Supernatural Botanicals

You don’t have a be an experienced Yogi to to feel the effects of this move, called Downward Facing Dog.  It’s the go-to pose in between Yoga postures.  I probably do DFD at least 10 times a day througout the day.  The key is to get your hips up, up, up as far as you can.  Then stretch your hamstrings and calves right into the floor.  Elongate your back, your neck (don’t hyper extend here), your shoulders, arms, even your fingers.  Keep your heels on the floor…the natural tendency is to go up on the balls of your feet, and resist the urge and keep those heels pressed to the floor.  If you are interested in learning Yoga, start here.  Learn this move.  This is a move that you’ll constantly come back to throughout your Yoga session, so learn how to do it properly.  Make a home with it.  Even if you aren’t that interested in Yoga, learn it anyway.  It feels so great, keeps you limber, and stretches everything!

This step by step is courtesy of my friends over at www.YogaJournal.com. 

Step by Step

1.  Come onto the floor on your hands and knees. Set your knees directly below your hips and your hands slightly forward of your shoulders. Spread your palms, index fingers parallel or slightly turned out, and turn your toes under.

2.  Exhale and lift your knees away from the floor. At first keep the knees slightly bent and the heels lifted away from the floor. Lengthen your tailbone away from the back of your pelvis and press it lightly toward the pubis. Against this resistance, lift the sitting bones toward the ceiling, and from your inner ankles draw the inner legs up into the groins.

3.  Then with an exhalation, push your top thighs back and stretch your heels onto or down toward the floor. Straighten your knees but be sure not to lock them. Firm the outer thighs and roll the upper thighs inward slightly. Narrow the front of the pelvis.

4.  Firm the outer arms and press the bases of the index fingers actively into the floor. From these two points lift along your inner arms from the wrists to the tops of the shoulders. Firm your shoulder blades against your back, then widen them and draw them toward the tailbone. Keep the head between the upper arms; don’t let it hang.

5.  Adho Mukha Svanasana is one of the poses in the traditional Sun Salutation sequence. It’s also an excellent yoga asana all on its own. Stay in this pose anywhere from 1 to 3 minutes. Then bend your knees to the floor with an exhalation and rest in Child’s Pose.