Downward Dog
Downward Dog
Muscle Group Stretched: Hamstrings, Glutes, Calves
Muscle Group Strengthened: n/a
Type of Stretch: Static Passive
Difficulty: All Levels
Suggested Prerequisites: none
Downward Facing Dog (aka Down Dog) is a great stretch for your hamstrings, glutes, calves, and even shoulders. While it’s often recommended for beginners (and extremely common in most yoga flows), a “beginner friendly” downward dog looks a bit different than the traditional straight-legged-heels-on-the-floor down dog most people envision.
How To
Step 1
How far apart your feet are from your hands is a bit of a personal preference - a good guestimate to set up the pose is to start in a plank with your toes and/or knees on the floor, and hands under your shoulders, then to push into your hands to lift your hips and press them back towards your feet.
Bend your knees so that you can flatten your back and lift your tailbone and “sits” bones (the bony parts of the bottom of your pelvis) up towards the sky - this is going to help us get a safer hamstring stretch without putting too much pressure on our lower back. Aim to have a straight line from your wrists to your shoulders to hips. You should be feeling a stretch in your legs in the back of your thighs (hamstrings), and back of the lower leg (calves).
For your shoulders, press your hands strongly into the floor and let your shoulder blades shrug up your back towards your neck. Actively wrap the outside of your armpits down towards the floor, helping hug your shoulderblades to the sides of your chest. This will help give our shoulders more space to stretch, and prevent accidentally pinching a nerve.
Hold for 15-30 seconds.
Modifications
Need to make it easier?
Bend your knees more. The more you bend your knees, the easier it is to keep good form in this stretch, and the gentler the hamstring stretch becomes.
Walk your dog by bending one knee a bit more, then the other. Slowly pedaling out your legs adds some gentle movement to the stretch which can help lessen the intensity as you move.
Place support under your heels. If this feels like a crazy intense stretch in your calves, and actively keeping your heels lifted is challenging, you can place a yoga block under each heel to help keep them lifted and lessen the calf stretch
Want to make it harder?
Straighten the legs. (As long as you can do so while keeping your back flat!)
Press your heels down towards the floor to deepen the calf stretch.
Narrow your stance to bring your hands a bit closer to your feet.
