What is Bhujangasana in Yoga

[Nil Thapliyal]

Lie face down on your mat. With feet and legs together, place your hands beneath or beside your shoulders. Straighten your arms and lift the chest as you inhale. Do not let the head fall back in this posture, compressing the cervical vertebrae. Rather, keep the back of the neck long by gazing up “through” your forehead and rolling the shoulder blades together and down the back. Sink the pelvic bones into the earth as you simultaneously lift the heart up and out, elongating and opening the abdominal area and stretching the torso muscles along the front and sides of the body. You may also lift the knees off the ground (coming into upward facing dog, or Urdhvamukhasvan Asana). In this position, the lower abdominals in particular should be engaged and the tailbone should be “tucked” in to protect the low back.