The prone cobra, or locust pose, is a favourite of most yogi's and fitness professionals when they're developing a clients core strength. The only thing is, depending on the person, it may be causing more harm than good.
With the traditional prone cobra, there's a large amount of stress put on the lumbar spine (lower spine) due to most people hinging from that area during the movement. This may cause pain for those with existing back pain or even those without pain.
Many people have issues when they hyper extend through the spine, this is why I hardly ever program the prone cobra for clients. However, I do prescribe what I like to call the "Iron Cobra".
The Iron Cobra focuses on the thoracic spine (mid back) and flattens the lower back avoiding the stress that's placed on it from the prone cobra. The thoracic musculature is an area I find lacking in many clients.
This usually shows up in the form of bad posture - rounded shoulders & hunching of the mid back. The Iron Cobra helps develop the strength of those dormant thoracic muscles, improves your posture, and it avoids hyper extension.
Watch the YouTube video to learn how to perform the Iron Cobra.
Back pain is a common problem faced by many people. It doesn't matter if you're active and training all the time, or if you can't even remember your last workout, back issues can happen to anyone. Back pain can stem from any number of sources, many people experience back pain caused from muscle imbalances. If you're pain isn't the result of a serious accident, a nice place to start when dealing with back pain is to open up the fascia in the back line of the body and stretch out your tight muscles.
What is fascia and what is the back line?
There's giant sheet of "webbing" that runs through out your entire body, wrapping around all of your muscles and tissue. This "webbing" is called fascia, fascia helps hold everything in your entire body together and is essential to effective movement. When the fascia isn't being worked or moved on a daily basis, due to injury or lack of activity, it becomes dense and locked down. When the fascia becomes dense and locked down it impairs your movement, leads to poor posture, and increases your risk of injury.
While fascia is essentially one giant web, it has been divided into a hand full predominant "lines" (or paths) through out the body. Each line runs through/around a series of muscles and joints. The back line runs from the bottom of the feet, up the backs of your legs, all the way up the back to the top of the head. Most people tend to be tight throughout the back line, especially those who sit all day. In my experience, just working on opening the back line of the body helps many people deal with their back pain. It's a great place to start!
The Superficial Back Line
Opening up the back line!
It will require manual stimulation in order to break down the dense fascia and get it moving again. This means you'll need some serious massage! Don't worry, you don't have to spend all of your money on a massage therapist to get this done! All you need is a lacrosse ball, a little bit of knowledge on self myofascial release, and a little bit of stretching. The sequence in the video should help you break down that dense "locked down" fascia, stretch the muscles of the back line, and help ease back pain you may be experiencing.
THIS IS NOT a replacement for medical advice. Please, if you're experiencing serious back pain, get check out by a physiotherapist and doctor to get an expert opinion.
1.) Roll the bottoms of your feet with a lacrosse ball, each for 1-2 mins
2.) Roll the calves, each for for 1-2 mins
3.) Place the lacrosse ball under your hamstring on a chair, focus on tight points for 1-3 mins each
4.) Roll your back with a foam roller or PVC pipe for 1-3 mins
5.) Stretch your calves, 30 seconds - 1 min per leg
6.) Perform the standing hamstring stretch, 30 seconds - 1 min per leg
