Assisted Yoga Downward Facing Dog Pose

Video Transcript

"Downward Facing Dog, Adho Mukha Svanasana with assist. I would really like for you to keep in mind that these poses with the assists are about receiving and seeing how things feel with a little bit of help from a partner. So she's going to inhale to roll her toes under and present herself into Downward Facing Dog. One of the first things that I am going to do for Jennifer is to support her heels with the blocks. It's going to help her being able to press rather than being in midair, it's going to give her a little bit of support. The next thing that I'm going to do for her, is I'm going to take a belt strap and I'm going to put it into the crease of her hip. It's the same place that you do all your folding and hinging from. And all I'm going to do is wrap it around my hands and I'm going to pull her back, creating length in her spine. She probably can lift her hands because I am the work back, but she has enough weight in her body, as we all do to lengthen the spine. The next assist that feels really good that you can do for somebody is to come in the front and if they have their heels supported, either, if they're able to get the heels to the earth or they have them supported, we can press her on her lower back here and that's going to encourage more flexibility, more strengthening in the calf muscles. Let's go ahead and inhale back to Table. So again, using assist for your pose just kind of gets the pose a little bit deeper than you'll be able to do on your own."