In short: cat cow is a gentle movement on hands and knees that alternates between rounding the spine (cat) and arching it (cow), usually with the breath: exhale into cat, inhale into cow. It is one of the simplest ways to warm up the back at the start of a practice, and it adapts easily for sore knees, wrists or a chair.
Strictly speaking, cat and cow are two poses, but they are almost always taught together, so we treat cat-cow as one movement with one guide. It is often the first thing you do in a class, which makes it easy to rush. Done slowly, it is a good way to arrive in your body: you feel how each part of the spine moves, link the movement to the breath, and get the wrists and shoulders ready for poses like downward dog.
About the Sanskrit names
Yoga Journal names cat pose Marjaryasana and cow pose Bitilasana, and those are the names you will hear most in classes. The cat names are easy to trace: both mārjāra and biḍāla mean cat in the Monier-Williams Sanskrit dictionary, and āsana means posture (see asana). The cow name is less clear: the word bitila does not appear in Monier-Williams, so we do not offer a translation or a standard Devanagari spelling for it. Both are modern names. Neither pose is among the 15 postures of the 15th-century Hatha Yoga Pradipika; cat-cow belongs to modern practice, where it is used as a warm-up in almost every style, from hatha to vinyasa.
The tabletop setup
Everything starts from tabletop: on hands and knees, knees directly under the hips and hip-width apart, hands shoulder-width apart and slightly ahead of the shoulders. Turn the wrist creases parallel to the front of the mat, spread the fingers and press down through the knuckles so the weight does not sink into the heels of the hands. Find a neutral spine, neither rounded nor arched, with the neck long.
Moving through cat cow with the breath
Think of cat cow as a wave that starts at the tailbone. On the inhale the pelvis tips, the belly lowers and the chest moves forward; on the exhale the tailbone tucks, the back rounds and the head releases last. The arms stay straight and the hips stay over the knees, so the spine does the moving. Five to 10 slow rounds is plenty. The same movement works seated toward the front of a chair with your hands on your thighs, a handy version at a desk or when getting to the floor is hard (see chair yoga), or standing with the knees slightly bent.
Some teachers cue the breath the other way round, or ask you to move without linking the breath at all. What matters is that the breath stays slow and easy; our guide to diaphragmatic breathing is a good companion to this movement.
Neck, belly and back: cautions in context
Cat-cow is gentle, but keep the range small and pain-free. If you have a neck injury, keep the head in line with the spine rather than lifting or dropping it. Yoga Journal advises avoiding or modifying cow pose if you have diastasis recti, the separation of the abdominal muscles that is common during and after pregnancy; a smaller arch, or cat with a neutral spine instead of cow, is a reasonable adjustment. If you are pregnant or postpartum, check with your health care provider and see our guide to prenatal yoga. If you are moving because of back pain, see a clinician first and read yoga and back pain; poses are not treatments. This page is general information, not individual advice.
What comes next
From tabletop, the natural next step is to tuck the toes and lift into downward-facing dog. Cat-cow is also a good warm-up before backbends like cobra pose and hip openers like pigeon pose, and before arm balances such as crow pose, because it loads the wrists gradually.
You will find it in our morning yoga and bedtime yoga plans, and in the list of beginner yoga poses to learn first. Browse the full pose directory for more.
