Gomukhasana

Western Physiology

Gomukhasana has a therapeutic effect on physical health.

• Gomukhasana stretches and strengthens the muscles:
  • It helps stretch the ankles, thighs, hips, armpits, shoulders, triceps and muscles of the chest.
  • It helps cure cramps in the legs and increases the leg muscles’ elasticity.
  • It helps expand the chest and straighten the back.
  • This pose, amongst others, helps improve flexibility and range of motion (Choudhary & Patlong, 2020; G. Kalpana & Department, 2020; Grabara & Szopa, 2015).
  • This pose, amongst others, helps alleviate shoulder and arm pain amongst breast cancer patients (Eyigor et al., 2018).
  • This pose, amongst others, improves muscular strength and cardiorespiratory endurance (Choudhary & Patlong, 2020).

• Other therapeutic effects of Gomukhasana include but are not limited to:
  • This pose improves scapular posturing and positively affects people with hyperkyphosis (Wang et al. 2012).
  • This pose benefits those with asthma (Agnihotri et al., 2016, 2017; Jasrotia et al., 2019).
  • This pose, amongst others, is recommended as a complementary therapy for people with diabetes (Sharma & Gupta, 2014).
  • This pose helps treat piles (haemorrhoids) (Mahesh Raju et al., 2017).
  • This pose, in tandem with others, improves blood pressure and central obesity (Siu et al., 2015).

Yogic Physiology

• Gomukhasana opens the chest, heart and lungs. It is an excellent pose for removing avalambhaka kapha, congestion or build up on these sensitive kapha prone areas.
• The posture opens the chest physically and emotionally, namely the heart space, anahata akash. It aligns the head over the heart and therefore the flow of prana along chitta nadi, which will energise the mind.
• It affects the four lohitaksha marma points that correspond directly with lymph nodes under the arms and deep in the hips.
• The action in the upper and lower limbs will promote blood circulation, the flow of lymph and affect vyana vayu.

Chinese Medicine

This posture will affect the heart meridian lines – running from armpits to little fingers. The flow of Qi will also take effect on the side of the legs, the gall bladder meridian lines. The central meridian along the front line of the body will also be opened by this pose.

Contradictions and Cautions

Individuals suffering from severe knee, neck or shoulder problems should not perform this pose.

Preparatory Asanas

• Baddha Konasana
• Supta Virasana
• Supta Baddha Konasana
• Supta Padangusthasana
• Upavistha Konasana
• Virasana

Follow up Asanas

• Ardha Matsyendrasana
• Bharadvajasana
• Garudasana
• Marichyasana III
• Padmasana
• Paschimottanasana
• Upavistha Konasana

Tips for Beginners

Beginners often have difficulty getting both sitting bones to rest evenly on the floor, which can make it difficult for the knees to stack on top of each other evenly. When the pelvis is tilted, the spine can’t correctly extend. If this is the case, use a folded blanket, block or the narrow edge of a bolster to lift the sitting bones off the floor and support them evenly.

Variations

From the full pose, lean forward and lay the front torso down on the inner top thigh. Stay for 20 seconds, then inhale gently and come up.

Modifications and Props

Gomukhasana (Cow Face Pose) is quite a challenging pose to perform for individuals who have tight shoulders and who are unable to hook their fingers together. A simple solution to this problem exists: holding a strap between the hands. You should start the pose with a strap placed over the shoulder of the bottom arm. In the second step, when you move the bottom arm behind your back, bring the forearm as high as possible on the back of the body and hold the bottom end of the strap. In the third step, lengthen the arm over your head, move down the back, and hold the other end of the yoga strap. Pull the strap with the top arm. Try to move the bottom arm higher on the back.

Deepen the Asana

You can increase the stretch in this pose if you’re a little more flexible in the shoulders and armpits by moving your hands away from the back of your torso. You could try and hold a belt with a 10 cm gap between your hands and lift the belt away from the back, which makes the posture on the arms quite challenging.