Improve Posture + Open Your Heart with Cow Pose
/Slumped over a desk for hours?
Need to release tension in your neck and shoulders?
Want to feel open, connected and at ease?
Expand Your Chest in Cow!
Cow Pose is a gentle, beginner-friendly back-bending yoga pose appropriate for yoga practitioners of all levels and abilities. It is typically paired with Cat Pose (cat cow exercise) and practiced as a spine warm-up to prepare the body for more vigorous yoga poses.
As with all backward bends, this pose stretches and lengthens the front side of the body (chest, shoulders and throat) while strengthening the back body (shoulders and spinal extensors). Let’s open our chest in Cow Yoga Pose!
The Benefits of Cow Yoga Pose for Kids
Cow yoga pose releases and stretches the muscles of the chest and shoulders while expanding and opening the heart center. Most of us, kids included, spend many hours of the day rounding our upper back and shoulders and slumping into our chest as we work at desks, on computers or scroll endlessly on our devices.
This pose is a gentle way to combat upper body slouch, lengthening the spine and improving posture. When we restore proper physical alignment, we also create more space for proper breathing and increase our energy and vitality.
As a gentle beginner backbend, Cow pose helps us create the flexibility and balance needed to prepare for deeper back bends like Cobra, Camel and Bow poses.
By strengthening our arms and wrists in cow pose we also lay the groundwork for poses that require upper body and core strength like Downward Facing Dog, Plank and eventually Crow Pose.
When we practice cow pose properly, we press through the pads of the fingers to distribute the body weight across the hands (and hopefully out of our wrists). This strengthens fingers and hands, helping children develop fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.
Try this: Cow and Other Farm Animals Sequence
This yoga sequence combines Cow Pose with several other fun kid-friendly animal yoga poses. Let’s check out all the animals on the farm with Rachel!
How To: Cow Pose Yoga
Start in Tabletop pose on your hands and knees.
Stack your shoulders over your wrists with your hands shoulder-width apart.
Align wrist creases with the front edge of your yoga mat and spread fingers.
Stack hips over the knees with knees hip-width apart and toes guiding straight back.
Distribute body weight evenly through both hands and knees.
Center your head, neck neutral and in line with the spine, eyes looking at the floor.
As you inhale, curl the toes under and tip the pelvis forward.
Rotate the shoulders open, drawing shoulder blades in toward the spine and down the back
Lift the ribcage and chest forward and up, keeping the curve of the neck in line with the curve of the back bend.
Allow gaze to follow the natural curve of the neck.
Actively press the floor away, firming the muscles of the arms, outer hips and thighs.
Exhale back to neutral spine (or to Cat pose) and then repeat with the pace of your breathing.
Tips for Mastering Cow Yoga Pose
Keep abdominals engaged to avoid excessive arching in the lower lumbar spine.
Make sure your knees and hands are positioned correctly to get maximum benefit from this pose. Knees should be directly under hips and wrists directly under shoulders.
Spread the fingers and press through fingertips, to keep the weight out of the wrists and to strengthen fingers, hands and forearms.
If your wrists hurt, make fists with your hands, practice on forearms or try a seated or reclined variation.
Draw shoulders away from the ears and shoulder blades down the back to create space and release tension.
If you have sensitive knees, roll the outer edges of your yoga mat or use a folded blanket under the knees to create extra padding. Also option to practice seated, standing or reclined variations.
If you experience neck discomfort, make sure you are not looking too far up and crunching the cervical spine. You can also always keep your gaze neutral or downward and focus more on opening at the chest.
Breathe slowly and deeply as you practice to calm the nervous system and allow for a deeper stretch.
Kid-friendly Cow Pose Yoga Variations
While it is most common to see Cow Pose practiced from tabletop position, we can also find a cow stretch when standing, seated or lying down.
For the standing version, bring your legs hips width apart with knees slightly bent. Place your hands on your thighs and arch your spine as you inhale.
To practice seated cow pose, sit on a chair or cross legged. Place your hands on your knees and arch your spine and lift your chest into cow pose as you inhale.
For a super gentle cow variation, lay down on your back with knees bent and soles of the feet on the floor, hip distance apart. Inhale and slowly arch your low back away from the floor. lifting your chest as you lengthen your tailbone downward toward the floor.
In each of these variations, you can exhale to return to neutral spine or tuck the pelvis and round the spine into a cat pose variation.
Combining cat and cow to warm up the spine is one of the most common uses of cow pose in yoga sequencing. Let’s add in Plank, Downward Dog and Child’s pose for a full warm-up flow.
Strengthen SEL With Cow Pose and Other Backbends
Cow Pose works on an energetic level to open up the heart, allowing us to more freely give love to others and ourselves.
The front of the heart is connected to how we treat others and pairing this pose with Loving Kindness practice can increase SEL (social-emotional learning), our capacity for empathy and our willingness to consider and understand how someone else is feeling.
The back of the heart correlates to how we give love to ourselves. Pairing this pose with positive affirmations can support a healthy inner dialogue and increase self-compassion.
Practicing cow and cat poses together, slowly and with the breath, brings awareness and expansion to both the front and back of the heart, increasing our capacity for love, connection and belonging.
Elevate Your Curriculum
Access children's musical yoga and mindfulness resources for your kids? You can:
- Download our app for exclusive videos and educational yoga activities -- with no ads!
- Request a professional development workshop
- Learn to teach yoga with a 30-hour certified kids yoga teacher training
- Inquire about bringing the Yo Re Mi program to your students or family
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