Names
Bhujangasana, Sarpasana, Cobra Pose
How to perform Bhujangasana
Lie down on your belly with your body and knees straight and your feet together. Place your hands beside your chest and with inhalation lift your upper body up until even the navel does not touch the floor anymore. Look straight up.
To come out of the pose, slowly lay your body back down on the floor with exhalation.
Benefits of Bhujangasana
Practicing the cobra pose is very good for strengthening the spinal column and the muscles supporting the spine. This is how it is often recommended against backache, in some cases even if you suffer from pain after a slip disc.
The cobra pose also works wonders for your abdomen and abdominal organs. It helps your digestion and thus prevents and also works against constipation. Also if you have the feeling your stomach often bloats, frequent practice of this yoga posture can help you alleviate your discomfort.
This help for your digestion has another effect, too: toxins and excessive salts are removed from the body which prevents them from forming kidney stones. Together with the intake of much water and other exercises, the cobra pose is said to reduce the size of existing kidney stones, too.
Women who have issues with their ovaries or suffer from irregular menstruation cycles and leucorrhea as well as pain during menstruation can get relief through regular practice of Bhujangasana.
The cobra posture also helps your lungs to fully expand and collect a larger amount of oxygen which then helps the heart and blood circulation. The result is that you feel fitter and more energetic. Fatigue is relieved and you can cope with stress more easily.
Energetically Bhujangasana also helps you to feel more alive. It activates the flow of energy in the second chakra and thus enhances your sexual life. Men will find that regular practice of the cobra posture works against premature ejaculation.
Bhujangasana is an exercise for the whole body as you can see in the many benefits described above. This is why it is popular as a posture enhancing your whole life!
Focus Points
Your legs and feet should remain together and touching each other during the practice of the yoga pose. Your toes should point to the back, so that the soles of your feet are turned upwards. Keep your hands with the palm flat on the floor.
Throughout the full pose, you should keep your shoulders relaxed. Don’t hang the weight of your upper body on your shoulders.
Tips and Help
If you want to bring your buttocks in a nice shape and chose this exercise for it, you can increase its effect by squeezing your buttocks with inhalation and pressing the pelvis down. This tones your muscles even more!
Keep your breathing rhythm: come up with inhalation, do complete yogic breathing while you are in the pose and come down again with exhalation.
When to Avoid Bhujangasana
Pregnant women should avoid practicing Bhujangasana.
If you are suffering from wrist, shoulder and neck pain, from cramps in that area or a sprain of the arm, you should consult your doctor and avoid the exercise until he approved it.