Downward Dog

Hi everyone, welcome to day 2 of class. Today's class is about downward facing dog, known in Sanskrit as Adho Mukha Svanasana. This posture is one of the most important postures in the yoga practice. It's a posture that we keep returning to time and time again. It works on the entire body. It requires strength in the shoulders, it requires a little opening in the hamstring and in the hips, and a lot of strength in your back muscles. It nicely elongates the back muscles for you, and it's a very therapeutic asana for your internal organs.

So when you're ready, we'll approach this step by step and get ready to begin. Before that, let's go ahead and just close the eyes for a moment and start to tune into the breath, the breath that we worked on last class. Let's return to that and take a deep inhalation from the chest and a slow exhale out the belly. Pull the stomach in on your exhale, just one more time. Start to bring your attention to the practice, inhale, exhale, and now to honor the sacred space of the practice, join the palms together and let's chant Om. Inhale again.

So let's open your eyes and we're ready to begin. Let's get started, coming over to the knees, Balasana. Your knees together, stretch the hands forward and take the head down. Let's stay here for a few breaths. If it is more comfortable for you, you can open the knees apart and go a little deeper down, head down. Start by taking a few deep breaths here. Remember the breathing we practiced in the first class, Ujjayi breathing with sound, and then coming over to the hands all the way up, knees together, come on the toes.

Let's go in for a puppy pose. So take the hands forward. Since we're doing downward dog, it makes sense to begin as a puppy. So bring the crown of the head down with the hands forward, your hip is raised. Start to feel the elongation in your back as well as a stretch in your shoulders. If you can keep the toes facing down, you can even go a little deeper, walk the hands a little more forward for a deeper stretch. Keep the hips over the knees and let's hold it for five breaths. One, two, nice and easy comfortable breathing, three, four and five. That's enough. Just walk the hands back, and one more time child's pose rest, head down, take a breath, relax and come up.

From here, let's come over to the hands and knees, hands and knees, open up the knees, tabletop position. Watch your alignment here. The shoulders are over the wrists, there's one line over here, and then the knees are right under the hips. Let's start by just warming up the spine. Inhale and arch the back, look up for a moment. Exhale, tuck the pelvis under, take the head down. Inhale, start to arch the spine. Exhale, round. Inhale, arch. Hold it there for a moment, feel the back muscles. Exhale, round. Now with your back rounded, let's hold it for five breaths, just to activate the full body. Start to feel the activation in your shoulders and pull the stomach in as much as you can. Five breaths here. One, two, nice, calm breathing, no stress, three, four and five. One more time, just inhale as you release the spine, arch the back, and exhale, rounded back position. Hold it here for a moment.

We're going to take it to a downward dog. Start by coming on the toes and then inhale, just hover the knees off the mat. Push with your hands, lift your tailbone up and push away from the hands, so the shoulders are moving away from the wrist and then the legs are nice and straightened. It might be difficult for you to get the heels down, no problem, just keep the heels up as much as you can. Don't compromise on the length of the back. So avoid this position with the shoulders coming forward, where the spine is not really getting a good stretch here. Rather than that, just push back with the hands and keep the knees bent. This is a much better position than that, so it'll really lengthen out the back.

Now let's start walking out the dog. Bend one knee towards the chest, other knee towards the chest. Keep going, one knee in, other knee in, for five. Inhale one side, exhale other side, try to really slow down the breath. Breath should be the most important part of the practice. Two and one. Now let's bend both knees together at the same depth. Inhale, bend, exhale, straighten it, as much as you can try to straighten it. Inhale, bend. Exhale, straighten. Good. Three more times. Inhale, bend the knees. Exhale, straighten the knees. Inhale, bend. Exhale, straighten. One more time. Inhale, bend. Exhale, straighten. Just hold it here for a breath. The gaze is right at the knees or the thighs, or if it's even possible, you can try to look towards the navel. Just one deep breath in, one deep breath out, and let's take some rest.

Balasana, child's pose. Bring the head down, release the hands, let the hands relax, and coming back all the way to Vajrasana. Let's shake out the wrists for a moment. Remove any pressure on the wrist because we're putting weight on the hands. We want the hands to be nice and lubricated, bring circulation. Take one rotation clockwise and then counterclockwise.

Coming back over to the hands and knees, let's do some variations in the downward dog. Push back, lift the hips up, and we've come to downward dog. Let's twist out the dog. As you bend the right knee, start to look under the right arm, so nicely taking a good twist over here, take a deep breath in and a deep breath out. Let's do it on the other side. Bend the left knee and look under the left arm. Take it back. Now we'll do it on the opposite side. As you bend the right knee, look up from under the left arm, so as you bend the right, look up from the opposite arm and get a good, nice twist in the waist, in your upper back. A deep breath in, a deep exhale out. Take it back. Bend the left knee, look up from under the right arm, and take it back.

Let's come to a three-legged dog position. This will be our last variation for today. Take the left leg to the center and lift the right leg up, as high as you can go, okay, even if it's just so much, but avoid letting the hip tilt. Keep the hip facing down on the mat and straighten the leg. Let's stay here for five breaths. One, two, deep breathing, three, four, and five. Let it go. Let's do it on the other side. Take the right leg to the center, it will give you good balance, and then let's take the left leg up. Hold it there. One, two, three, four, and five. Sit back down, Balasana, child's pose, rest, and slowly all the way up.

Let's just do that one more time, one last time, downward facing dog. Just do your very best, don't have to force anything. Push back, lift the hips up, and here we are in downward dog. Now for this last downward dog, we're just going to hold it for five deep breaths. Push back with the hands, take the head in as much as you can, and breathe. One, this is one of the best asanas to target both the upper body and the lower body at the same time. Two, start to really pull the navel in as much as you can towards the spine, start to feel your spine elongating. It targets all the muscles, not just one but all at the same time. Three, and one of the most important benefits of this posture is its digestion, it really improves digestion. Four, and five, and that's enough.

Drop the knees down, coming over to Vajrasana, shake out the hands one more time, let everything go. You might not be used to putting weight on the hands, so this will just help relieve all of that, and let's come and sit. Any comfortable cross-legged position, go ahead and close your eyes, just try to keep the back straight for a few moments. Join the palms in front of the chest, we'll chant Om together. Inhale, rub the hands, feel the warmth of the hands, place it over your eyes, and slowly open your eyes.

Thank you for joining me.