Hey, everyone, and welcome to Yoga with Adriene. I am Adriene. And today, we are going to learn Cat-Cow. Which is one of my favorite things in the entire universe. So I'm happy to share it with you today. Cat-Cow is great for happy spine, massages the internal organs, stretches the belly, builds muscles in the back, and can also reduce stress. Which we all need to do. I don't think we will argue about that. So hop on the mat and let's learn Cat-Cow. (lighthearted music) Okay, so we're going to begin on all fours. And we can pad the knees with a blanket, or we can double up the mat. In fact, let me just show you that really fast. This is a great trick if you're working on hard floors and you don't have a blanket. You can peel the mat up and double it up here, or quadruple. Triple, quadruple it up. And it becomes a nice little padding for the knees. Ta-da, so use a blanket if you like, or double up on the mat. Okay, so together, we'll come to arrive on all fours. And right away, of course I wanna think about my foundation, that which is touching the earth. So I'm gonna spread my palms as wide I can, and place them underneath the shoulders. So wrists underneath the shoulders. I'm gonna check in with my legs. Knees directly underneath the hips. And checking in with my foundation, I will therefore press the tops of my thighs into the earth. So rather than just hanging out on all fours, I'm already considering my foundation. And not just that, but pressing up and out of it. So finding this what we call tabletop position. And to do that, I'm really gonna extend through the crown of the head. By maybe taking my gaze down between my two index fingers. And then maybe drawing the shoulders, Not maybe, how about we draw the shoulders away from the ears. My yoga mentor will be like, what's with all this maybe? No maybe, let's roll the shoulders away from the ears. See if we can create a long neck here. And then, particularly for us gals, but for everyone, just check in with the lower back by drawing the naval up towards the spine. So sometimes we get caught in this nice pelvic tilt, which is lovely. But we'll want to come into the tabletop position. So straightening that out. So there's kind of a lot of activity going on here. I'm pressing up and out of my palms. I'm engaging the pelvic floor, pressing into the tops of the feet, drawing my naval to my spine, shoulders away from the ears, long beautiful neck here. Then of course, I'll begin to come into my breath (exhales). Maybe first just noticing the natural rhythm, the natural ebb and flow of the breath. And then beginning to stir it up, play with it, see if I can extend the inhale (inhales). And extend the exhalation (exhales). I'm starting collect tiny beads of sweat on my forehead. One, because it's kind of hot in the room. But two, because I'm working here. I'm already creating a full body experience for myself, engaging the core (inhales). Connecting from the crown of the head to the tip of the tailbone. Okay, so this is actually Tabletop position. This is the preparatory pose for Cat-Cow. So I'll inhale and break this line in the spine. Scooping my heart forward, pelvis tilts here, as I shine my heart forward, gaze can come forward here. I'm drawing my shoulders away from the ears, and I'm continuing that action that I had in Tabletop position of pressing up and out of the earth. Rather than just collapsing into my bones. So inhaling, long belly. Then on the exhale, opposite. So I'm gonna start at the tailbone. Curl my tailbone under, travel up the spine, draw the naval up towards the sky, chin slowly rotates, tilts towards the chest. So we wanna draw the chin to the chest, but not forcefully, just letting the flow up the spine. Allow the crown of the head to release. And then same thing here. I could be hanging into my bones here. Or I can really get my money's worth, as I like to say. I can press up and out of the earth, really feeling the skin of the back stretch, drawing the naval up towards the sky. And then on your inhale, on the next inhale, same thing, scooping the heart forward. Lengthening through the side body, pressing up and out of the palms as the tailbone lifts up, pelvic tilt. Heart radiates forward. Nice big breath in. On the exhale, tailbone curls under, chin to chest, naval draws up, pressing up and out of the palms. In kids yoga, here we pretend like we're black Halloween cats here. We go hisses. Now on the inhale, scooping the heart forward, I want to just take a quick moment to say rather than thinking of this as a U shape, the letter U, like I love you, or other things, rather than thinking of it as a U shape, and then an N shape, think about it as a journey. So the breath is taking us on the journey up into that U shape. And then we'll connect the breath and the movement by then traveling into the N shape. So a good example of that, if you're like, what did she just say? Is when I'm here in this kind of U shape, stretching the skin on my belly, rather than just thinking about going from here to here, I'm gonna really enjoy how I get there. So connecting it with the breath. I'll maybe start at the tip of the tailbone. Start the movement there. And then slowly travel up the spine, like two little fingertips walking up my spine until they continue to walk, walk, walk up my neck. And then the crown of the head releases only because I finally made it there in my journey. And then I begin again, inhale. Looping the shoulders away from the ears. Again, scooping the heart forward. So this is a really great spinal flex warmup. And I feel like a lot of times, we just blow through it like everything else, like really fast. So take your time, consider the breath. And then marry the breath to the movement. Always wanting to marry the breath to that action, the action to the breath. So here we go, Cat-Cow. Inhaling, scooping heart forward (inhales). And again, inhaling. Heart radiates forward, long puppy belly here. Pressing into the tops of the feet. In kids yoga, here we say, moo. And then, exhaling. Traveling up the staircase of the spine. Pressing into my palms. All of this is on that exhale (exhales). Long breath in, long neck. And we can close the eyes and really enjoy this (exhales). So that was Cat-Cow. A wonderful basic foundational pose that you can do every day when you wake up, or before you go to bed. Super yummy for the spine. Thanks for being with me. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments box area. I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Make sure you subscribe to my channel and visit poccox.com. Hope you have a beautiful time practicing Cat-Cow. Namaste. (lighthearted music)