that I look at the list, I realize you could actually do them all, in the order below, as a short sequence). Some of these ideas come from Patricia Walden, some from Gary Kraftsow, and some are my own.

Cat pose: If you can’t even bring yourself to stand up on your yoga mat, whether because you’re depressed, discouraged, or just tired, try starting on hands and knees. Move into your backbend on an inhalation (what some people call Cow pose and what I like to call Purring Cat) and arching your back into Cat pose on an exhalation. Repeat any number of times. Who knows, maybe you’ll feel like going into Doward-Facing Dog pose next or perhaps even standing in Mountain pose on your mat. By the way, you can even do this pose in a chair, as we described in our post Chair Cat Pose, anywhere and in any attire.

Mountain Pose: The easiest standing mini vinyasa is to move in Mountain Pose. Start in Mountain pose, with your arms by your sides. On an inhalation, bring your arms overhead as you bend slightly into a backbend in your upper back. On an exhalation, release back to your starting position, bringing your arms back by your sides. Repeat six times.

Warrior 1: Moving from Warrior 1 stance to full Warrior 1 pose as we illustrated in our post Warrior 1 and Warrior 2 Mini Vinyasas is a more challenging vinyasa. But the fact that it takes more concentration and effort may bring you more powerful results. Repeat six times.

Bridge pose: This is the deepest backbend of the group, which provides the benefits of a good chest opening along with the benefits of moving with your breath. Start by lying on your back with your knees bend, your feet about hips-width apart and your arms by your sides. On an inhalation, press down with your feet as you lift your pelvis off the ground, open your chest, and raise your arms overhead and down toward the floor behind your head. On an exhalation, return to the starting position, dropping your pelvis straight down to the floor as you bring your arms back by your sides. Repeat six times.

I hope that some of you out there will give these a try and let me know how it goes!