Did you order the Dog?

Downward Facing Dog (sanskrit Adho Mukha Svanasana)

Well-known posture for everybody, who was at yoga class at least once. I call this one The Mother of all poses. No matter which yoga style you’re practicing, you will do this posture at least once during your practice. So, here we go…

Position

Sit on your heels and extend your arms forward in your Child Pose.

We’ll start with your Down Dog arms.  Spread your fingers widely and firmly press them and every inch of your palms to the floor, keep lines of your wrists parallel to the front side of your mat.  Rotate your forearms inside and your upper arms outside, eyes of your elbows should look up to the ceiling. Push your shoulders to the shoulder socket to keep your neck relaxed. Come to your all four position, keep your legs on hip distance, tag your toes and push your hips up and backward. From the side this posture looks like triangle.

Lift your kneecaps with quadriceps , try to lift your sitting bones up to the ceiling, keep your heels up and then slowly forward them down to the floor.  Your heels should touch the floor after some time of practice, but it is not necessary. Main point here is keeping your neck relax and learn how to spread your weights between hands and heels.

Props

 If you feel that it doesn’t work in the middle of the room, go to the wall and try to use it as an additional holder. First time try a holder for your heels, place your heels on the wall and balls under your toes on the mat (exactly balls under toes, not toes) and feel what changes.

Second option is a holder for your hands. Place your hands right next to the wall and firmly press index and big fingers to the wall and spread others as much as you can go ahead with your Downward Facing Dog and observe all the changes.

If you feel discomfort with your hamstrings, try to bend your knees.

You can always use a strap right below your elbows which will help you to rotate your arms.

Take a block and squeeze it between your thighs, it will help you to rotate your thighs and to lift your kneecaps.

You can also use a block under your forehead here, very helpful with relaxation, headache, low/high blood pressure.

Benefits

Increase the movement capacity of shoulder joints

Extend the spine

Extend back side of your legs

Good influence for nervous system

Contraindications

Hamstrings issue

Wrists issue

Intervertebral disks issue