Seated Staff and Cat Poses strengthen the shoulders, upper back, chest, and abdomen. They also improve alignment. Learn about theses poses with YouVeda’s Guided Yoga.

Seated Staff and Cat Poses

Seated Staff Pose

Seated Staff Pose might look easy, but it’s an intense strength-builder for the upper back, chest, and abdomen. This pose is the foundational posture for all seated poses, including twists. It helps to prepare the body for deeper poses while enhancing your ability to focus on precise alignment in your body.

Steps:

1. Begin by sitting on the floor with your legs extended out in front of you. If your hamstrings are tight, sit on a bolster or blanket so your torso can be upright and vertical. You can also sit with your back against a wall with your shoulder blades touching it, leaving a space between the wall and your low back.
2. Sit forward on your sit bones and draw your thighs to the floor. Flex your feet and press out through your heels. Keep your big toes, inner heels, and inner knees together.
3. Strongly engage your thigh muscles around your thigh bones, and activate the muscles surrounding your knee caps. Press your thigh bones firmly down into the floor. Make sure your legs do not rotate outward.
4. Stretch your heels away from your body and tilt your pelvis slightly forward, extending the distance between your heel bones and sit bones.
5. Do not collapse your low back. Work to lift your torso from the base of your pelvis. Keep your weight evenly distributed across both sit bones.
6. Place your hands on the floor alongside your hips, pressing through your palms with your fingers pointing forward.
7. Broaden across your collarbones and lift your chest. Then, broaden across your shoulders. Draw your belly button in toward your spine. Anchor your body through your tailbone and sit tall.
8. Keep your torso perpendicular to the floor, and lift the crown of your head to the ceiling. Keep your chin parallel to the floor and gaze steadily straight ahead, toward the horizon. Hold for up to one minute.

Benefits

• Dandasana stretches and strengthens the shoulders, upper back, chest, and abdomen.
• It improves posture and alignment and is also known to be therapeutic for sciatica and asthma.
• This pose helps to calm and steady the mind, encouraging calm focus.
• Practicing the pose with a smooth and steady breath can relieve stress and improve concentration.

Cat Pose

Cat pose is often paired with Cow Pose for a gentle warm-up sequence. When practiced together, the poses help to stretch the body and prepare it for other activities.

Steps

1. Start on your hands and knees in a “tabletop” position.
2. Make sure your knees are set directly below your hips and your wrists, elbows, and shoulders are in line and perpendicular to the floor.
3. Center your head in a neutral position, eyes looking at the floor.
4. As you exhale, round your spine toward the ceiling, making sure to keep your shoulders and knees in position. Release your head toward the floor, but don’t force your chin to your chest.
5. Inhale, coming back to neutral “tabletop” position on your hands and knees.

Benefits

• Stretches the back torso and neck
• Provides a gentle massage to the spine and belly organs