Cow Face Pose
Quick Teaching Tips
Knees
Knees stacked on top of each other.
Ground
Ground through your sitting bones.
Inhale
On an inhale, lengthen your spine.
Walk
Walk your hand up between your shoulder blades, palm facing outwards.
Hook
Hook the fingers together, if they reach.
Shoulder blades
Firm your shoulder blades against your back ribs.
Modifications
Start From All Fours
If you find it difficult to get into this pose, start the pose from all fours and cross your legs bringing your left knee to the inside of your right knee. Lower your hips in between your feet.
Folded Blanket
If your sitting bones are not evenly resting on the floor, sit on a folded blanket, a yoga block or a cushion.
Half Pigeon Pose
Do everything the same except get into Half Pigeon Pose.
Strap
If the fingertips don’t meet do the Cow face pose with a strap. Hold the strap with the top hand, the lower hand can just grab the strap.
Fold Forward
You can intensify the stretch in this pose by folding forward. Keep the weight in your sitting bones, not on your knees. Fold forward while you hold the arm position. If, however, you feel that folding forward reduces your stress, either in the shoulders or in the hips, don’t fold forward. You can do this version of the Cow Face pose in many different basic Yin Yoga postures, such as the Straddle pose.
Kneeling
Do Cow face pose kneeling instead of with legs crossed over each other.