Marjariasana (Cat Cow Pose)

Marjariasana is the cat stretch: on the hands and knees, arching the spine down on the inhalation and rounding it up on the exhalation. In most English speaking classes the two halves are given separate names, cow and cat, and taught as one movement called cat cow. In Indian classes the whole thing is usually taught under the single name Marjariasana. It is the same practice.

It is not a pose in the way Tadasana is a pose. There is no position to arrive at and hold. It is a movement, repeated with the breath, and its value is entirely in the repetition and in the pairing with the breath. A student who holds the cat half for thirty seconds has misunderstood it.

It is also not a backbend, although half of it looks like one. The spine passes through neutral twice in every round, which is precisely what makes it safe for a body that is not warm yet. That is why it opens the ten minute morning routine and why it is in the desk sequence in its seated form.

This is the whole teaching, and it is what separates a useful round from a wasted one.

Watch a new student and you will see the movement begin at the neck. The chin lifts, the head drops, and the twenty vertebrae in between barely move at all. The lower back then hinges at one point, usually the same point every time, and that point is the one that eventually complains.

Instead: to go into the cow half, tip the tailbone up first and let the movement travel forward along the spine until it reaches the head, which lifts a little at the very end. To go into the cat half, tuck the tailbone under first, and let the rounding travel forward until the head hangs last. If you say to yourself tail, back, head for a few rounds, the sequence sticks.

• Press the floor away with the hands in the cat half. Without that push the upper back never rounds, and the upper back is the part that most needs it in a body that sits at a desk.
• Keep the elbows straight but soft. Locked elbows send the whole movement into the lower back.
• Let the belly be soft in the cow half and draw it in gently in the cat half. Gently. This is not an abdominal exercise.

Once the movement genuinely starts at the pelvis, Bhujangasana and every other backbend get easier and safer, because the lower back has stopped being the only joint that moves.

Three parts of the body get sore in this pose, and all three have a straightforward answer.

The wrists. Stack them under the shoulders and spread the fingers, then press the base of the index finger down as firmly as the heel of the hand. Most wrist pain here comes from letting the weight collapse into the inner wrist. If it still hurts, come onto the forearms or make fists and rest on the knuckles. The spine does not care which one you choose. This is the same wrist question that comes up in Adho Mukha Svanasana, and the fix is the same.

The knees. A folded blanket under them solves nearly every complaint. If kneeling is impossible, the chair version does the same work for the spine, which is what makes this pose usable by almost everybody.

The neck. If you have cervical spondylosis or any neck symptoms, keep the head in line with the spine for the whole round and never lift the chin or let the head drop. You lose nothing that matters. The rest of the approach for that body is on the yoga for neck and shoulder pain page.

Rounds, not seconds. One round is one inhalation into the cow half and one exhalation into the cat half. Six rounds takes about a minute at a sensible speed, and a sensible speed is slower than you think.

Twice or three times a day is reasonable, and it is one of the few things I am happy for a student to do every single day without supervision. Always make the first three rounds smaller than the rest. A cold spine taken straight to the end of its range is the most common way a beginner convinces himself that yoga hurt his back.

It is a warm up pose and it belongs near the front. In the seven day beginner plan it is the second thing on almost every day, after the standing pose and before anything demanding. In the bedtime sequence it appears early to unpick the day out of the back before the practice settles down.

It pairs naturally with two things. Balasana is its counter and its rest: six rounds, then thirty seconds folded forward, and the spine has been moved and then left alone. And it is the honest preparation for Surya Namaskar, which asks the spine to flex and extend repeatedly at speed. A minute of cat cow before your first round of sun salutations is a minute well spent, particularly first thing in the morning when the discs are at their most swollen.

If you are building a home practice from nothing, how to start yoga at home puts it in its place in a first fifteen minute routine.

Sit on the front half of the chair with both feet flat on the floor and the hands resting on the knees. Breathe in, tip the top of the pelvis forward, lift the chest and let the shoulder blades draw together. Breathe out, tuck the pelvis under, round the middle of the back and let the shoulders come forward. Six to eight rounds, ninety seconds, no mat and no change of clothes.

I have taught this to office workers for decades, and it is the single instruction that gets followed most often, because it costs nothing and because the difference is felt in the same minute. It goes with a standing pose and a shoulder release in the desk yoga sequence.

Nothing in a chair replaces a proper practice, and a stiff back that has been stiff for years wants a teacher watching it. That is what his classes are for. The first one is free, in the hall or live online.