To explain the importance of the Downward Dog Pose someone once said, ‘If the body was to come with an instruction manual at birth one of those instructions would be - Do the Downward Dog Pose everyday! '
This pose has lots of wonderful strengthening and stretching effects for the external body as well as many internal health giving properties. Today we’ll focus on how it is so good for the back.
In this pose the whole vertebral column is in traction and allowed to elongate. This provides room for the intervertebral discs to expand and regain their cushioning effect. Impinged nerves may be relieved and tight muscles eased out. Just as a dog likes to have a good stretch after lying down we too can enjoy the same effects from the Downward Dog Pose.
Downward Dog Pose
- Start by kneeling on the floor with your knees under your hips and hands under your shoulders. You hands should be shoulder width apart and knees hip width apart
- Curl your toes under, engage your abdominal muscles and lift your knees up off the floor.
Swing your trunk back towards your thighs so that your back is lengthening in a diagonal line from your wrists up to your sitting bones. (fig.1) - Only straighten your legs if you can keep that diagonal line. Encourage your sitting bones to reach up to the ceiling like the peak of a mountain. (fig 2) (Sometimes this is called the Summit Pose).
- For further work on the back of your legs you can lower your heels towards the floor while still maintaining the length in your spine. (fig.3)
I doubt there would be any yoga class that would not include the Downward Dog as part of their workout. At the Australian School of Meditation and Yoga on the Gold Coast it features a lot. We practice it as part of our Salute sequences as well as an interim pose between some of the standing and sitting poses and sometimes it features as a pose in its own right to lengthen and strengthen not to mention all the other good things it does which I’ll cover in later posts.
