Yoga Pearl: Downward Dog pose | Increase blood flow & improve your circulation | Gail Dubinsky Yoga

Transcript

i'm dr gail dubinsky orthopedic medical doctor and yoga teacher in sebastopol northern california welcome to our new series of yoga pearls which are going to be brief explorations into foundational yoga poses and exercises and the variations thereof that i think will make them accessible to virtually anyone especially people who don't practice yoga not only anyone but any time and most of the time you won't even have to get on the floor however for our first pearl we are going to do downward facing dog pose now for me a day without downward dog is like a day without sunshine and there are many ways to modify this pose but we're going to start with the basic classical pose so you start in an all fours position and i have long arms so i put my hands a little forward of my shoulders and the toes are pointed straight ahead and under and you want to make sure that your feet and your hands are equally distant from the center of the mat now classically the hands are shoulder width apart and the feet are hip width apart but we'll get to a variation of that in a moment so you're going to take a breath in exhale rock back drop the head between the arms and then lift up and move the chest toward the thighs as you breathe in press into your hands and straighten the knees as much as is possible for you so if you have tight hamstrings and you can't fully straighten your knees you really want to get a straight line between your hands and your hips so you don't want to be here it's more important to have knees bent in a straight line however if you can go ahead and straighten the knees and really spread the toes and stretch through every finger in your hand breathing meanwhile keep moving the chest toward the thighs never lose an opportunity to stretch your feet first to lessen those bunions and secondly to stretch all the joints and muscles of the feet this is not only incredibly great for your feet themselves but relaxes and energizes the entire body never do downward dog in socks you could slip and you won't get the proper benefit of the pose because you won't really be able to press into your feet if you're doing a quick dog in the middle of the day shoes are okay and carpet is not a good surface either this is one pose where a sticky mat helps or at least a wood floor so for anyone that has wrist problems tendonitis carpal tunnel etc the variations are three one is elbows under the shoulders palms together everything's the same take a breath in exhale bring your head back between your arms lift your knees and pressing down between your elbows to your wrists to your fingers move your chest back towards your legs and again the knees don't have to be completely straight it's more important to get the straight line between elbows and hips the other variation of that a little more difficult but a great shoulder opener is to have the elbows under the shoulders and wrists in line palms on the ground and this really opens up the upper back take a breath in exhale move back head toward the chest chest toward the legs and up this is difficult you can come a little higher on your heels try to bring your chest towards your legs head hanging and come down but the best and most accessible is using a chair so i'm going to stand up or a desk or a countertop or a table put your hands shoulder width apart you're going to walk back bend your knees drop your head down between your arms make sure your feet are under your hips and then go ahead and straighten up as much as you can really lengthening between your palms and your hips so your hips are going back your leg hips are going up feet are going down so ideally you're in an l shape but of course that's may not be possible you may need to bend your knees and that's fine now a really nice variation is to mix things up a little bit is to widen your feet and hands do a little side to side stretch so think of it as making downward dog instead of a long rectangle into more of like an x so take your hands to the width of your mat and take your feet to the width of your mat and you create an x same thing chest toward thighs bending the knees straightening as you're able and stretch your left hand and right foot and your right hand and left foot breathe and then you can even do a little sway from side to side moving your hips to one side and then the other and you can even lean your head onto your arm and coming down you might want to walk your feet together before you come down and of course you can do the same thing on your chair countertop kitchen table etc car bumper after a hike is great too these variations and more can be seen more in depth in my full length yoga videos yoga for gardeners and to some extent the rsi rx yoga as well so enjoy and i invite you to practice some version of downward dog every day anytime it's a complete opening for the body rejuvenating strengthening energizing and relaxing all at the same time namaste