Bitilasana (cow pose)

Bitilasana (cow pose)

To do this pose:

Come onto your hands and knees on your mat with your shoulders directly over your wrists and hips directly over your knees. From this table top position, start to arch your back while you reach your tailbone and gaze up to the sky. Open through the sits bones and collarbone as you look up and drop your belly. Here, you can sway side to side, forward and back, just like in Cat pose to stretch through the abdominal muscles and really open up through the heart. Usually this pose is done on an inhale so you can drop your abs away from your spine, but feel free to hold for a few breaths while moving through the pose.

How this pose is especially beneficial for nurses: 

• It opens the chest and the abdomen. Like we have talked about, opening the heart after a long and stressful day can be very important. Stretching the abdominals and the front of the neck this way can also be very beneficial after being hunched over for most of the day. Unlike other heart openers, this opening stretches all the way down the abdomen and up to the throat, offering full front body opening. 
• Like with Cat pose, this pose and going back and forth between the two poses provides gentle massage to the spine and abdominal muscles to help you detoxify your body as well as strengthening through the wrists and hands. 
• Flowing through these two poses, Cat and Cow, you can increase blood flow through your whole body, improve your focus, rejuvenate your body, and help focus on your breath. Flow through them when you’re feeling run down, tired, or burnt out after a long shift.