Description: From tabletop pose (ensuring your knees are directly under your hips), lift your tail bone to arch your back and allow your belly to drop toward the floor while keeping your shoulders away from your ears. Lift your chin and sternum (eyes toward the sky). To release, return to tabletop. You can pair this pose with cat pose, flowing back and forth between the two poses.

Benefits:

1. Helps relieve tension in the upper body

2. Stretches your hips, shoulders, and spine

3. Along with Cat pose (last month’s pose of the month), it brings about the relaxation response in the body (parasympathetic nervous system) and thus lowers the body’s stress response

Counterindications: Wrist, arm, shoulder, hip, or knee injuries

Modifications:

1. Seated Cow – do this pose while sitting on a chair or on the floor

2. Place a folded blanket under your knees

3. To alleviate wrist or hand pain, place blocks under your forearms and do the pose from your forearms

4. You can also stretch from side to side or forward and back to stretch additional muscle groups/parts of the body