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Downward Facing Dog Pose (Adho Mukha Svanasana) is a fairly common yoga pose. This pose helps you elongate the spine, stretch shoulders, hamstrings, calf muscles, relax the mind, and alleviate mild stress and depression. The shape of this pose resembles an inverted V.
Step-by-step guide to performing Downward Facing Dog Pose
Step 1: Place your hands and knees on the floor. Position your knees directly under your hips, with both knees spread apart at hip-width and both hands shoulder-width apart. Spread your palms, fingers parallel or slightly turned out, palms slightly turned out but the creases of your wrists slightly turned inwards. This posture helps to open up the shoulders. Rotate and press the fingertips into the floor.
Step 2: Exhale and slowly lift your knees off the floor, push your hips up towards the ceiling, and extend your spine. Initially keep your knees slightly bent and lift your heels off the floor. Lengthen your tailbone away from the back of your pelvis and gently press towards your pubic bone.
Step 3: Then with an exhale, push your upper thighs back and stretch your heels down towards the floor. Straighten your knees but make sure not to lock them. Firm your outer thighs and gently roll your upper thighs inward. Narrow the front of your pelvis.
Step 4: Grip the outer arms firmly and press the index fingers into the floor. From these two points, lift along the inner arms from the wrists to the tops of the shoulders. Hold firmly your shoulder blades against your back, then widen them and draw them towards your spine. Relax your neck, gaze towards your toes.
Step 5: Adho Mukha Svanasana, a familiar posture within the Sun Salutation sequence, is indeed a marvelous yoga asana. Maintain the posture for 1 to 3 minutes. Then, gently lower your knees to the floor with an exhale and relax into the Child’s Pose.
Pose Information
Contraindications and Caution
Tips and Tools
To feel the engagement of the outer arms, loop and fasten a strap around your arms just above the elbows. Imagine the strap tightening inward, pressing the outer arms into the bones, pushing the shoulder blades from inside to outside.
Pro Tips
To increase the stretch in the back of your legs, gently lift and pull your heels about 1 – 2cm off the floor. Then draw your inner abdominal muscles deeply towards the pelvic bone. Finally, press the heels back down to the floor.
Preparatory Poses
Close Alignment Poses
For Beginners
If you struggle to release and open your shoulders in this posture, place your hand on a pair of blocks or the seat of a metal folding chair. Additionally, you can slightly bend your knees and lift your heels off the floor, pushing the hips towards the ceiling to straighten the lower back.
Benefits
Coordination
A partner can assist you in learning how to push the thighs up in this posture. When performing Adho Mukha Svanasana for the first time, have your partner stand behind you and loop a strap around your front pelvis, tucking the strap into the crease between your upper thighs and front pelvic bones.
Your partner can pull the strap parallel to your spine (reminding them to extend their arms just enough, and to keep the knees bent and chest lifted). Allow the head of your thigh bones to sink deeper into the pelvis and lengthen your torso forward away from the strap.
Variation
To challenge yourself in this downward facing dog pose, inhale and lift your right leg parallel to your torso, holding for 30 seconds, maintaining hip level and pressing through the heel. Release with an exhale and repeat on the left side for the same duration.
Posted by: Tuấn Sỹ Phan
Keywords: How to practice Downward Facing Dog pose – Adho Mukha Svanasana
