Posture Clinic: Downward Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana)

Several weeks ago, I found myself at a friend's house catching up after an absence of several months from each other's company. Inevitably, as he asked me what I had been up to, I mentioned yoga. He listened while I talked about my experiences in training, as a yogi, and as a yoga teacher. At the end of my piece, he mentioned that he had very much been wanting to try yoga but didn't know where to begin. He even went into his room and brought back his still-in-plastic-wrap yoga mat that his mom had gotten him to show me the extent of his potential dedication. 

Yoga is huge, guys. The yogic meditations and philosophies have been around for thousands of years (even longer than the physical postures we now associate with yoga). It is extremely, extremely easy to feel overwhelmed walking into an advanced or even foundational yoga class. 

What I did for my friend was to introduce him to just a few blueprint postures. In essence, I taught him how to "stand up" as he moved from Child's Pose into tabletop, and then from tabletop into a posture called Downward Facing Dog. From Downward Facing Dog, he traveled to the top of his mat and found his way to standing. It is this posture, Downward Facing Dog, that is the topic of this discussion.

(By the way, you guys! My friend texted me a week later and told me he had been practicing the postures I taught him in his room every morning and was already falling in love. You can too.)

Downward Facing Dog

In advance, this posture is in effect a posture supported by your arms. If you know in advance that you carry tension in your wrists or if you would like to warm up your wrists and arms to prevent tension, gently rotate your wrists full their full range of circular motion, repeatedly changing direction, and then gently shake out your wrists for 15-30 seconds. 

Anatomical drawing from YOGA ANATOMY by LESLIE KAMINOFF and AMY MATTHEWS

Find your way there:

1). Come to a table top position on your mat (or on comfortable ground, if you are still waiting to unwrap your very own mat). Place your hands underneath your shoulders, about shoulder width distance, and your knees underneath your hips, about hips width distance. Spread your fingers comfortably so that the webbing in-between your fingers is slightly stretched. Turn your toes under (P.S. This is tabletop position!).

2). Exhale as you lift your knees off the floor and press your hips back and up, to where the wall and the ceiling meet behind you. Lengthen your spine, draw your tailbone up toward the ceiling, and maintain a gentle bend in your knees as you feel this out. Eventually, start to press your thighs to the back of the room as you straighten your legs. Lengthen your heels down toward the mat. It's not important whether your heels actually touch the ground or not; rather, this movement creates the intention of length in the back line of your legs. Feel free to peddle out your legs, bending into one knee and then the other, to get the feel of this posture and encourage some juicy warmth into your calves and hamstrings. Eventually, find your way to stillness. 

3). Press the "L" and "J" shape of your hands firmly into the ground. Line your index finger with your wrist. Distribute weight evenly through all ten finger pads. Kiss your shoulder blades together behind your back, and then soften your shoulder blades down to your tailbone as you draw your shoulders away from your ears. 

4) Take the weight out of your hands by engaging your core. Draw your belly button to your spine. Press the ground away from you. Allow your neck to be neutral as you gaze softly behind you, at the space between your ankles. 

5). Finally, breath. Your breath is the most important yoga posture of all. 

Benefits:

This posture decompresses the spinal column, helping you to find length in your spine.

Even if only held for a few breaths, this posture will help to strengthen the arms, shoulders and legs.

Downward Dog opens the shoulder girdle and the trapezius.

This posture brings fresh oxygen to your central nervous system.

Finally, because I know how hard it is to read something and try to practice yoga at the same time, I am including a link to the wonderful Esther Ekhart's Youtube channel. She has a wonderful video that is extremely accessible to all levels of practice, in which she addresses many of the points of anatomy listed above. As she mentions at the end of this video, even if all the yoga you do today is to do Downward Facing Dog for two minutes when you wake up, you will offer yourself a world of difference.