High Cobra Arm Lifts

All-Levels
Written By Danielle Enos (Dani Winks)

Flexopedia > Shoulders

High Cobra Arm Lifts

Muscle Group(s) Stretched: Shoulders, Back*

Muscle Group(s) Strengthened: Shoulder flexion, shoulder external rotation, spinal extension

Type of Stretch: Active Dynamic

Difficulty: All-Levels

Suggested Prerequisites: none

Challenge your regular high cobra by adding in some active overhead shoulder reach conditioning! This is a great drill for students looking to deepen their overhead shoulder flexibility for arms-overhead backbends like bridges and needle scales.

How To

Step 1

Start in your High Cobra pose. Bring your left hand to the middle of your mat. Reach your right arm forwards, arm straight, making a “thumbs up” sign with the thumb pointing towards the ceiling.

Step 2

Keeping your chest facing forwards (don’t let it twist!), slowly reach the right arm up-and-back as far as you can with the thumb pointing towards the ceiling (or straight behind you if you can reach that arm quite high), don’t let the thumb start to rotate to the middle, and don’t let the elbow bend. Slowly lower the arm back to the ground. That’s one rep. Repeat for 8-12 reps on one arm, then repeat on the other side.

Modifications

Need to make it easier?

Lower your cobra and do these arm lifts in your low cobra pose intead.

Want to make it harder?

Instead of lifting a straight arm, bend the elbow 90 degrees and keep the elbow pointing towards the floor (don’t let it flare out to the side) as you try to lift and lower the elbow off of the ground. You may be surprised how much more challenging this is!

 
 
Danielle Enos (Dani Winks)

Dani is a Minneapolis-based flexibility coach and professional contortionist who loves sharing her enthusiasm for flexibility training with the world.

https://www.daniwinksflexibility.com
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High Cobra Cat-Cow
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Low Cobra Arm Lifts