How to Do Cow Face Yoga Pose for Upper Body

Video Transcript

"CINDY MASTRY: A really great way to stretch your shoulders and even help if you have a rotator cuff injury is Gomukasana working on the upper body. So I'm going to ask Faith to just turn back on the diagonal and come in to her Gomukasan legs, cow face. Good. Stacking her knees on top of each other. Good. Sitting square on both her sit bones. Good. She's going to take her right arm out to the side and reach it up over her head and internally rotate. Good. So her palm faces as far back as possible. She's going to bring that hand down and just pat herself right in between her shoulder blades. Good. It might even take time to take a little triceps stretch right here. Good. Then she's going to take her left arm extended out to the side and rotate forward, internally rotate with her shoulder, and then bend her elbow and bring her other arm around and approach grabbing onto her hands. This is where the strap really comes in handy. So if you don't have a strap, you could also just grab on to your shirt or a scarf or maybe you have a belt. Good. So this strap is going to allow her to gently walk her fingers closer as her body as she holds and breathes into the stretch. She's just going to be able to release just a little bit more, and with each inhale lengthening, with each exhale opening up her shoulders, opening up through her heart and bringing her hands just a little bit closer together. Till eventually, she can hold each other's hands."