The Ever Popular Adho Mukha Svanasana Or Downward Facing Dog

Probably one of the first Yoga Asana or pose you learn and something you’ll keep doing through your years or yoga is the Adho Mukha Svanasana, also known as the downward facing dog pose. There is almost never a bad time to do Adho Mukha Svanasana in terms of yoga asana sequencing or even at any time of the day to stretch all those muscles.

The downward facing dog works as a warm up pose, a transitional pose, a resting pose and also a good warm down after both forward bends and back bends. It’s also a key pose in the Sun Salutation yoga sequence also called Surya Namaskar.

Benefits
As common or easy as this pose may seem, its benefits are numerable-
It increases the strength and flexibility of the shoulders and stretches the hamstrings, calf muscles (gastrocnemius and the soleus) and Achilles tendons and acts as an overall body stretch and strengthening pose. The posture is known to relieve the symptoms of menopause, improve digestion, relieve headaches, insomnia, back pain and fatigue. It’s even known to help prevent osteoporosis.

How to  do Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward Facing Dog)

• From a position of all fours with your wrists under your shoulders and knees in line with your hips. Curl your toes under and lift your backside towards the ceiling.
• Elongate the spine and straighten the knees, spreading the fingers evenly and pushing down from your forearms.
• Let your head hand and try lowering your shoulder blades and broaden the collarbone. Look at your stomach.
• Pay attention to stretching the thighs and arms but using the abdominal muscles to keep the weight off them look towards your feet making this a resting pose.
• Try lowering your heels to the floor as much as you can.

Tips and Corrections to Perfect the Pose
If you feel pressure on the outer edge of your hands while in Adho Mukha Svanasana, lift you pinky fingers so the force is duly exerted through the index finger. If your wrists hurt, try to create space between the wrists and the arms.To do this, push your fingers into your yoga mat that should lift the pressure off the palms. Lastly, if your heels have a tendency to roll inward, rotating your legs, you have to pay close attention and look to your feet before entering into the final pose. This should help correct the alignment.

To Deepen The Pose and increase the stretch in the backs of your legs, lift slightly up onto the balls of your feet, pulling your heels a half-inch or so away from the floor. Then draw your inner groins deep into the pelvis, lifting actively from the inner heels. Finally, from the height of the groins, lengthen the heels back onto the floor, moving the outer heels faster than the inner.

Variations
As a variation to the traditional pose and a little extra challenge, inhale and raise your right leg parallel in-line with your torso and hold for 30 seconds, keeping the hips level and pressing through the heel. Release with an exhalation and repeat on the left for the same length of time-

Another variation is the wide-legged adho mukha svanasana, with the legs spread wide apart-

Adho mukha svanasana with pincha mayurasana arms, where you’re on your fore-arms and heels lifted-

And Parivrtta adho mukha svanasana, where you twist your body and with your left hand, hold your right ankle and repeat on the other side-

*Photo Credits: photos by BeckyKP, whatnot, tarnalberry, Kelly Loves Whales on flickr