Bhujangasana, or Dragon pose

In hatha yoga, there is an asana that is ideal for young mothers: it helps relieve fatigue, improves pelvic health, and helps reduce stress levels. Interesting? Sure!

This is Bhujangasana, or Dragon pose. You may also have heard of it as Snake pose or Cobra pose. But the essence and the technique is identical, the main thing to remember is that starting from the third month of pregnancy it is contraindicated! If you have recently become a mother, then this asana is just for you.

The exercise can be performed in two versions – simple and difficult. Let’s start with a simple one for beginners.

First of all, do not forget about the warm-up. If your spine is not prepared for exercises aimed at tension and flexibility, then start with a simplified version – Ardha Bhujangasana, or semi-kobra.

Bhujangasana technique

1. You need to lie down on the mat face down.
2. Lift your legs, put your feet together, put your toes together, slightly tense your knees.
3. Bend your elbows, put your hands on the floor under your shoulders, put your weight on your palms. Palms should be about shoulder width apart.
4. Take a breath and raise your body without fully extending your elbows. At this point, make sure your pubic bone is pressed against the floor.
5. Pull the body forward, arms slightly bent at the elbows, neck pointing forward and slightly upward.
6. Hold in this position and take several calm breaths and exhales.
7. With another inhale straighten your arms completely, lift your torso, leaving your pubic bone still pressed to the floor, curve your lower back and chest area.
8. Tense your gluteal muscles and curve your lower back and chest more firmly, pull your head back.
9. Hold this pose, breathe, and then gradually come out of the asana.

The most important thing to remember when practicing Bhujangasana is not to lift your pubic bone off the floor and not to pull your shoulders toward your ears. Your shoulders and elbows should be pulled back and your neck should be pulled upward.

Reminder – if you haven’t practiced yoga before, be sure to prepare your spine for the load. Do the exercise within your physical limits, don’t let the muscle or joints hurt too much.

Advanced Level: Bhujangasana for the Experienced

The essence of the asana for young mothers remains the same, only you need to add crossing of the feet: try doing the asana by changing the legs in places. This will not only help develop your muscles, but also help to see if you have scoliosis.

The second variant of a complicated asana is with twisting. As you inhale turn the body to the right, then as you exhale return the body to its original position, and then repeat the twist to the left side.

Asana Benefits

As we said at the beginning, the Dragon pose helps to reduce stress levels. In addition, it has a positive effect on the kidneys, on the pelvic organs, promotes flexibility of the spine, develops the arm muscles.

There are also contraindications:

• First of all, it is pregnancy (over three months) and menstruation;
• sciatica;
• Lordosis, hernias, dislocation of intervertebral discs;
• serious diseases of the abdominal organs;
• If you have a problem with your thyroid gland, you can do asana, but make sure not to lean your head back.

In our video tutorials you can see the correct technique for performing Dragon pose, or Bhujangasana.