Lift your chest, open the front line, and breathe.
Draw your shoulders down away from your ears, do not crunch into your low back.
Up dog stretches the entire front line of your body in one hold. Pressing to straight arms with your thighs lifted off the floor opens the abs, hip flexors and chest, while your core stays engaged to distribute the arch through the whole spine instead of dumping it into the lower back. It earns its place after any session heavy on sitting, cycling or ab work, when the front of your body has been shortened for hours.
In up dog your arms are straight and your thighs lift off the floor, so only your hands and feet are down. Cobra keeps the legs and hips on the ground with a smaller bend in the elbows, making it the gentler of the two.
You are crunching the arch into one spot. Press the floor away, draw your shoulders down away from your ears, and keep your core lightly engaged so the extension spreads through the whole spine.
After training, at the end of ab work, or any time you have been sitting for hours. It pairs naturally with down dog in a flow, alternating between stretching the front and back of the body.
