Fitness stud, and he references Ann Rand. Wow. You continue to earn my respect Tony. Keep up the good work.

Tony,

I would have skipped the Ayn Rand award and straight to giving Bret the Dostoevsky’s War and Peace memorial award.

With respect to the Cobra Pose, do you think all folks outside of those with any major pathology should be striving to develop the ability to perform the full pose, or do you think that only modified versions should be performed if using it and seeking to maintain spinal health over the long term?

I used to perform this movement regularly with no issues and actively posteriorly tilting the pelvis to prevent excessive APT and torquing of my lumbar spine. Then I dropped it after seeing so many railing against even moderate amounts of lumbar extension (which seem inevitable with this movement even when performed without forcing the issue at all) performed as an stretch or exercise (i.e. we need the ability to extend the spine but shouldn’t seek out doing so). But after seeing Mike’s post wondering whether this may be an under-appreciated movement for combating seated posture, I wondered if I had made a major mistake in dumping the full movement (and not at least keeping a modified version performed on a daily basis).

@ Wes: I don’t think people need to go out of their way to go into HYPER-extension, but certainly feel that there’s some efficacy using it to combat the effects of sitting all day. As was mentioned in the comments section on Mike’s blog, maybe starting off on the elbows would be a better option for most. Also, if you have some with extension based back pain, this wouldn’t be a good idea. Just have to take things on an individual by individual basis.