Yoga Down Dog & Half Dog Pose

Video Transcript

"Downward facing dog is a bone of contention for many new yoga students. There is a way to work up to your down dog without causing pain in your hips, your hamstrings or your wrists that doesn't need to be there. There's a half dog, I'm going to show you right here on my wall. You can practice this at home. All you're going to do is place your hands on the wall as opposed to on the floor and you're going to come to a 90 degree angle. The idea is to have a straight line from your wrists to your hip. Once you're here press the hands against the wall, lengthening through the tail bones. This alone is going to give you a powerful opening through the hamstrings. Pressing against the wall, inhaling and exhaling, don't ever hold your breath. Breath is crucial for stretching properly. When you're comfortable with your half dog you can move to the mat and begin to practice your down dog safely. Coming from a table top in this instance, we're going to come up into down dog, and that's just a deeper version of half dog. So if you're uncomfortable with down dog, if your hamstrings are awfully tight, do the half dog first and work into it. Be safe. "