Pose breakdown: Downward-Facing Dog

Down Dog at a glance

• Sanskrit: Adho Mukha Svanasana (adho = downward, mukha = face, svana = dog, asana = pose)

• Also called: Down Dog, Downward Dog

• Pose type: forward fold, inversion, arm balance

• Stretches: calves and Achilles tendons, soles of the feet, hamstrings, glutes, the muscles along the spine, lats

• Works: serratus anterior, rhomboids, rotator cuff, hands and forearms, deep core, inner thighs

• Props that help: blocks, a blanket, a folded mat

No two dogs are the same

Downward-Facing Dog, or Adho Mukha Svanasana, is the pose most people picture when they think of yoga. Along with Chaturanga, it’s the pose people ask me about most, and the question is always the same: am I doing this right?

My first answer: no two dogs on the street look alike, and no two Down Dogs do either. Your arm length, leg length, shoulder width, hamstrings and wrists all shape your pose, which is why nobody can tell you what “correct” looks like without being inside your body.

What I can give you is the set of actions that make the pose work, and the options to adapt it. Then you find your own dog.

What Downward-Facing Dog does

Down Dog is three things at once:

• A forward fold. The hips fold deeply and the whole back of the body lengthens, from the soles of the feet through the calves, hamstrings and spine to the crown of the head.

• An inversion. Your hips are above your heart and your head is below it. You might feel a little rush of blood to the head (I call it brain juice) and more breath coming in.

• An arm balance. A lot of your body weight goes into your hands, so your wrists and shoulders have real work to do.

When the spine is long, every vertebra gets a little more space and the discs between them a little more room to breathe. That is one of my favorite things about this pose.

Here’s something that surprises people: Boat Pose, Staff Pose and Down Dog are essentially the same V shape at a different angle. In Staff Pose, tight hamstrings make it hard to sit tall. In Down Dog, the same hamstrings show up as bent knees or a rounded low back, with an arm balance on top. If seated forward folds feel hard, Down Dog probably does too, and that’s very common.

Is Down Dog a resting pose?

Not finding Down Dog restful doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong.

You may have heard Down Dog called a resting pose. For some people it is. For many others it takes years before they feel “ah, thank goodness, 10 breaths in Down Dog.” With sensitive wrists, tired shoulders or tight hamstrings, it won’t feel restful at all. It’s essentially half a Handstand with a big hamstring stretch on top. Rest is relative, too: after a long series of Chair Pose, Down Dog can feel like a holiday.

How to come into Down Dog: the basic shape

Let’s find the basic shape first.

1. Start in tabletop on your hands and knees.

2. Tuck your toes under and lift your knees off the mat.

3. Exhale and lift your hips up and back into an inverted V.

4. Walk your dog out. Bend one knee, then the other, and pedal your feet. Go slow. This is yoga, not a race.

5. Find stillness, then notice where you feel it. For most people it’s the whole back of the body.

To come out, lower your knees to the mat and rest in tabletop or Child’s Pose.

The basic shape: hands and feet on the mat, hips as the highest point.

That’s the whole shape. Everything below makes it stable, comfortable and yours.

Setting up from tabletop

The details are easiest to build from tabletop, before your weight goes into your arms.

Your hands

Spread your fingers and thumbs wide. Press into the knuckles at the base of your index finger and thumb, then the rest of the knuckles, and gently grip with your fingertips. This hand action is called hasta bandha. It spreads your weight over the whole hand instead of dumping it into one side of the wrist.

Point your index fingers forward, parallel to the edges of the mat, or use whatever hand position feels best. Your hands can be shoulder-width apart, a little closer or a little wider, depending on your shoulder width, bone structure and how stable your shoulders feel.

If pressing into the index finger side makes your wrists complain, turn your fingers out a little. For people with a larger carrying angle at the elbow (the forearms angle out when the arms hang by the sides), that is often more neutral for the wrist.

Your shoulders

Broaden your collarbones and widen your shoulders apart. Then gently squeeze your shoulder blades toward each other as you push the mat away. Pushing the floor away switches on the serratus anterior, the muscle along the side of your ribs, and the rhomboids between your shoulder blades. Together they hold your shoulder blades steady while your arms carry weight.

Your belly

Draw your low belly gently up and in. Keep it simple; you don’t need a big core engagement here.

Now tuck your toes, lift your knees and float your hips up and back on an exhale, keeping all of those actions in your upper body.

Fine-tuning in the pose

Once you’re in Down Dog, a few more actions bring the pose together. I’ll go from the arms down to the feet, then back up to the head.

Let your shoulder blades move with your arms

You’ve probably been told to take your shoulders away from your ears in Down Dog. Try the opposite.

With your arms overhead, your shoulder blades lift and rotate with your arm bones. Let them.

Pulling them down fights the way your shoulders are built to move. Instead, keep pushing your hands forward into the mat so your chest moves back toward your thighs. You’ll feel your spine lengthen and the muscles around your shoulder blades switch on.

Roll your elbow bellies forward

The soft inner part of your elbow is what I call the elbow belly. Straighten your arms and roll your elbow bellies forward, toward your fingers. This turns your upper arm bones out (external rotation), hugs them in and keeps your collarbones broad, so your chest gets a nice starburst feeling of space.

Why bother? When the elbows bend and splay out, the upper arms roll in and the head of the arm bone travels forward and down in the shoulder socket. Over thousands of Down Dogs, that can make the shoulder less stable and may wear on the front of the joint. Many of us already spend hours rounded forward over a keyboard, then step on the mat and do the same thing in Down Dog.

This can be overdone. Do the action once, carefully, then keep it at about 50%. Not 110%.

Lift your sitting bones and bend your knees

Bend your knees and roll your sitting bones up toward the sky, widening them apart. This tips your pelvis forward and lets your low back find its natural curve. Keep your knees bent if you need them to hold that. If you can straighten your legs without losing it, go ahead.

A big round in your low and middle back is the sign to bend your knees more. For many people Down Dog is a very deep forward fold.

Bent knees with a long spine make a much better Down Dog than straight legs with a rounded back.

Drag your heels apart

Press into the balls of your feet and your toes. Then, without moving your feet, imagine dragging your heels away from each other. Your thighs spiral inward. That inner spiral makes space across the back of your pelvis and the sacrum, so your low back can lengthen up and out of your pelvis.

Your heels might rest on the floor or hover above it. Either is fine.

Keep your head in line with your spine

Your head is part of your spine, so let it continue the line. Don’t tuck your chin to look at your belly button, and don’t lift your head to look at your fingertips. Tucking puts your neck in deep flexion, which isn’t the end of the world but can be uncomfortable. Looking forward adds unnecessary tension to the back of your neck.

For most people a neutral head puts the ears roughly in line with the upper arms. If your shoulders are tighter and your arms don’t reach fully overhead, that alignment would push your head forward. In that case, keep your head in line with your spine and let your ears land wherever they land.

Most of us almost never have our head in line with our spine during the day, which makes Down Dog a great place to practice. Let your spine cascade down and your thoughts drain out through the crown of your head.

Find your hand-to-foot distance

Your hands and feet don’t have to stay where they were in tabletop. Down Dog is a different pose, and your arm, leg and spine length only show once you’re upside down. If your hands and feet are too close, your back scrunches into a round. If they’re too far apart, the pose gets much harder on your shoulders.

Try this: walk your feet back toward the edge of the mat, then too far forward, and notice what happens to your stability. Settle wherever your spine keeps its length. As Bernie Clark puts it in Your Body, Your Yoga, don’t let the tail wag the dog: start from your spine and let your hands and feet follow.

The shape to aim for: a long spine from tailbone to crown, hips as the highest point.

Modifications, variations and alternatives

This is where Down Dog gets personal. A modification keeps the pose and changes how you support it. A variation keeps the pose and adds something new. An alternative is a different pose with a similar effect, for when Down Dog isn’t available to you.

Common mistakes and how to fix them

Your elbows splay out to the sides

Looks like: bent elbows pointing outward, upper arms rolled in, the upper back hunched.

Try: point your index fingers forward, straighten your arms and roll your elbow bellies toward your fingers at about half effort.

You yank your shoulders down away from your ears

Looks like: shoulder blades pinned down, neck tense, arms working against the shoulders.

Try: let your shoulder blades lift with your arms, then push the mat away to move your chest back toward your thighs.

You chase your heels to the floor and your back rounds

Looks like: straight legs, heels pressing down, a big round in the low and middle back.

Try: bend your knees deeply and roll your sitting bones up. Your heels can hover. A long spine matters far more than heels on the floor.

Your head is tucked or lifted

Looks like: chin to chest, looking at your belly button, or neck craned to look at your hands.

Try: bring your head back in line with your spine and let the crown release toward the floor.

You sink into your shoulders

Looks like: very flexible shoulders, armpits dropping toward the floor, head close to the mat, arms far back behind the head. People call this hammocking.

Try: shorten your stance a little, lift your armpits away from the floor and push the mat away. It can be a nice stretch now and then, but whenever your hands carry weight, I want them strong.

Down Dog just doesn’t feel good today

Looks like: wrists, shoulders or hamstrings complaining no matter what you adjust.

Try: find exactly where the pose stops being comfortable (wrists, elbows, shoulders, spine, hamstrings or Achilles) and choose the option above for that spot. If it still doesn’t work, come down into Child’s Pose or Puppy. That’s a legitimate choice, not giving up.

Who should be careful

• Sensitive or injured wrists. Your wrists carry weight while bent back, and weight that sits on one side of the wrist again and again can build into a repetitive-stress problem. Use hasta bandha, a folded mat, blanket or wedges, or take Dolphin or Puppy instead. The muscles that support the wrist get stronger the more you practice, and the pose gets easier.

• Shoulder issues. Keep the elbow bellies rolling forward, try hands on blocks, and build strength in the serratus anterior, rhomboids and rotator cuff over time.

• High blood pressure. Down Dog is a moderate inversion, so pressure in the head rises a little. Get your doctor’s okay before practicing inversions and build up gradually, starting with gentle ones like Legs-Up-the-Wall and Bridge.

• Pregnancy. Being upside down can make some people feel sick, even early in pregnancy. Puppy Pose with a block under the forehead, Child’s Pose, or a standing Half Lift with your hands on blocks are good stand-ins.