Set-up:
Kneel on the platform and place your hands on the carriage.
Align your shoulders directly over your hands and your hips over your knees.
Movement:
Push the carriage away, extending through the spine into a Puppy Stretch. Reach the arms forward and open through the chest.
Pull the carriage back in, bringing the hands beneath the shoulders and curling the spine into a Cat position.
Repeat the sequence slowly and with control, moving with breath.
Hold Puppy:
Kneel, hands on carriage, walk forward, lift hips high, and push chest down.
Opening shoulders, and thoracic spine.
Breathe deeply and keep hips lifted.
1B
6th
Inhale to puppy, exhale to curl
Muscles Worked:
Erector spinae, abdominals, and shoulders for spinal articulation and control.
Mobilised:
Thoracic and lumbar spine, shoulders, and hips through the extension and rounding movements.
Regressions:
Smaller range of motion to decrease the spinal flexion or extension.
Progression:
Hands placed further forward on the carriage to increase shoulder flexion and thoracic extension, and looking at the hands to deepen the stretch through the chest and upper back.
Look at hands in Puppy Stretch:
Lifting the gaze toward hands during the puppy stretch for an increased cervical & thoracic extension.