5 KEY ACTIONS FOR KING COBRA POSE

You might think that it’s all about your spine and how flexible and/or mobile it is. How we involve our entire body is key, and Matt provides the roadmap with the following 5 key actions to set up King Cobra.

1. Bring the chest forward. In the first few attempts, it may feel as though not much is happening, but this is where the mind-body connection is developed.
2. The second action, which may be overlooked, is pressing back through your heels while the feet are in dorsiflexion (this is also important later). Press your heels away from the direction of the chest. What does this do, and why is it important? This is the first step in both the awareness and the action of decompressing the spine. Creating this length is crucial as Matt guides us through the next steps:
   *But let’s pause for a moment and check in with your abdominals–if you are engaging too much here, then this will reduce the amount of expansion in your extension for your backbend, so leaning into a stretch sensation in your front body is helpful.
3. Next on board are your hamstrings–once you bend your knees, you’ll be firing up and activating your hamstrings. This is how the dorsiflexion of your feet can be a great action to take as you build a relationship with how much and/or how little your hamstrings do activate. In the video, Matt explains that pointing the feet (plantar flexion) may cramp your hamstrings because you are shortening the posterior chain too much. He also notes that once your body has enough mobility to point your feet, there is absolutely nothing wrong with doing it.
4. In this step, we understand why the layering is important. As the knees are bent and you’re potentially trying to get your feet closer to your head, Matt again emphasizes pulling your spine forward. Your body may feel the need to compress here and shorten. You might feel the desire to actually send your chest and head back to “achieve the desired result.” It’s most important here to come back to the development and preparation for the spine.
5. This step really goes hand in hand with #4, but pulling your belly up not only makes a significant impact on the experience within you body but also actually brings your head back slightly. (You can see the visual change when Matt layers on this action in the video.) This action is initiated by engaging the deep core muscle called transverse abdominis.