How to do the Cobra Stretch
Step by step
- Lie face down with your hands flat under your shoulders and elbows tucked in.
- Press gently through your hands to lift your chest off the floor.
- Keep your hips and legs on the floor and your shoulders relaxed down.
- Rise only as far as feels comfortable, hold, then lower back down slowly.
The thing people get wrong
Keep your hips down and go only to a comfortable arch - if your low back pinches, straighten your arms less and let your elbows stay bent.
Coaching cue
Pull your shoulders down away from your ears and lead with your chest, not your chin.
Make it easier or harder
- Easier: Stay down on your forearms instead of your hands.
- Harder: Straighten the arms a little more, only as far as stays comfortable.
Muscles worked
- Primary: Core, Hips
What to do instead
Same job, different movement — useful if you don't have the equipment or it doesn't feel right today.
Daily Coach builds this into a real weekly plan. It picks the exercises for your equipment and experience, swaps around injuries you tell it about, and tracks what you actually lifted.